Small Tilapia in Puyang, Henan Swim Out a New Path to Prosperity
Arriving at a modern aquaculture farm in Mazhai Village, Liutun Town, Puyang County, the owner Sun Yongshan was sitting in a cool office checking the conditions of each fish pond through his mobile phone. "Ours is factory-style farming, using Internet of Things management technology. No matter where I am, I can open my phone and keep timely track of the water quality and fish growth in each pond," Sun Yongshan explained.
Sun Yongshan, 49 this year, is a shrewd farmer from Mazhai Village, Liutun Town, Puyang County. He dropped out of school after junior high and went out to do small business. More than ten years of traveling north and south not only let him accumulate a certain amount of capital but also broadened his horizons, laying the foundation for his return home to start a business. In 1994, Sun Yongshan began developing fish farming back in his hometown. When he first started, his fish pond covered only 17 mu, mainly farming carp and grass carp. As the farming scale continued to expand, Sun Yongshan founded his own aquaculture company in 2014. In the early days of the company, it mainly engaged in fry breeding and adult fish farming of the four major Chinese carps. Later, based on changes in market demand, combined with his own farming experience and many field inspections elsewhere, Sun Yongshan introduced tilapia for farming trials, and that year the yield reached 8,000 jin per mu. Having gotten a taste of success, he shifted to focusing on tilapia fry and adult fish farming, and under the guidance of experts he updated and improved his farming equipment, renovated the ponds, built greenhouses above them, set up factory-style farming workshops, and adopted nano aeration at the pond bottom and bottom sewage discharge technology, greatly raising the per-unit yield, bringing tilapia yield to 50,000 jin per mu, with products sold across the country.
To improve the company's modern management level, strengthen information exchange with peers outside, and keep timely track of market conditions, Sun Yongshan also carried out Internet of Things construction. Through the Internet of Things, he can not only check market conditions and publish supply and demand information, but also remotely control the fishery through a mobile phone or computer. When encountering farming problems he cannot solve, he can also consult aquaculture experts online.
Today, Sun Yongshan's farming company covers 120 mu, with 96 mu of farming water surface, 6,000 sq m of greenhouses, an annual output of 250 tons of tilapia, an output value of 4 million yuan, and an annual profit of 1.5 million yuan. Not only has he bred a great "money" future for himself by farming tilapia, but he has also driven the development of some aquaculture farmers in surrounding cities and counties.