Raising locusts can also lift people out of poverty and set them on the road to prosperity: farmers in Wudi, Shandong find a good way forward

"This batch of locusts is about to leave the shed, and the orders came in long ago!" Gao Pengju said on July 15 in a greenhouse in Lixin Village, Chewang Town, Wudi County, Shandong.

Aren't locusts pests? Why farm them? Speaking of locusts, Gao Pengju talked on and on: "Locusts are a high-protein, low-fat organic food. Many feed manufacturers need dried locusts ground into powder as an additive, and the grass feed my locusts eat is not fertilized or sprayed with pesticides. Their droppings can also be used as organic fertilizer to improve soil fertility."

In his locust greenhouse, the scene was a dense black mass. "This thing looks unremarkable, but the returns are high! You can raise four batches a year. The shortest cycle is about 35 days, and the longest is two months," he said.

Gao Pengju said that after hearing before that raising locusts could make a person rich, he went to Weifang, Shandong, in April 2014 to study and inspect the practice, thinking he would give it a try. After returning home, he built a 100 sq m arched shed and worked while learning as he went. By the end of the year, he had recovered the cost of building the shed and also harvested more than 100 jin of locust eggs.

The success of this small trial greatly boosted Gao Pengju's confidence. Last year, he contracted 1.5 mu of barren saline-alkali land north of the village, built 13 small arched sheds, used the surrounding purely natural wild grass and green vegetables to feed the locusts, and also planted early-maturing corn nearby as a backup supplemental feed. Through his and his wife's hard work, over the year their net income reached more than 80,000 yuan, and the couple was overjoyed. Gao Pengju said: "At present, market sales are not a problem. I am preparing to build my own cold storage, and I am also actively developing locust paste, so if sales ever go badly, there will still be a new way out!"

Having succeeded himself, Gao Pengju did not forget his fellow villagers. This year, he took the lead in establishing a locust farming cooperative in the village, with plans to build 100 farming sheds on 50 mu of barren land north of the village, bringing all the village's poor households into it. Those who are able can build their own sheds, and those who are not can come and work. Within one year, all the poor households in the village will be lifted out of poverty.

Wang Changliang, Party secretary of Chewang Town, said that locust farming is green and environmentally friendly, simple to raise and high in output value, and is a quick-return project for getting rich. Within the year, Chewang Town will build 200 sheds so that more poor households can join in and escape poverty and become prosperous together.

Jiang Huiqing, Liu Liankun