Farmer Zhu Quanyun is determined to help his fellow villagers realize their dream of prospering through aquaculture

In early summer, the fishing grounds of Caoqiao Town in Xinyi City, situated by the shore of Luoma Lake, are shaded by green trees. After noon on May 22, bursts of laughter rang out from farmer Zhu Quanyun's Quanyun Ecological Aquaculture Base from time to time, breaking the tranquility of Luoma Lake.

“The aquaculture market wasn't that great last year, but we never expected each household could still get a surplus of more than 100,000 yuan. We thought we'd be lucky just to break even!” Old Zhu continued, “This year we're putting all 1,000 mu of fish ponds to use for farming grass carp, silver carp and other aquatic products. I hope everyone will do their utmost so we can get an even better harvest next year.” As soon as Zhu Quanyun finished speaking, the dozen or so farmers sitting in the room all laughed cheerfully and chimed in: “Great!”

When people talk about Zhu Quanyun, the villagers at the ecological aquaculture base all give him a thumbs-up, calling him the “leader in getting rich.” More than 10 years ago, Old Zhu confidently assured the villagers that aquaculture could yield over 10,000 yuan per mu. Amid the villagers' skepticism, a grand dream of prosperity was “fulfilled” by this shrewd, capable, trustworthy and generous Old Zhu.

Determined to “fulfill” the villagers' dream of prosperity

After years of unremitting effort, relying on his ability to endure hardship and his willingness to use his head, he accumulated rich experience in aquaculture. When it came to aquaculture, Old Zhu could talk about it fluently and in great detail, and his own life got better with each passing day. But the poor villagers around him left a bad taste in Old Zhu's heart. “I can't bear to see my fellow villagers remain poor like this. I must make use of national policies to lead everyone out of poverty and toward prosperity,” Old Zhu said somewhat emotionally. In 2002, he organized 10 nearby villagers to establish the Xinyi City Quanyun Aquaculture Cooperative, pooling everyone's fish ponds together, unifying the aquatic species farmed, unified purchase of production materials, unified sales, and distributing dividends according to shares, reducing the costs and risks of dispersed farming and leading everyone onto the broad road to prosperity.

Leading everyone to explore the path to prosperity

The fishing grounds of Caoqiao Town in Xinyi City, known as the “village of aquatic products,” send tens of thousands of tons of aquatic products to all parts of the country every year. Zhu Quanyun spotted the business opportunity back then, believing that silver carp, soft-shelled turtle and grass carp were very popular in the market. “So we held a general meeting of cooperative members' representatives and decided to farm these aquatic products. Everyone agreed, and we hired relevant experts from universities and the fisheries bureau as technical advisers to the cooperative,” Old Zhu explained.

And so the Quanyun Ecological Aquaculture Base was quickly built and put into operation. Starting in 2004, each member household's annual income was around 20,000 yuan. Everyone was highly motivated, and they saw hope for escaping poverty and becoming prosperous. “But since 2011, as production costs, especially fish pond maintenance costs, rose year by year - at the highest point, fish pond maintenance costs approached more than 500,000 yuan - profits fell year by year, and there were even losses. The villagers' enthusiasm was affected, and some even wanted to withdraw from the cooperative,” Old Zhu said helplessly.

But Old Zhu did not give up. While comforting the villagers, he searched everywhere for a “prescription.” In the first half of 2013, Old Zhu invited relevant aquaculture experts from Nanjing Agricultural University to “take the pulse” on site, and they wrote out a “prescription”: the most fundamental solution to reducing aquaculture costs was to increase investment and improve the base's basic supporting facilities. The prescription was there, but Old Zhu hesitated. By a preliminary estimate, more than 2 million yuan would be needed to solve the problem, and the cooperative did not have that much money. What was to be done? As more and more members proposed withdrawing from the cooperative, Old Zhu was at his wits' end.

One day in April 2013, Old Zhu was inspecting the fish ponds when suddenly the phone rang. “The village party secretary called to tell me that leaders from the Xinyi City Agricultural Development Bureau were looking for me, saying they could solve the problem I was facing. I was so happy at the time that I ran quickly to the village party secretary's home,” Old Zhu said excitedly. “The leaders of the Xinyi City Agricultural Development Bureau explained in detail the relevant policies for supporting the industrialization of agricultural development, and made our cooperative a key support target for the 2013 industrialization incremental project, helping me upgrade the fish ponds' basic supporting facilities.”

After a year of unremitting effort, the Quanyun Ecological Aquaculture Base not only had complete basic supporting facilities and significantly improved benefits, but also built a well-known small leisure fishing village, with people coming here every day to visit. The results exceeded expectations: the quality and output of the aquatic products were both very good. Using the customer resources accumulated over many years in business, the products were soon sold to the major cities of Nanjing, Shanghai and Xuzhou. In 2015, the cooperative's income was more than 10 million yuan. Old Zhu distributed dividends to everyone and planned how to once again raise the villagers' enthusiasm, so as to obtain a good harvest in 2016 - and that led to the scene at the beginning.

“Internet Plus”Gives aquaculture wings to soar

This year, while actively mobilizing the villagers, Old Zhu, who is around 50, also likes to “ponder.” He actually turned from a layman in “Internet Plus” into a local expert in the “cloud.” Whenever he hears of an “Internet Plus” agricultural expert somewhere, he is sure to pay a visit. The villagers often tease him, calling this man obsessed with “Internet Plus” aquaculture “Cloud Brother.” When he accidentally heard that Nanjing Agricultural University had experts researching “Internet Plus” agriculture, he decided to use “Internet Plus” to send aquaculture into the “cloud.” Old Zhu said proudly, “Following the suggestion of Professor Yu Degui of Nanjing Agricultural University, we modified the aerators so that, on the one hand, they automatically aerate according to the oxygen content of the fish pond water, reducing costs by 1% and aquatic product losses by 2%; and on the other hand, using ‘Internet Plus’ as a bridge, we connected these aerators to mobile phone terminals, so that even from a thousand miles away one can check and control the fish pond aerators.”

With the help of the Xinyi City Agricultural Development Bureau and the Finance Bureau, the Quanyun Ecological Aquaculture Cooperative successfully applied for the Xinyi City agricultural comprehensive development industrialization operation incremental project and obtained 800,000 yuan in financial subsidy funds, mainly used for building new fish pond slope protection, cofferdams and concrete roads, and purchasing power facilities, aerators and other equipment and facilities. Through the implementation of the project, not only was the cooperative's comprehensive production capacity enhanced and the aquaculture base upgraded, but it also helped Old Zhu “fulfill” the villagers' dream of prosperity.