Loaches Farmed in Abandoned Low-lying Land: Yingshang County, Anhui Turns Waste into Wealth

In late spring, this writer visited the Yongchuang Aquaculture Farm in Shuangyang Village, Runhe Town, Yingshang County, and saw a large stretch of water covering dozens of mu divided into several small ponds. Inside the ponds, dense, plump loaches churned happily in the water foraging for food, sending up splashes. In recent years, loach has become a delicacy on the dining table, deeply loved by "foodies." Zhang Chuanjiang, the person in charge of the farm, seized the business opportunity and embarked on a road to wealth by farming loaches.

Spotting the Business Opportunity and Farming Loaches

In 2012, optimistic about the market prospects for loach farming, Zhang Chuanjiang contracted 40 mu of abandoned land at the village's old brick kiln and began farming loaches.

Zhang Chuanjiang, 49 this year, is a native of Shuangyang Village, Runhe Town, Yingshang County. For many years he ran a company in Shanghai, mainly engaged in maritime cargo transport, and many of his relatives raise aquatic products in Shanghai. In 2011, loaches sold briskly in Shanghai and other major cities, prices soared, and the loach farm of his relatives did thriving business. Watching this, Zhang Chuanjiang gradually became tempted.

On a trip home in early 2012, Zhang Chuanjiang passed by the abandoned land of the village's old brick kiln and learned that this land had been abandoned for quite a few years. The dozens of mu of low-lying land were uneven, and villagers had planted some crops here and there, but the soil quality was poor and the crops grew less than satisfactorily. Because mechanized farming was impossible and everything depended on manual planting, the economic returns from farming the low-lying land were very low. Zhang Chuanjiang thought: since it is not suitable for planting, why not use it for aquaculture, convert it into ponds and farm loaches, the returns would surely be better than growing crops. So Zhang Chuanjiang discussed his idea with the village officials. It could both put the low-lying land back to use and bring decent returns. The village officials agreed. Zhang Chuanjiang smoothly contracted the 40 mu of low-lying land, invested 800,000 yuan in renovation and construction, and in the first half of that year the farm stocked loach fry.

There Are Tricks to Farming Loaches

Usually busy with the business of his Shanghai company, Zhang Chuanjiang handed the daily management of the farm to his nephew Chen Lianghua. This young man in his early 30s had previously studied loach farming techniques in Sichuan and could be considered "half" an expert on loach farming. After working away from home for years, the opening of the farm gave Chen Lianghua a place to put his skills to use.

In Chen Lianghua's view, farming loaches carries far less risk than raising poultry and livestock, because "loaches have strong immunity, do not fall ill easily, and do not demand high water cleanliness; as long as you pay attention to daily disinfection and the water does not turn foul, that is enough." The workload at the farm is not heavy; besides daily cleaning, it is just feeding the feed. The routine management and labor are all handled by Chen Lianghua alone.

Speaking of farming techniques, Chen Lianghua told this writer, "Breeding loach fry is crucial; it is not hard to say it is hard, and not simple to say it is simple." One must select female loaches of the finest quality, give them ovulation injections, put them into the breeding pond, and after mating with male loaches they can produce offspring of a good breed. "It sounds simple, but when farming loaches there are still quite a few details to pay attention to."

Scattering feed into the pond, Chen Lianghua explained that take feeding, for instance: loaches have omnivorous feeding habits, and the small organisms in the water are all their food. Artificial farming requires putting in some plant-based feed, and one must pay attention to feeding at fixed times, in fixed amounts, at fixed spots, and of fixed quality. In choosing feed, one should choose feed that floats on the water surface and does not sink easily, to avoid it sinking to the bottom, where the feed would rot and spoil and damage the loaches' growing environment. This writer saw that when a big handful of feed was scattered into the pond, a swarm of plump loaches rushed to snatch the food, kicking up spray on the water surface; seeing this scene, Chen Lianghua wore a smile.

Striving for Better Returns "The loaches are now about the right size to go on the market. But recently the price of loaches on the market has been a bit low, so we will wait for the market to improve before selling." Chen Lianghua told this writer that the cost of farming one jin of loaches is about 9 yuan, and the current market price is around 13 yuan per jin, which is a bit unprofitable. The peak sales season for loaches is generally around the Spring Festival. This year during the Spring Festival the price was more than 16 yuan per jin, output was nearly 60,000 jin, and after deducting costs the profit was about 400,000 yuan. Therefore, he plans to wait until the end of the year, before the Spring Festival, to sell in large quantities.

At present, the farm has expanded to 70 mu, with 20 ponds in total. Over these two years, having become wealthy by farming loaches, Zhang Chuanjiang and Chen Lianghua are considering transferring all the land of the old brick kiln to expand the operating area. At the same time, they will deepen each pond to expand the loaches' space for activity, promote high loach yields, and strive for better economic returns.