Loach farming fulfills a dream of prosperity on the black soil

Stepping into Hongrui Lotus Eco-Park, one is greeted by green umbrellas among clear waters. Yi De, a young man just 30 years old, has broken new ground on the black soil of the southern shore of the Bohai Sea and realized his dream of prosperity.

At the age of 8, Yi De returned with his parents to Xinhe Town, Pingdu City, the ancestral home of his maternal grandparents, and his parents worked at his great-uncle's Qingdao Yuhao Handicrafts Co., Ltd. After graduating from Zhonglu Business College, Yi De worked as a chef and ran a meat products business in Qingdao, but neither was successful. It was not until 2008, on the advice of his father-in-law, that he returned to his great-uncle's handicrafts company and, with his great-uncle's help and support, set up his own handicraft accessory processing workshop and began striving to build a business.

Because it was his first time and he had no experience, of the 2100 jin of loach fry he stocked, more than 400 jin died within a few days, which distressed Yi De so much that he slept badly for two nights. While calling experts at a southern loach farming research institute for advice, he also consulted a large amount of information online to overcome the mortality problem. As of September 12, when the reporter interviewed him, the 20 mu of lotus were growing well, and the survival rate of the loach in the polyculture trial pond was not only higher than that in the intensive culture pond, but their growth rate was also faster than in the intensive culture pond. In the 5-mu intensive culture pond, the loach with an 80% survival rate averaged 25 grams each. Calculated at the 2013 loach sale price of 25 yuan per jin, the output value of just the 5-mu intensive loach pond could reach more than 200,000 yuan, setting a precedent of success in the same year as investment and profit in the same year.

With no precedent before him and none after, relying on wise business philosophy and the fearless spirit of daring to take risks, Yi De established in Pingdu City the first plain lotus root and loach polyculture ecological chain demonstration park, becoming the "first person to eat crab" on the black soil of the southern shore of the Bohai Bay. In the 5-mu intensive loach pond he stocked 2100 jin, more than 200,000 loach seedlings, and separately built a lotus pond where 20 jin of loach fry were stocked for a polyculture trial.

In mid-April this year, he leased 25 mu of land at a high price in his father-in-law's village and invested 400,000 yuan to establish Hongrui Lotus Eco-Park, building earthen dams on flat land to create a 20-mu lotus pond and a 5-mu intensive loach pond, breaking new ground on the black soil of the far northwest of Pingdu City on the southern shore of the Bohai Sea to realize the dream of prosperity by making the land yield gold.