Small mudskipper farming helps a farmer in Dongshan County, Fujian earn over 900,000 yuan a year

In early spring, the Chaoxian Aquaculture Professional Cooperative in Dongshan County is bustling with vehicles and visitors. Some bring finished mudskippers for purchase, some load them onto trucks for transport to markets, and some carefully package them for air shipment to major cities such as "Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou." Chairman He Chaoxian said: "From tidal flats to high-end dining tables, the miraculous mudskipper has helped many people get rich and has also strengthened our confidence in development!"

Good fry bred in a water vat

He Chaoxian, now 50 years old, was born in Chengying Village, Dongshan County, an area rich in tidal flat resources. After graduating from high school, he began contracting several mu of tidal flats to raise shrimp. Although he made some money, there were several ups and downs, and overall the situation was not very promising. Especially in 1993, when the shrimp farming market was poor, the naturally stubborn He Chaoxian often walked slowly along the shrimp pond banks thinking about how to change careers. One day, in a dried-up drainage ditch, he saw several black fish turning out from the mud. "There was almost no water, yet they could still survive. Truly amazing!" Curious, He Chaoxian picked up those fish and put them into a water vat at his own farm. Two weeks later, dozens of small fish had unexpectedly appeared in the vat. After consulting his elders, he understood that this miraculous black fish was called mudskipper locally, with the scientific name Chinese black sleeper (Bostrichthys sinensis), a valuable marine nourishing fish. That year, He Chaoxian raised those dozens of mudskippers to maturity and took them to market, where he found they sold very well and commanded a good price. So he resolved to switch to farming mudskippers.

In addition to searching for mudskipper parent fish in the tidal flats in front of the village, he also traveled north to eastern Fujian and southern Zhejiang, and south to "Guangdong and Guangxi" to purchase mudskipper parent fish, and consulted local farmers for farming experience. Eventually, he bought a batch of mudskipper parent fish from Fangchenggang in Guangxi Province, and successfully crossbred them with local Dongshan mudskippers for fry production. To put mudskipper fry breeding and farming on a path of sustainable development, He Chaoxian also hired Professor Hong Wanshu and Professor Zhu Xiaoming from Xiamen University as technical advisors for the controllable ecological farming technology project of Chinese black sleeper, and they frequently provided on-site technical guidance. He Chaoxian's fry farm also grew from a single large water vat into a professional fry farm of more than 3,000 sq m with advanced equipment.

Cooperation on the road to wealth

The fry were bred, the farming technology was mastered, and there was a market, but how could this fish be made "big"? The area had several thousand mu of tidal flats and several hundred farmers, so He Chaoxian decided to take the path of cooperative wealth creation. He provided farmers with fry at preferential terms (or on credit), offered technical guidance, and handled the purchase of finished fish at market prices, freeing everyone from worries and encouraging them to switch to farming mudskippers. He Yaoyu, a salt worker in the village, earned nearly 1,000 yuan a month and lived a relatively poor life. With He Chaoxian's encouragement and support, in 2007 he contracted 6 mu of shrimp ponds to farm mudskippers, and the next year he earned more than 100,000 yuan. Afterwards, He Yaoyu expanded his farming scale to 18 mu, devoted himself fully to farming, and enjoyed bumper harvests year after year, earning more than 900,000 yuan in his best year. At present, He Yaoyu has bought a car and purchased a home in the city, becoming a major local mudskipper farmer.

More and more farmers became prosperous like He Yaoyu. How could these farmers' combined strength be brought into play? In 2009, the Chinese black sleeper farming association of Xingchen Town, Dongshan County was established, and He Chaoxian was elected president. Using the association as a platform, farmers discussed the problems encountered in farming, sought solutions, and expanded markets in various places. At present, the association has 120 members, farms more than 2,000 mu of Chinese black sleeper, and has an annual output value of more than 65 million yuan. Local shrimp pond rents also rose more than 20 times, which not only increased village collective income, but also drove nearly 1,000 people in local farming, packaging, transportation and marketing to find employment and become wealthier. In June 2013, the association was therefore rated by the China Association for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance as a "National Advanced Unit for Science Popularization Benefiting Farmers and Revitalizing Villages."

Mudskipper becomes "high-end"

Mudskipper was previously a relatively rare wild seafood. Although its meat is delicious, rich in protein, tender and smooth in texture, and possesses medicinal value, it was mostly used in folk secret recipes to help postoperative patients eat and promote healing, and to help babies learn to walk. The road to wealth lay in getting it onto more people's dining tables and city banquets, making the mudskipper "high-end." Therefore, He Chaoxian established the Dongshan County Chaoxian Aquaculture Professional Cooperative, mainly promoting Chinese black sleeper. He visited and consulted many traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and nutritionists, collected many folk recipes, and after repeated experiments launched a series of recipes including Chinese black sleeper soup with Chinese yam and goji berry, stewed Chinese black sleeper with cordyceps, Chinese black sleeper with tofu, and Chinese black sleeper with black beans, prepared by simmering, steaming, frying and oil-steeping, to suit different consumer groups. In view of the fish's strong tolerance to air exposure (it can survive at least one week out of water under cool, damp conditions) and its suitability for long-distance transport, He Chaoxian created exquisite packaging and included a detailed recipe in each box of fish. They are sold by air to major metropolises such as "Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou" and by land to large and medium-sized coastal cities, successfully placing mudskipper on various high-end dining tables and making it deeply loved by all consumer groups.

One mudskipper made He Chaoxian prosperous, but he did not forget to give back to society after becoming wealthy. In recent years, he spent more than 200,000 yuan on poverty alleviation and helping the needy, rewarding teaching and assisting students, and enthusiastically supporting public welfare. Because of this, he was recommended as a member of the ninth Dongshan County Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He Chaoxian said: "This tidal flat in Xingchen Town is very unique. It is the only place on Dongshan Island that can support Chinese black sleeper, and there are very few similar places in Fujian. Therefore, I am visiting experts and preparing to write a proposal on protecting this tidal flat, so that Chinese black sleeper can become even more 'high-end' and become a calling card for Dongshan and even Fujian!"