River crab farming technology helped him embark on the road to prosperity in fisheries

In 1999, river crab farming in river channels was just beginning in Mengcheng County, Anhui Province. Zhao Xiaojun, a villager of Laojie Village, Licang Town, Mengcheng County, who had graduated from a secondary specialized school, lived right on the north bank of the Qian River. The Qian River, winding through the land of his hometown, had abundant aquatic plants, broad waters and clear water. These rich natural conditions attracted Zhao Xiaojun, so he gave up the idea of going out to work and began contracting 1000 mu of Qian River water surface for river crab farming in the river channel.

From 2000 to 2007, Zhao Xiaojun experienced repeated failures, with the losses caused by the rare floods of 2003 being especially severe, but he did not give up and continued exploring river crab farming in river channels. In 2009, our county held a livelihood project fisheries professional technical training class. Upon hearing the news, Zhao Xiaojun actively signed up to participate. Among the teachers of that year's concentrated training was Professor Zu Guozhang of Anhui Agricultural University, a famous aquatic products expert in our province. Based on the actual situation of fisheries production in our county, Professor Zu focused on introducing knowledge about river crab farming in river channels. Zhao Xiaojun was greatly inspired, and that year he changed his stocking model of many years, reduced stocking density and increased stocking size. That year his river crab farming achieved a bumper harvest, and the net income from river crab farming reached more than 800,000 yuan. In 2011, our county again held a livelihood project training class for fisheries workers; in 2012, our county again held a livelihood project training class for large-scale aquaculture households and a livelihood project training class for farmers' entrepreneurship in the aquaculture specialty. Zhao Xiaojun actively signed up for every training class, and each time he was the most earnest and studious trainee in the class.

In 2015, 50 people received training in the aquaculture specialty for new-type professional farmers in Mengcheng County. Zhao Xiaojun was again selected as a trainee. Whether in theoretical study or practical training, he studied earnestly and was an outstanding trainee in the class.

In the past two years, Zhao Xiaojun has expanded the river crab farming area and explored a new stocking model, pond crab farming. Farming efficiency has also improved year by year, and Zhao Xiaojun has led his whole family onto the road to prosperity in fisheries. When people ask him for advice on how to get rich, he always says proudly: "It was the Party's livelihood project fisheries technical training that led me onto the road to prosperity in fisheries."

Zhao Xiaojun was not satisfied with merely getting rich himself. In order to lead surrounding river crab farmers and those throughout the county onto the road to prosperity through crab farming together, in 2010 he gathered the large-scale river crab farmers of the Qian River and the North Fei River in our county and established the Mengcheng County Yuanda River Crab Farming Professional Cooperative. In the first half of 2011, Zhao Xiaojun also registered our city's first river crab brand, "Nanqian Beifei", and is currently applying for a pollution-free river crab brand.

Through participating in several consecutive livelihood project fisheries knowledge training sessions, combined with his many years of practical exploration in river crab farming, Zhao Xiaojun summed up successful experience and techniques for ecological river crab farming in rivers and ditches in the northern Anhui region.

As a large-scale aquaculture household and the person in charge of a river crab farming professional cooperative, Zhao Xiaojun enjoys a certain prestige among river crab farmers. In concentrated training he listens carefully and dares to raise various questions with the instructors; during on-site technical guidance, he actively assists the instructors in the on-site training guidance work; in the promotion of new technologies and new varieties, he organizes nearby trainees to experiment boldly, continuously masters various farming data, and takes the initiative to contact the instructors to seek solutions to various problems encountered in farming; especially in the stocking of river crab seedlings, he strictly controls seedling quality and density, ensuring that river crab stocking size is 150-200 crabs/kg and stocking density is 120-150 crabs/mu; in management, he promptly reminds farmers to do a good job in seedling condition monitoring and net cleaning, and removes harmful organisms through effective methods; in the river crab growth and sales stages, Comrade Zhao Xiaojun promptly reminds farmers to do a good job in catching and selling river crabs, maximizing farmers' income, and in the production process he insists on contacting people frequently and early to jointly discuss the problems arising in the farming process.

Zhao Xiaojun is a large-scale aquaculture household in our county, the person in charge of a river crab farming professional cooperative, and also an outstanding trainee in fisheries technical training. In 2010, the Bozhou Municipal People's Government awarded him the title of municipal model worker. On November 6, 2011, at the Fifth "Harvest Cup" National River Crab Competition, hosted by Shanghai Ocean University and co-organized by the China Fisheries Association, the Shanghai Municipal Agricultural Commission and other units, the Chinese mitten crab submitted by the Mengcheng County Yuanda River Crab Farming Professional Production Cooperative on behalf of the northern Anhui region stood out among more than 100 submitting units nationwide and won the "High Quality" award at the Fifth Harvest Cup National River Crab Competition. This laid the foundation for river crabs farmed in Mengcheng County to enter the Shanghai aquatic products market with priority, and created another high-quality aquatic product brand for Anhui Province. Although river crabs farmed in Mengcheng County were of excellent quality, for many years they had not formed their own brand and market and had not gained recognition from consumers in some large and medium-sized cities. The Yuanda River Crab Farming Cooperative led by Zhao Xiaojun won the "High Quality" award on its first participation in the "Harvest Cup" National River Crab Competition, and won the "High Quality" award again when it competed in 2012, once again showcasing the quality and brand of river crabs farmed in Mengcheng County.

Comrade Zhao Xiaojun, because of his outstanding performance in fisheries production, was also selected as village Party branch secretary in 2013. As a contemporary new-type professional farmer, Zhao Xiaojun will continue to advance on the road of river crab farming, thereby leading more aquaculture households onto the road to prosperity in fisheries. The Party's livelihood-benefiting policy of training new-type professional farmers will certainly enable more new-type farmers to embark on the road to prosperity.