Rice-fish farming has its tricks, and villagers boost their incomes and become prosperous

Recently, in Jinzhu Village, Dadukou Town, Naxi District, Luzhou City, the villagers who stay at home have been raising fish in rice paddies in almost every household, spurred on by Duo Ruxiang. The village's rice-paddy fish output exceeds 150,000 kg, with income of over 2 million yuan. A villager's household sees income increase by at least 1,000-plus yuan, and in some cases by more than 50,000 yuan. Jinzhu Village has become Naxi District's "rice-fish village."

It is reported that Duo Ruxiang, now 57 years old, has served as the leader of Group 8 of Jinzhu Village for nearly 20 years. Ten years ago, most young people in the village chose to go out to work, while the household expenses of the elderly left behind at home mostly relied on the wages earned by their children working elsewhere. In particular, when he saw villagers buying fish at the farmers' market for family celebrations, Duo Ruxiang was inspired: "Others can make money from professional fish farming, so why don't we use our rice paddies to raise fish and meet our own needs?" In 2005, relying on Jinzhu Village's abundant water resources and after simply reinforcing the ridges of his rice paddies, Duo Ruxiang was the first to stock crucian carp, grass carp and silver carp in proportion in 5 mu of rice paddies. To give the rice-paddy fish a "comfortable home," he dug a ditch or pool 1 m deep and no more than 10 sq m in the center of each paddy or against the paddy wall, meeting the fish's need to swim freely.

During the farming process, Duo Ruxiang found that: in high-temperature weather, new water should be added promptly to prevent fish deaths from high temperatures; on heavy rainy days, the safety of water inlets and outlets should be checked promptly to prevent fish from escaping. Thanks to scientific stocking and careful management, Duo Ruxiang's rice-paddy fish had a bumper harvest, with an average yield of more than 75 kg per mu, and that year his rice-paddy fish income reached 500 yuan per mu. Seeing that Duo Ruxiang's rice-paddy fish farming had yielded a bumper harvest, the villagers also joined in rice-paddy fish farming one after another. This year, the village has more than 500 households engaged in rice-paddy fish farming, with a farming area of nearly 2,000 mu.

To enable all villagers raising rice-paddy fish to benefit from it, Duo Ruxiang took the lead in establishing the "Jinzhu Rice-Paddy Fish" farming professional cooperative, implementing unified stocking, strict fish fry size and appropriate density, and also implementing unified management and protection and unified sales to safeguard the interests of cooperative members; he led cooperative members to attach importance to rice cultivation, and in accordance with the principle of rice-fish farming that "rice is primary and fish is supplementary," strived to achieve a double harvest of rice and fish.

Duo Ruxiang said that rice-fish farming is a mode of increasing income with small investment, quick results and high benefits. By raising fish, overwintering pests and weeds in the paddy fields can be eliminated, which not only makes full use of water resources but also saves money on fertilizer; using biological pesticides improves the ecological quality of rice, promotes high rice yields, and truly achieves a double harvest of fish and rice. It is reported that this year Jinzhu Village's rice-paddy fish yield per mu exceeds 75 kg, and high-quality rice yield per mu also reaches 450 kg. Rice-fish farming has brought farmers an average income of 3,000 yuan per mu, and farmers have gained tangible benefits.