Loach farming in Pingchang County, Sichuan, drives farmers to increase income and prosper

Recently, when the reporter met Zeng Yongzhu at the Guangfa Loach Breeding Base in Dongsheng Village, Gaofeng Township, Pingchang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan, he was feeding the loaches in the breeding pond. "They can be released to the market at the end of the month!" Zeng Yongzhu experienced two failures in loach farming before finally succeeding on his third attempt. Today, the cooperative led by his loach breeding park has driven more than ten nearby village households to farm loaches and prosper together.

Returning home to start a business, farming loaches

In 1988, Zeng Yongzhu was demobilized from the military. He worked as a small company clerk, contracted a hardware store, opened a rice milling factory and a glass wire-drawing factory, and later took on construction business and real estate development. Every time he returned to his hometown and saw stretches of abandoned farmland, Zeng Yongzhu felt heartache: the land that his ancestors regarded as their "lifeblood" had now become so worthless? Many times he thought: should he return to this land and do something?

But what exactly should he do? Zeng Yongzhu himself was not sure. He traveled to Hunan, Chongqing, Chengdu and other places to investigate more than ten projects including planting lemons and medicinal herbs, and farming loaches. "Through comparison and market research, the loach farming project has good market prospects and high returns, and the natural conditions of my hometown Dongsheng Village, such as fields, water sources and sunlight, are also very suitable for loach farming," Zeng Yongzhu said.

In February 2014, construction of Zeng Yongzhu's loach ponds began. In more than 3 months, he invested more than 3 million yuan and built the first batch of nearly 100 mu of standard loach ponds. After another 2 months of disinfection and pond purification, in August of that year, he introduced the first batch of more than 25,000 loach fry."

Failing repeatedly and trying repeatedly, finally succeeding

After the loach fry were put into the ponds, he went to the pond edge to look several times a day as if treating them like treasures. In fact, there were technicians and workers, and feeding and management did not require him at all." his wife said. In response, Zeng Yongzhu said: "This is doing business and starting a venture in my hometown. I am especially afraid that if I fail, my fellow villagers will be disappointed in me, so I must be extra attentive." Zeng Yongzhu said.

But whatever he feared came to pass. More than a month later, the fry hatched more than 3 million young loaches, but unexpectedly, within ten days, all of them died. For a time, the villagers talked about it endlessly: Can farming loaches really make money and prosper? This does not look like coming back to do business. He is probably coming back under the pretext of farming to swindle national project funds...

"Acting too hastily, not enough time for removing alkaline water from the loach ponds; lacking technology and relying excessively on others..." After reflecting on the reasons for his failure, in February of this year, Zeng Yongzhu once again invested 80,000 yuan to introduce a second batch of fry, but unexpectedly the outcome was the same as the first time.

The two failures made him somewhat discouraged. "Failure is a common thing for a soldier!" his second elder brother, a teacher, encouraged him: "When others do something, they keep going even if they have to smash the pot and sell the iron. You are far from reaching that point, right?"

Zeng Yongzhu roused himself again. He posted a recruitment notice online and hired a technician for loach farming. In April of this year, he introduced another 35,000 high-quality fry, and in May hatched more than 6 million young loaches. Now, more than 5 months have passed, and these loaches are growing very well.

Establishing a cooperative to lead villagers to prosperity

Zeng Yongzhu's success also drove surrounding farmers to farm loaches. "More than ten nearby farmers have raised more than 40 mu of loaches, developing together as a group. With my loach breeding park as the leader, we established the Gaofeng Guangfa Loach Breeding Professional Cooperative. The cooperative provides fry and technology to independent farmers, buys back products, and sells them externally in a unified way, maximizing the protection of independent farmers' profits," Zeng Yongzhu said.

Villager Zeng Sijian raised about 70,000 loach fry on one mu this year. "The cooperative provides loach fry, also provides technology free of charge, and has signed purchase contracts. With such guarantees, many villagers have begun farming loaches."

In the early stage, 500 mu of land was transferred, and currently only 100 mu has been developed and utilized. As for the remaining 400 mu of land, Zeng Yongzhu plans as follows: plant jujube trees on dry land, and raise some chickens and geese free-range among the jujube tree groves; adopt a "rice + loach" farming model in paddy fields to develop loach farming in rice fields.