Uncle Shrimp found a path to prosperity by farming shrimp

"Uncle Shrimp, come to my house and take a look! How are the shrimp fry I bought?" Yesterday morning, Zhang Renlong, a villager from Group 6 of Dawen Village, Guandang Town, Shayang County, called anxiously to urge him.

In less than ten minutes, a minivan stopped at Zhang Renlong's doorstep, and a slightly stocky middle-aged man stepped out. As soon as he got out of the vehicle, he rushed to the basket of shrimp fry, grabbed one, and said: "This batch of shrimp fry you bought is good, big in size and good in color. You will definitely have a good harvest in May next year." Then the two sat down and chatted away, one remark after another...

Scenes like this can often be seen in Dawen Village today: he often drives a minivan back and forth across the fields, now teaching one household how to release shrimp, now teaching another how to dig ditches, and the whole village is bustling with activity. Who is he? He is Chen Luxue, "Uncle Shrimp" from Group 6 of Dawen Village.

Before 2005, Chen Luxue focused mainly on how to grow rice well and had never raised crayfish. But in 2005, while visiting relatives in Qianjiang, he accidentally saw someone harvesting crayfish in a rice field. While chatting with his relatives, he learned that some farmers in Qianjiang used the early period before rice was planted to raise crayfish in that gap. Although crayfish prices were relatively low at the time, the income was still slightly higher than from merely growing wheat. After returning home, he began to think about it. In September of that year, he went to Qianjiang and bought 100 jin of shrimp fry, which he released into the rice field at 5 jin per mu. But by May 2006, when he was preparing to harvest the crayfish, he discovered that there was not a single crayfish in the rice field; instead, he had raised a pond full of loaches. This matter left Chen Luxue dispirited for quite a while. Looking back now, he says it was mainly because his skills were not up to par, as he had thought raising crayfish was a very simple matter.

"I think anything can be figured out, it just depends on whether you are willing to figure it out!" In 2012, unwilling to admit defeat, Chen Luxue set out on the road of crayfish farming again. After the rice planting at home was finished, he used his slack farming season to go to Maoli and Qianjiang to learn crayfish farming techniques such as how to select shrimp fry, how to adjust water quality, how to drain water, and when to harvest shrimp. After more than a year of learning, he boldly began experimenting. From his own rice fields, he selected 15 mu with better water conditions and released shrimp at 40 jin per mu. After releasing the shrimp, he was like a man possessed, going to the field every day to check the growth of the crayfish. Some people in the village teased him: "Are you fattening up loaches again!" He always just laughed it off. Through more than half a year of careful farming, Chen Luxue's crayfish achieved a bumper harvest, with the crayfish from each mu selling for more than 4,000 yuan, bringing in a total income of more than 60,000 yuan that year. After the bumper crayfish harvest, his rice also brought an unexpected surprise because of the crayfish farming. Since harmful microorganisms and weeds in the water were all eaten by the crayfish, and no pesticides were sprayed in order to ensure the growth of the crayfish, his rice became a hot commodity.

Starting in 2014, Chen Luxue, who had tasted the benefits, successively transferred more than 120 mu of cultivated land, established the Xujiayuan Family Farm in Dawen Village, and vigorously promoted the rice-crayfish rotation model. This year, he not only sold 240,000 jin of rice, but also sold more than 20,000 jin of crayfish. Crayfish alone brought in more than 400,000 yuan, making him a somewhat famous "Uncle Shrimp."

One person being rich is not true wealth; only when everyone is rich is it truly wealth. After his crayfish farming techniques became relatively mature, Chen Luxue actively helped the surrounding people develop the rice-crayfish industry, providing them with free technical guidance, sales channels, and so on. At present, rice-crayfish rotation has become a new path for the villagers of Dawen Village to increase their income and become prosperous, and the farming area has grown from the initial 20 mu to more than 1,000 mu today.