Lotus-mudfish polyculture brings riverbank income to over 10,000 yuan per mu
Original headline: Gaotie Village, Baofeng County
Lotus-mudfish polyculture on riverbank land yields over 10,000 yuan per mu
The large lotus roots are white and tender, truly delightful (Image source: Yingxiang Net)
Several villagers in raincoats and rain pants harvesting lotus roots (Image source: Yingxiang Net)
On the afternoon of November 5, in more than 10 connected lotus root ponds on the barren bank of the Ru River in Gaotie Village, Shiqiao Town, Baofeng County, several villagers wearing raincoats and rain pants were harvesting lotus roots. The large lotus roots were white and tender, truly a delight. The owner of the lotus root ponds, 47-year-old villager Chen Wenxue, was also busy weighing, bagging and loading them onto trucks.
In April 2014, Chen Wenxue contracted 150 mu of riverbank land in the village at a price of 80 yuan per mu, introduced lotus root seeds from Wuhan, and built a lotus root pond of about 10 mu. After this year's Spring Festival, he built another 40 mu of lotus root ponds. Through careful management, all 50 mu of lotus roots have now fully grown.
Chen Wenxue calculated an account for the reporter: the one-time investment per mu of lotus root pond is more than 10,000 yuan, and based on a yield of 5,000 jin of lotus roots per mu, the cost can be recovered in two years. This year the weather was favorable, and the lotus roots had a bumper harvest, with a yield of 7,000 jin per mu, so 50 mu of lotus roots would bring in at least more than 500,000 yuan. At the same time, mudfish are also stocked in the lotus root ponds, adopting an ecological three-dimensional planting and breeding model of "lotus root + mudfish", and the income from the mudfish covers the costs of land rent and manual management.
According to reports, Gaotie Village has 636 households and more than 2,700 people, with 2,900 mu of cultivated land and more than 1,300 mu of riverbank land. In 1995, the village contracted all 1,300 mu of riverbank land to 7 households in the village for 4,500 yuan per year, with a contract term of 30 years. At that time, the contract stipulated that sand mining, sand digging, illegal extraction of resources and ecological destruction were not allowed, and only aquaculture and planting were permitted.
"Next year I plan to build all the remaining 100 mu of riverbank land into lotus root ponds, all adopting the ecological three-dimensional planting and breeding model of 'lotus root + mudfish', to create a planting and breeding base on the barren bank of the North Ru River, so that the riverbank land can also generate economic benefits," Chen Wenxue said confidently. (Correspondent Yang Guodong, Lü Yanhui, Reporter Ding Xuxue)