Grasshopper farming earns 500,000 yuan a year, a post-90s young man from Rizhao leads villagers to prosperity
People say that grasshoppers after autumn cannot hop for many days, but in the 200 breeding greenhouses of Zuo Rongfu, a "post-90s" young man in Anzhuang Town, Rizhao, Shandong, the grasshoppers are hopping merrily. From a breeding novice to an expert, from working alone to establishing a cooperative, this "grasshopper king" now has an annual income of 500,000 yuan and has led more than 80 households of villagers to prosperity.
In 2006, 15-year-old Zuo Rongfu went to Qingdao to work. Three years later, one day in 2009, Zuo Rongfu and a client went to a specialty restaurant for a meal. While ordering, a dish named "Feihuang Tengda" attracted everyone's attention. When the dish was served, Zuo Rongfu discovered that this dish was actually a plate of grasshoppers.
Through learning more about it, Zuo Rongfu believed that the grasshopper farming industry had great prospects and developed a strong interest in it. Two months later, Zuo Rongfu gave up the job that earned him more than 100,000 yuan a year at the time, returned to his hometown, and began raising Locusta migratoria manilensis (a species of locust).
He bought a book online introducing grasshopper farming, but for this young man who had not even finished middle school, many parts were incomprehensible. In desperation, a bold idea popped into his head: go ask the author of the book for advice. He saw in the book that the author was Professor Liu Yusheng of Shandong Agricultural University, so he drove alone to Tai'an to seek advice. Faced with this eager-to-learn young man, Professor Liu was quite moved and told him everything he knew.
By 2010, Zuo Rongfu's grasshopper greenhouses had grown to 66, and he also had considerable returns. In 2013, he founded a grasshopper farming cooperative, provided technology to villagers free of charge, and promised to buy back the grasshoppers, relieving farmers of their worries. Now more than 80 households of villagers have joined the cooperative. In addition to local villagers, farmers from Qingdao, Henan, Hebei and other places have also joined.