Ecological Wealth-Building Experience of Old Softshell Turtle Farmer

"Old Softshell Turtle" and "Turtle King" both refer to the same person: Bu Weishao, head of the Yunhe County Qingjiang Ecological Turtle and Softshell Turtle Breeding Cooperative.

For Bu Weishao, "Old Softshell Turtle" and "Turtle King" are two "elegant nicknames" that represent his having truly mastered the softshell turtle farming industry. Over the past year, with his relentless "hustling spirit" in softshell turtle farming, Bu Weishao successively won honors including Zhejiang Province Youth Wealth-Building Leader, Lishui City Outstanding Science and Technology Worker, and Lishui City Elite Agricultural Master, and his "three-stage" ecological farming model also won second prize in the city's Science and Technology Achievement Awards. Last July, Bu Weishao and his ecological softshell turtles appeared on CCTV's "The Way to Wealth" program, gaining nationwide recognition.

That's right, Bu Weishao is a man who loves to hustle, and his hustling spirit is not limited to himself -- most of it has been devoted to softshell turtles. He took softshell turtles up mountains and down to the countryside, from village to village and household to household, into greenhouses, into ponds, and into rice paddies. In the end, he even got softshell turtles "electrified" and "online," setting them on a promising path of e-commerce.

A College Graduate's Indissoluble Bond with Softshell Turtles

Bu Weishao is a genuinely credentialed college graduate. In his own words, he is the most farmer-like among college graduates and the most learned-looking among farmers. In 1997, Bu Weishao graduated from Zhejiang Ocean University with a major in freshwater aquaculture. When asked why he chose freshwater aquaculture, he told reporters there was a little story behind it.

"When I was choosing my major, I was 'hoodwinked' by my eldest brother," Bu Weishao said with a laugh. "Our family had a reservoir, and my brother said I might as well study aquaculture so the family would have someone who knows the trade."

And just like that, Bu Weishao stumbled onto the path of aquaculture studies.

However, during his four years of college, Bu Weishao did not develop much interest in fish, and his class monitor once joked: "Weishao, you're short, so don't go into aquaculture after graduation -- find another job."

"There were 41 students in our class, and in the end only 6 actually went into front-line aquaculture work, and I was one of them." Bu Weishao did not take a different path because of a joke. After graduation, he went to work as a technician at Lishui Dongnan Aquaculture Co., Ltd.

Because he was young and formally trained, Bu Weishao once felt that with four years of study he was fully capable of handling his current job. But there was always a gap between textbooks and reality. After a year of work, he gradually discovered his own shortcomings in practical ability and resolutely decided to go to a large-scale breeding enterprise to learn.

"In actual work, I couldn't even make softshell turtle feed properly. Armchair strategizing ultimately doesn't work." In 1998, Bu Weishao went to what was then Zhejiang's largest breeding enterprise -- Yiwu Dongtai Breeding Co., Ltd. He started from the basics, learning from everyone from experts to ordinary workers. After another year, he became the district manager of the softshell turtle production area at the breeding farm.

In the 1990s, the softshell turtle farming industry flourished across Zhejiang, and softshell turtles were a "luxury" in the eyes of ordinary people, reaching a price of three to four hundred yuan per jin. However, peak prosperity gave way to decline -- almost overnight, softshell turtle prices plummeted to just a few dozen yuan, and a large number of farmers, unable to bear the enormous economic losses, sadly withdrew from the market.

Bu Weishao did not give up. In 2002, he went to work and study at the Shangyu base of Hangzhou Huangguan Feed and Aquaculture Co., Ltd. After several years of learning, his farming techniques became increasingly proficient, and through constant technical exploration, he discovered a tremendous business opportunity in softshell turtle farming -- ecological softshell turtle farming.

A Man Who "Transformed" Softshell Turtles

Bu Weishao never left softshell turtle farming. Precisely because of this, he was able to study softshell turtles more thoroughly and thereby unleash greater economic benefits and practical value from them.

In 2005, Bu Weishao partnered with others to establish an aquaculture farm near the Yaolin Wonderland in Tonglu County, Hangzhou, specializing in ecological softshell turtle farming.

"I had always been engaged in greenhouse softshell turtle farming, but during my time working in Hangzhou I discovered that ecological farming had great potential," Bu Weishao said. At the time, Yaolin's ecological environment was relatively excellent, and its water, soil, climate and other conditions were fully capable of producing high-quality softshell turtles.

And so, through learning and exploration, Bu Weishao's ecological softshell turtle farming journey in Yaolin continued until 2007. After two years of practice and reflection, he conceived the idea of returning to his hometown to start a business.

The green mountains and clear waters of his hometown Yunhe filled Bu Weishao's ecological softshell turtle farming with boundless possibilities. He developed China's first "up the mountains and down to the countryside" "three-stage" ecological farming model, and the ecological softshell turtles raised this way were full of wild character, no different from wild softshell turtles.

Before the "three-stage" ecological farming model emerged, Bu Weishao still relied mainly on greenhouse farming. He told reporters that he successfully stocked 120,000 softshell turtle seedlings in a 2,500 sq m standard breeding greenhouse, but after a year, due to appearance and other reasons, he simply could not open up the market.

"It really was a blow to the head," Bu Weishao said. "I had thought the word 'ecological' was too simple."

After reflecting and summarizing, Bu Weishao chose to keep moving forward. He decided to fully leverage Yunhe's ecological advantages and develop a set of ecological farming techniques that met market requirements. Through online platforms, Bu Weishao sought help from aquaculture experts including Professor Qian Guoying of Zhejiang Wanli University. Under the experts' technical guidance, the "three-stage" farming model gradually took shape.

According to introductions, the "three-stage" farming model is a "greenhouse + pond + reservoir cage" farming model. Through the rational integration of the first stage -- the greenhouse cultivation period for softshell turtle seedlings, the second stage -- the quality optimization period of micro-flow water farming in earthen ponds for softshell turtle stock, and the third stage -- the premium quality regulation period of reservoir cage farming for adult softshell turtles -- it forms an advanced and complete set of practical ecological softshell turtle farming techniques, combining modern facility fishery technology with ecological farming methods to improve the survival rate of softshell turtle seedling cultivation and product quality.

Through constant exploration and practice, Bu Weishao also innovated the "three-stage" farming model based on local conditions, developing new ecological softshell turtle farming techniques. In the high-mountain area of Yunhe Terraces at an altitude of over 1,000 m, he implemented the "greenhouse + outdoor pond + rice paddy" three-stage rice-turtle symbiotic flow-through farming model, which rapidly drove the value of ecological softshell turtles up to 10 times that of greenhouse softshell turtles and 5 times that of pond softshell turtles.

A Man Who Put QR Codes on Softshell Turtles

As his business grew, Bu Weishao founded Yunhe County's first farmers' professional cooperative engaged in turtle and softshell turtle farming -- the Yunhe County Qingjiang Ecological Turtle and Softshell Turtle Breeding Cooperative.

"Qingjiang," as the name suggests, means clear river water. As if to echo the cooperative's name, Bu Weishao placed the breeding base within the Yunhe Lake Scenic Area, adjacent to the Shipu Flower Sea and built alongside a mountain spring and stream.