Growing vegetables without fertilizer, raising fish without changing water: creative new ideas for modern agriculture

Rice can be turned into tea, fish can be raised without changing the water, vegetables can be grown without fertilizer... These things that sound a little unbelievable are in fact all very creative modern agricultural projects.

Yesterday, the final of the "Agricultural Bank Cup" 2nd Zhejiang Province College Student Modern Agriculture Creativity Competition was held at Zhejiang A&F University. The competition received 40 creative projects submitted from various places and relevant universities, covering 5 major categories: science and technology, deep processing, leisure and sightseeing, agricultural product marketing, and planting and breeding.

Su Xiaoyi, born in the 1980s and returned from studying in Australia, and his team brought an ecological development project called pond ecological circular agriculture. Simply put, it means raising fish, prawns and soft-shelled turtles together in the water body, and then using soilless cultivation technology above the water to grow aquatic vegetables. In this way, the nitrogen and phosphorus produced by the fish can be absorbed and used by the vegetables, while the growth of the vegetables in turn provides a good environment for the fish. "Fish are raised without changing the water, yet the water quality causes no trouble; vegetables are grown without fertilizer, yet they thrive." That is how Su Xiaoyi summed it up.

Yesterday, alongside this creativity competition, the 5th Zhejiang Province College Student Modern Agriculture Employment and Entrepreneurship Job Fair was also held. On site, a total of 234 agricultural enterprises, farmers' professional cooperatives and county (city) agricultural departments and others offered 1149 positions. More than 3000 students came to apply, and ultimately 2132 letters of intent were signed. (Reporter Wu Chaoxiang)