Why is raising toads in orchards so profitable?

    Using existing orchards for artificial toad farming can achieve multiple benefits at once: it makes full use of the three-dimensional mutual use of plant and animal ecological space, reuses the spare ground between fruit trees, and thereby raises the land utilization rate. Toads can eliminate orchard pests and produce valuable medicinal materials such as toad venom (chan su), toad skin (chan yi), and top-grade imitative-ecological toad meat. At the same time, because pest damage is light, high-quality fruit is produced. Raising toads in orchards has low cost, because the facilities are simple, management is convenient, the workload is small, and the benefits are high; the economic benefit per unit area can be increased by about 80%.

In all regions of our country where wild toads exist, toads can be raised in orchards. Our country has a total of 15 species of toads, distributed throughout the country, and all of these toads have advantages for artificial breeding. When raising them in orchards, larger species can be selected, such as the Chinese giant toad, the black-spectacled toad, and the piebald toad. These species produce more toad venom and toad skin, and also produce more meat, with a high utilization rate.

Because these species are robust and large, have a high meat content, have thick and large post-orbital glands and skin glands (wart granules), produce more venom, and also have thick skin, they produce more skin. These species are native to East China, Central China, North China, and South China. Toads and toad skin have been used clinically by the medical community, but in recent years, due to changes in the ecological environment, products have gradually decreased and prices have continued to rise, making them a scarce traditional Chinese medicinal material. In many regions of our country, people have the habit of eating toad meat just as they eat frog meat. In cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Jiaxing alone, the annual market volume is tens of thousands of tons, and market demand is still continuously rising.

For raising toads in orchards, several black-light lamps (fluorescent lamps are also acceptable) can be hung in the orchard to lure forest pests at night, such as mosquitoes, flies, moths, and beetles, to fly toward the lamps, so that the toads crawl over on their own to prey on them. If some soil-and-miscellaneous fertilizer, barnyard manure, rice straw, and stalks are piled under the trees and allowed to breed earthworms, maggots, and other small insects, this can make up for times when rainy weather fails to attract airborne insects; the compost can be turned over manually to drive out earthworms and the like for the toads to eat as they choose. This not only solves the toads' food source, but also eliminates and reduces orchard pests, allows less pesticide to be applied to the orchard, and can increase soil fertility and improve fruit quality and yield, thereby increasing economic benefits.

For raising toads in orchards, the facilities are simple and the cost is extremely low. It is enough to use small bamboo and wood strips to make supports around the orchard, and surround the supports with plastic film 60-70 cm high as an escape-prevention wall; this can also prevent snakes from outside the wall from invading the orchard and harming the toads. If conditions permit, a kind of snake-proof net can also be used, which can prevent toads from escaping and can also catch snakes that enter the orchard without causing them to die, and then release them back into nature. Generally, 300-500 toads are stocked per 667 sq m. There is no need to build tall walls around the orchard; if the wall is too high, it will instead block the light and fail to attract insects from outside.

The demand for medicine and the demand for human consumption are increasing year by year, while toads, as wild animals, are declining sharply. Advocating not catching wild toads and using artificial breeding to make up for demand is the inevitable final scientific means.