Disabled young man Zhang Shaomin runs aquaculture at Ping'an Lake

    Zhang Shaomin, a disabled young man from Shuoli Village, Duji District, Huaibei City, Anhui Province, came to Ping'an Lake west of Zhangzhuang Mine in July last year and contracted 1,000 mu of water surface together with others. This spring, he introduced more than 20 million seedlings of Chinese mitten crab from the mouth of the Yangtze River. In addition to stocking them in the water surface he contracted, he also supplied seedlings to free-range aquaculture households covering more than 2,000 mu nearby and signed supply and marketing contracts with them. By this autumn, these stocked seedlings will have grown to market size. A rough calculation shows that the economic benefits of farming Chinese mitten crab are more than 20 times higher than those of conventional aquaculture.

Zhang Shaomin sets nets to check the crab farming density.