The Fish Farming Story of Luo Tingfu, the Fish King of Western Chongqing

    Editor's note: The Fish Farming Association of the First Fish Fry Village of Western Chongqing in Chongqing Municipality was a demonstration unit of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2002 and a municipal-level demonstration unit of Chongqing in 2003. On April 29, the association's chairman Luo Tingfu was named a National Model Worker and went to Beijing to receive the award. The comrade's advanced deeds are hereby published. Agricultural economic departments of all districts and counties (cities) are requested to earnestly organize agricultural economic cadres and heads of farmer professional cooperative organizations to study them, so as to continuously advance the development of farmer professional cooperative organizations in Chongqing.

    Luo Tingfu is 71 years old this year, a true farmer from Meishiba Village, Shuanghe Town, Rongchang County, Chongqing Municipality. When people mention his fish farming achievements, everyone praises him, calling him a pacesetter who dares to eat crab and, relying on the Party's policies for enriching the people, leads his fellow villagers to common prosperity. His advanced deeds have been reported by national and provincial-level news media including China Central Television, Chongqing Television, the magazine Contemporary Party Member and Chongqing Daily, and he has been praised many times by relevant leaders at the municipal, county and national Ministry of Agriculture levels. He has successively been named a skilled person in getting rich through science and technology in Rongchang County, a "three-high" agriculture demonstration household and a Chongqing Municipal Model Worker. In 2003, his village was designated by the national Ministry of Agriculture as a ministry-level fishery pilot unit and was praised as the First Fish Fry Village of Western Chongqing.

    Daring to act is the prerequisite for getting rich

    Luo Tingfu is an extremely legendary figure in Rongchang County, Chongqing Municipality. He dares to think and dares to act, and through arduous entrepreneurship he has brought us a mythical story of a poor farmer becoming the "Fish King of Western Chongqing."

20 years ago, by a chance occurrence, Luo Tingfu went to the town government where he lived to handle some matters, and a striking slogan on the wall caught his attention: "Develop fisheries, great prospects await." He thought, "Since there is money to be made in fish farming and so many ponds in the village are lying waste, why not put them to use?" Back in the village, he raised his idea with the village Party branch, and the village leaders encouraged him to first find a few villagers to give it a try. That very evening, Luo Tingfu went from door to door doing the work of persuading his fellow villagers, and finally 3 households were persuaded by him to drop the word "difficult" and remove the word "afraid." So they mustered their courage, roused their spirits, and chose a slightly wider drainage creek ditch in the village to get started. After more than two months of arduous struggle, rising early and working late, carrying loads on their shoulders and enduring hardship,

    a brood fish pond covering more than two mu and a fish fry rearing pond were finally built. After filling with water, Luo Tingfu bought 9 brood carp at the town farmers' market and put them into the pond. The following year, the 9 brood fish successively bred more than 40,000 fry, with an income of more than 800 yuan. Having won the first battle, Luo Tingfu was not satisfied with the status quo; he struck while the iron was hot and displayed an even more admirable spirit. He found the town and village cadres and said: "A man who holds a hoe handle is not inferior to anyone else. To escape poverty and become rich, one must think far ahead and undertake great things." With the support and help of the town and village Party organizations, Luo Tingfu established the Shuanghe Town Meishiba Village Fish Seed Farm and served as its director. At the same time, he boldly contracted several abandoned stone ponds in the village to breed fry. With no funds, he raised money by every possible means; with no technology, he traveled far and wide to learn. Because Luo Tingfu could endure hardship, was good at learning and willing to study deeply, his fish farming technology improved year by year, and he became the county's foremost expert in fish seed incubation. The fish species at the fish seed farm he founded gradually increased from the original single carp to the "four major Chinese carps" including crucian carp, grass carp and silver carp. Later, Luo Tingfu successively introduced new varieties such as mandarin fish, Chinese sucker, tiger shark catfish, Wuchang bream and yellow catfish, and invested more than a million yuan in technical renovation of the 65 mu of fish ponds he had contracted, carrying out the changes from small to large, shallow to deep, mud to stone and dead water to flowing water, thereby increasing the carrying capacity of the water body per unit area, enlarging the rearing area and improving fish seed quality and economic benefits. In 2004, Luo Tingfu's family produced 90 million fish eggs, 60 million standardized fry and over 10,000 kg of marketable fish annually, with an annual output value of more than 600,000 yuan and a profit of more than 200,000 yuan.

Common prosperity is the goal of his efforts

    How should one repay society after becoming rich? How should one lead fellow villagers to common prosperity? These are the things Luo Tingfu thinks about most and does most in his daily life. Especially after he was elected a Chongqing Municipal Model Worker in 2002, he insisted on visiting all 225 households and 1,100 mu of concentrated contiguous fish ponds in the village once a month, selflessly passing on feeding methods and providing technical services to his fellow villagers. Some people called him a "fool," but he disapproved, saying: "Now it is a market economy, and everyone wants to make money, but money is not all-powerful. I feel uneasy being rich alone; I am only happy when all the villagers and all the people in the town are rich." Over the past 10 years, Luo Tingfu has advanced more than 30,000 yuan in fry payments for more than 20 people, selflessly solved more than 60 technical problems of various kinds for fish farming specialist households, and recovered economic losses totaling more than 500,000 yuan. Tang Xianneng, a villager from Group 5 of Meishiba Village, was still living in a thatched hut a few years ago, so poor that his family was destitute, and his daughter, who was in high school, dropped out because there was no money to pay tuition and fees. When Luo Tingfu learned of this, he extended a helping hand and advanced more than 1,000 yuan to support him in farming fry so his child could continue her education. Today, Luo Xianneng's thatched hut has become a "small western-style building," and his daughter has graduated with a master's degree and works in Hunan, and is preparing to pursue a doctoral degree. In addition, 20 villagers including Zhou Lungao from Group 4 and Luo Anyuan from Group 3 also began learning to farm fry with Luo Tingfu's help, and are all now well-known wealthy households in the village. At present, Meishiba Village already has more than 1,100 mu of concentrated contiguous fish fry breeding ponds, producing 490 million fish eggs, 310 million standardized fry and 100,000 kg of finished fish annually, with an output value of more than 6.5 million yuan and a per capita income increase of more than 2,000 yuan for the whole village. It has become the largest brood fish and fish fry production base in the Southwest region and has been praised by relevant leaders of the national Ministry of Agriculture and the municipality and county as the "First Fish Fry Village of Western Chongqing."