Gu Town, Anhui: Qiaohu Crab Association Achieves Remarkable Results in Helping Farmers Get Rich

   Since its establishment over three years ago, the Qiaohu Crab Association in Gu Town County has leveraged its advantages in talent, technology and capital, and made full use of favorable conditions such as the good water quality of Qiaohu, abundant biological resources and ready access to market information, leading more than 100 farming households to breed river crabs and mandarin fish, achieving solid economic and social benefits. In particular, the association provides new-technology training for farmers, and uses promotional materials, science popularization demonstration bases and other means to offer farmers a "one-stop service" before, during and after production.
It has won the praise of farmers and commendation from higher authorities.

    The Qiaohu Crab Association in Gu Town County was established in October 2005. It is a comprehensive service-oriented social organization integrating the breeding, farming and demonstration of famous, special and superior aquatic products and fine aquatic fry. It now has 148 members, drives 174 farming households, covers a farming area of 17,400 mu, produces 183.4 tons of river crabs and 420 tons of various fish annually, with an output value of 11.416 million yuan and an average annual household income of 57,200 yuan. The specific practices are as follows: First, centralized training. Making use of the association's many technical personnel, ready access to information and large demonstration farming area, it strengthens training for members and key large farming households in batches and by priority, hires municipal and county aquatic engineers as instructors, and trains association members regularly or irregularly. After several years of training, all 148 members of the association can skillfully master techniques such as crab-mandarin fish polyculture, hanging-cage crab farming and cage mandarin fish farming. The "hanging-cage crab farming project" undertaken by the association has passed provincial-level scientific and technological achievement appraisal and was awarded the third prize for scientific and technological progress by the municipal government. Second, providing fry services for members. Every year the association uniformly brings in more than 700 million high-quality fry (seedlings) from other places and supplies them to members at cost price; this alone saves each farming household an average of more than 3,000 yuan in costs. At the same time, it actively opens up markets and acts as a bridge, inviting merchants from Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing to the farming sites to discuss business. In recent years, 80% of the aquatic products produced by the association have been bought by out-of-town merchants at the place of production. This not only reduces farming costs but also brings prices higher than the market price. Third, unifying the trademark and building the "Qiaohu" brand. All association members may, on the premise of strictly implementing operating standards, use the "Qiaohu" brand trademark provided by the association free of charge. Fourth, unifying technical services. From seedling release and management during the farming process to product sales, the association provides free end-to-end services, with which the vast number of members are fairly satisfied.

    This year, the association was rated as an advanced unit by the Bengbu Municipal Association for Science and Technology and recommended to the Provincial Association for Science and Technology to participate in the selection of provincial-level advanced agricultural technology associations.

(Source: Gu Town County Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Bureau)