Tomura Youth
WeChat public account
Originally published in Rural Youth Magazine, Issue 11, 2023
Let the small fry "swim" to new hope
Text / Hu Xiaorong
From college graduates to individual farmers, and then to young entrepreneurs in emerging fields, Zhu Pengcan, a "post-90s" generation, has dreams and loves agriculture, "I will continue to explore in the fields I am good at, provide farmers with richer breeding varieties, help rural revitalization, and help farmers increase their income." He is full of confidence in the future.
Zhu Pengcan
Lushan Township, Changxing County, Zhejiang Province is a typical water town and traditional agricultural township in the south of the Yangtze River......
Zhu Pengcan studied international trade at university, but under the influence of his father, at the age of 23, he resolutely gave up his high-paying foreign trade position in Ningbo and returned to his hometown of Yandang Mountain to follow his father to work in aquaculture.
Returning to his hometown to start a business and breeding "small fish fry"
When he first entered the special aquaculture industry, Zhu Pengcan was often at a loss in the face of knowledge blind spots. So, he plunged into the laboratory to learn about fish reproduction, observe fish habits, and study fish breeding. Tried to breed again and again, but failed again and again, but he did not admit defeat, was willing to endure hardships, and never gave up easily. During this period, Zhu Pengcan worked hard to learn the imitation ecological breeding technology of giant salamanders, and led more than 60 farmers to join the giant salamander breeding industry in the Yandang mountain area to help farmers increase their income.
In 2016, with the upgrading of the industrial model, Zhu Pengcan went from driving farmers to breed to helping production and marketing, recycling farmers' aquatic products, and making giant salamander gift boxes through deep processing, which opened up sales channels in Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places. At the same time, Zhu Pengcan, Zhejiang Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute and Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences jointly developed high-quality special aquatic products such as Australian Murray cod, yellowtail catfish, glossy lip fish, horsemouth fish, California perch, etc., and established business cooperation with more than 200 hotels in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places.
Zhu Pengcan in the breeding base
In 2018, Zhu Pengcan settled in Changxing County through investment promotion and established Huzhou Rongsheng Fishery Technology Co., Ltd. After 4 years, he built a modern fishery production park covering an area of 510 acres, a factory circulating water seedling workshop of 13,000 square meters, 350 acres of high-standard ponds, and an annual output of more than 400 tons of various famous and high-quality aquatic seedlings.
Rongsheng Fishery Lushan Comprehensive Park to Australia Murray cod, California perch, glossy lip fish and yellowtail carp as the leading species, factory circulating water workshop, intelligent temperature control nursery workshop, spawning pond, hatching pond, insulation module breeding pond, outer pond wintering nylon greenhouse, a full of scientific and technological content of facilities and equipment in Rongsheng fishery to build.
Traditional earthen pond transformed into a "digital factory"
"The input cost of factory farming is much higher than that of earthen pond farming, and the technical requirements are also very high. However, in terms of openness, the survival rate of earthen pond culture is unstable due to natural conditions, while the survival rate of our factory fry can be as high as 82.7%. Zhu Pengcan said proudly. In fact, the digital factory not only brings the improvement of efficiency, but also the greening and environmental protection of production. The factory has realized real-time monitoring of breeding conditions, intelligent adjustment of temperature and water quality, regular and quantitative automatic feeding, reducing the water consumption of breeding by nearly 100 times, and realizing "zero discharge" of aquaculture wastewater and "zero medication" in the breeding process.
The success of circulating water seedlings has provided high-quality perch fry for downstream farmers, and also provided a strong seed guarantee for the "perch economy" in the Yangtze River Delta. Through the stable supply of seedlings and the off-season breeding mode, downstream farmers can realize the release of seedlings in the current year and the sale of the current year, avoiding the losses caused by overwintering, which greatly increases the income of farmers. At the same time, the Institute of Hydrobiology of Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Huzhou Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute jointly provide technical guidance for farmers.
"In the process of recirculating aquaculture, we have encountered problems such as lack of oxygen, power outages, and acidification of water bodies, and night patrols are also extremely hard in winter. In order to increase the stability of production, we carry out digital empowerment in the circulating water workshop, and install facilities such as online water quality monitoring, dissolved oxygen alarm, solenoid valve, and production visualization. At the same time, the addition of automatic feeding devices, online water quality monitoring, Internet of Things multi-channel controllers and visualization of breeding areas in the outdoor breeding area has greatly improved the uncertainty in production. Zhu Pengcan said that the collected data will be transmitted to the background in real time, and the breeding data model can be generated through a period of breeding as data for breeding analysis.
Lead the villagers to get rich together
"On the road to entrepreneurship, I have also done a lot of agriculture-related projects. At first, due to the problem of selling agricultural products, it was impossible to open the road. We set up a team to open stores in Hangzhou and develop sales channels through online and offline models. In order to better sell online, we made a giant salamander gift box in the form of pre-made dishes. After three years of operation, the final effect was not satisfactory due to the high price positioning of the product, the long billing cycle, and the cold chain transportation was not very sound. Zhu Pengcan said. In 2019, their core breeding base was destroyed by Typhoon Lekima, and almost all the breeding fish died, causing serious economic losses.
Rongsheng Fishery
Later, affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Zhu Pengcan's fishery production and sales difficulties continued, and the adult fish and fry in the pond could not "swim" out. In the case of his own backlog of fish fry, he provides "managed breeding" services for surrounding farmers, charging only feed costs and a small management fee. "I also started as a small farmer, and I hope to be able to tide over the difficulties with them during this special period. Zhu Pengcan said.
"It is not difficult to breed and protect aquatic products, so that more ordinary farmers can learn scientific breeding and master the ability to get rich. Zhu Pengcan took the initiative to provide jobs for the surrounding people, so that local farmers can achieve "doorstep employment"; training and introduction of aquaculture knowledge and scientific and technological means, selection and sharing of fish fry that can quickly adapt to the survival of the pond, improve the farming income of farmers; the establishment of a "common wealth parent" support base, with "small farmers into the community" and other ways, to help low-income farmers achieve small investment, large dividends. As of September 2023, the company has carried out 12 fishery trainings with more than 200 trainees, and the demonstration has driven farmers to engage in largemouth bass farming for more than 120 households, with a breeding area of 5,000 mu, with an output value of more than 250 million yuan, and an increase of 15,000 yuan per mu of farmers' average profit.
"As an agricultural enterprise, my plan for the future is to provide high-quality agricultural products to the 'B end' and 'C end' through the form of prefabricated vegetables combined with primary processing as a raw material supplier on the basis of the primary production. At the same time, the integration of the three industries is realized in the mode of 'agricultural tourism + industry-university-research', and projects such as leisure fishing, parent-child tours, and fishing family entertainment are developed, and rural agricultural scenes are shared through short videos to promote rural revitalization. Zhu Pengcan said that he also helped young talents understand the new style of modern countryside and new rural agricultural enterprises by contacting the Youth League branches of major colleges and universities, so as to achieve pairing and mutual assistance, and provide internship opportunities for young people who are interested in rural revitalization, and build an entrepreneurial platform for youth entrepreneurship incubation in the form of agricultural makers.
In this way, Zhu Pengcan has been in the aquaculture industry for more than ten years, and now he is not only the general manager of Huzhou Rongsheng Fishery Technology Co., Ltd., but also a member of the 10th Changxing County Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, deputy secretary-general of the Changxing County Agricultural Maker Alliance, and president of the Lushan Township Rural Revitalization Youth Alliance. Today, his company can produce about 100 million high-quality fish fry every year, with an output value of more than 20 million yuan, and has been awarded the national spark plan project, the main body of fishery common prosperity in Zhejiang Province, the healthy breeding demonstration farm in Zhejiang Province, the modern demonstration park in Huzhou City, the leading agricultural enterprise in Huzhou City, and the first batch of future farms in Huzhou City.
Rural Youth Magazine
Source: Rural Youth Magazine, Issue 11, 2023
Final review: Lin YuhongReviewer: Yang Ming, Liu ZhuyingEditor: Hu Xiaorong