Basedon the rich water resources at the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Jingzhou has been vigorously developing lobster industry in recent years.With the support of government funds, Jingzhou steps up land circulation andencourages villages and towns to set up rice-lobster cultivation cooperatives above scale and boost thedevelopment of lobster industry integrating cultivation, transport and processing,thus guiding rural revitalization.
Lobster sale is now in season. In a rice-lobster pond ofBeihuqiao Village, Balingshan Town, Jingzhou District, all the plants areturning green. He Xueqing, the head of Yongqing Planting Cooperative, is squatting by the pond drenched insweat and picking up a lobster cage from the field.
Theselobsters are vibrant and good in quality. Some of them will be delivered forcatering purpose; and some will be sent to processing workshops.
Despitethe significant increase of breeding scale, the demand of lobsters is stillhigh. Hubei Golden Carp Foods Co., Ltd., as a leading enterprise ofagricultural industrialization in Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City, purchases150 tons to 200 tons of lobsters per day from the farmers nearby, which makesit an important platform for Jingzhou District to deliver lobsters to theworld.
Thegood quality of lobsters owes to the model of group development. For example, Taihu Port Management Zone ofJingzhou District is known for rice cultivation due to the low-lying terrain,which creates an annual income of only RMB 700/year for a farmer. Upon threeyears of exploration, farmers achieved success in lobster cultivation under theguidance of agriculture department. The original private breeding farmersgradually volunteered to form cooperatives and companies.
Thelobster-lotus and rice-lobster models have been applied in over 8,000mu fieldsof Taihu Port Management Zone, which increased the income for 282 farmerhouseholds. The yield of lobsters in a quarter was about 150kg to 250kg per muwith an income of over RMB 5,000, showing a great reduction of labor force andincrease of earnings.
In2018, the first year of rural revitalization, Jingzhou combined the aquacultureand rice resources. The area of green aquaculture and green rice was 2.54million mu, of which that of rice-lobster area reached 2.51 million mu, with anincrease of 458,000mu over 2017. Meanwhile, the lobster yield also amounted to338,000 tons, which was a great record in Hubei and even China. The lobstershave become the hope for farmers in the way to prosperity and ruralrevitalization.