Small lobsters, as specials in the current food market, have attracted countless customers.

　　As a traditional aquaculture city, Yichang government encouraged the aquaculture sectors to breed the small lobsters, which can bring huge benefits as a new breakthrough in increasing the farmers’ income. After studying the advanced farming experience from other cities, the Yichang Aquaculture Technology Extension Station introduced a new integrated paddy planting Mode of Shrimp-Rice to achieve the common development. At present, the municipal department is establishing a pilot demonstration around the city.

　　Breeding shrimp in the rice field and fishing them under the Sims Azalea

　　On July 4th, the Technological Studying and Training conference about the integrated Paddy Planting was held. The sight was stunning to all the conference participants when they saw the shrimp and rice field, in Baihe Small lobsters Farmland, Guan Xi village, Yuan An town,

　　The eyes were filled with the blooming Sims Azalea, colorful and eye-catching.

　　Wang Maojun, the secretary of Party branch in the village, introduced that since 2013, the operative has transferred 300 acres of farmlands for the shrimp and rice fields. The new integrated mode of development has begun to take shape and it has become the Shrimp and Rice common development model project. This year the gross output value of the 300 acres is expected to reach 1.8 million yuan.

　　Moreover, the village also promoted the rural tourism based on the new integrated development mode. The villagers have planted the Sims Azalea along the rice fields, constructed the shrimp fishing center and established the farmhouse. The visitors flock to the village when holiday comes.

　　The integrated development mode of shrimp and rice fields has achieved high output with green and safety effects.

　　Feng Depin, the director in the Aquaculture Technology Extension Station, said that the integrated development of shrimp and rice fields will not only benefit the rice farmers but also make a fortune to them.

　　Feng told the reporters, according to the traditional mode of cultivation of rice, an acre of the rice will reach the value of about 1500 RMB. After the introduction of the new mode, although the production of an acre will slightly reduced, the value could reach 2,000 yuan because of its high quality and the value of the small lobsters could hit 5,000 yuan per acre. The total value will be 7,000 RMB, several times more than that of the traditional pattern. Beside the economic benefits, what matters is food security. According to Feng, due to the integrated development mode, the small lobsters can eat parts of the pests, which can significantly reduce the amount of the fertilizer and pesticides, thus we can achieve the target of green agriculture and improve the utilization of farmlands.

　　It is reported that the Yichang Aquaculture Department has established the new mode in Dangyang, Zhijiang and Yuan’an counties with pilot areas of 2500 acres. Thanks to the pilot counties, the city has developed nearly 30,000 acres of the farming areas around the city.

　　The new tendency of the integrated aquaculture paddy planting

　　Feng said the integrated paddy planting has become a new tendency for the future of aquaculture. He said, with the gradual increasing awareness of the environmental protection in recent years, we have gradually banned the cage fish culture farm around the Three Gorges Reservoir, Qingjiang Reservoir and other areas. The areas for aquaculture in Yichang is becoming smaller and smaller.

　　In order to cope with the new situation, the department quickly adjusted the way of thinking and promoted new development modes except with the integrated development mode of shrimp and rice fields. In the future, the departments will heavily promote other new modes such as the rice-fish, rice-turtle and rice-loach integrated development modes

　　(Reporter Li Pengfei; Correspondent Fang Suzhen)