1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 393: The Watertight Liang Ziqiang
When the construction of the Jiwei Pond was halfway done, Liang Ziqiang planned to go to the Municipal Fisheries Bureau to find the people he had met last year and inquire about contracting a piece of sea area for "aquaculture."

Everyone was getting ready to set off when Zhong Yongrui suddenly came running over and said that people from the county fishery station would be coming down to inspect several typical sites for the development of aquaculture.

Although there is strong encouragement and support, people have not yet come to the point of accepting the idea. Breeding along the coast has just started, and it is not easy to find large-scale and high-quality models.

According to Zhong Yongrui, there are only four typical companies in the county that have been identified for inspection this time.

One is an oyster and abalone farm on Piaomu Island, which is the oldest one; one is a shrimp and crab farm in Hongqiao Town, which is not large in scale; and the other is even farther away, in Jinhao Town, which is said to raise grouper.

The fourth one is Liang Ziqiang. Zhong Yongrui revealed that the county fishery station will first visit the first few families tomorrow, and will come to Changwang Village the day after tomorrow to learn about Liang Ziqiang's breeding situation.

Since the county was going to send someone down, Liang Ziqiang postponed his visit to the Municipal Fisheries Bureau and waited to see what happened the day after tomorrow.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon of the day after tomorrow, Zhong Yongrui appeared in the village accompanied by people from the county fishery station and people from the town.

Zhong Ming hurried over to call Liang Ziqiang and go to the shrimp pond in the east of the village together.

After meeting, Zhong Yongrui introduced that the director of the Fishery Administration Station was here this time, his surname was Qi. In addition to Director Qi, there were two other staff members, and Liao Neng, the deputy mayor of Chaoyang Town in charge of agriculture.

When they arrived at the east of the village, Liang Ziqiang showed them the entire shrimp pond that the father and his two sons had contracted. Stationmaster Qi Long asked a lot of questions, mainly about last year's breeding situation, input, output, and this year's breeding plan.

The shrimp pond is currently full of water, but the water is still empty. There is nothing else except blue clams, thin shells and the like. The new round of shrimp fry has not yet been released.

There is a small shrimp pond separated from the others, which contains shrimps, all of which are parent shrimps waiting to lay eggs.

Qi Long wanted to see the broodstock, so he asked Liang Ziqiang to scoop up a few with a hand net. After looking for a while, Qi Long nodded and said:

"The size and quality of these shrimps are really good. No wonder I heard that someone in the market has specifically requested to buy your prawns!"

After hearing what he said, Liang Ziqiang understood that it was very likely that Wei Pan from the fishing port had already contacted someone at the Fishery Administration Station and told them that Liang Ziqiang's farmed shrimps were very popular in the market.

"I see that apart from installing a sluice gate, setting up a feeding point and setting up a sunshade, there is nothing special about your shrimp pond. What breeding tricks do you have to raise the shrimps so well?" Deputy Mayor Liao Neng asked with interest.

"There are so many technical details to talk about. I was worried last year, fearing that a small mistake would mess things up!" Liang Ziqiang said vaguely, "By the way, scientific breeding formulas are still very important!"

Liao Neng was about to ask a few more questions when he saw Liang's father and Liang Tiancheng carrying baskets and throwing things into the shrimp pond.

In addition to the obviously visible peanut bran, there was also a white-gray powder, but no one knew what it was.

"By the way, I heard from the branch secretary on the way here that you have prepared your own nutrient powder specifically for raising shrimps?" Qi Long asked.

"That's what I'm spreading now!" Liang Ziqiang said with certainty, "It contains distiller's yeast, which can improve water quality. Several of the most important ingredients are found at sea. They're hard to find anyway. I worked myself into a sweat trying to make this nutrient powder, but it's quite effective. Last year's success in shrimp farming was mainly due to this nutrient powder!"

"This is your own breeding secret. I just asked casually. I didn't mean to ask you to make the formula public. If you really make it public to the world, wouldn't our county lose the advantage of breeding prawns?"

Qi Long obviously saw that Liang Ziqiang was unwilling to elaborate on the formula of the "nutritional powder", but he thought it was extremely normal and laughed.

Liang Ziqiang chuckled twice with tacit understanding.

Liang's father and Liang Tiancheng next to them continued to sprinkle the "nutritional powder" meticulously, occasionally looking up and saying a word or two naturally.

Of course, Liang Ziqiang had asked them both to come over in advance to spread the dragon head fish powder.

Although they are usually honest people, they are acting like extraordinary actors. When honest people deceive others, the effect is often unexpectedly good. "By the way, I have to thank the town for nodding its support to my contracting the salt land in Yanwan Village. Although those Artemia worms are not nutritious, they are cheap and save me a lot of costs! If we continue to expand the scale and Artemia worms are not enough, I plan to use earthworms, mysid shrimps, and krill instead. Anyway, the cost is only a little higher than Artemia worms, a little more troublesome, and the actual effect is almost the same!"

While expressing his "thanks", Liang Ziqiang did not forget to belittle the magical and great role of the Artemia.

"Supporting the expansion of the breeding industry is what we are promoting ourselves, so there is nothing to thank you for. Besides, it can save you some costs, and it can also allow Yanwan Village to utilize waste and increase income. It's the best of both worlds, isn't it?" Deputy Mayor Liao Neng continued.

"Your idea," Stationmaster Qi stood up from the pond and looked around. "Since you have successfully figured out the technology for breeding prawns, why not expand the scale? I heard that you have contracted a part of the wasteland to build a pond? This is a good idea. It will break the limitation of insufficient fish ponds in the village. Let's go to the beach and take a look!"

"I didn't plan to expand the scale. A while ago, Secretary Zhong did some ideological work on me and said that the village would give us the greatest support. If he hadn't encouraged me, I really wouldn't have made up my mind to spend money to build those ponds!"

Liang Ziqiang certainly understood what Zhong Yongrui needed and said it casually.

"Secretary Zhong is really good at his job. He is very capable in so many villages!" The deputy mayor praised him and turned to Zhong Yongrui, "Old Zhong, I tell you, don't say you want to retire because you are old. You are as energetic as the young people. You can stay in this position for a few more years!"

Zhong Yongrui looked at Liang Ziqiang with a sparkling look in his eyes, and replied to Liao Neng:
"As long as my physical condition allows and the town trusts me, I can hold on for a few more years without any problem!"

The group watched for a while the workers who were busy building the dike on the beach and learned about its structure and progress.

"By June, these ponds should be ready for use, so we can start releasing shrimp fry, right?" Stationmaster Qi asked again.

"Based on the current progress, there will be no problem by the end of June. This year's scale can reach six or seven times that of last year!" Liang Ziqiang said.

"That's great! Are there any other difficulties? Are there any aspects that require support from the county? If I can coordinate anything, I will go to the county to coordinate for you." Stationmaster Qi asked.

"Yes!" Liang Ziqiang was waiting for this sentence, and he said without hesitation, "Prawns are in short supply recently, but there are also some fish that have always been in short supply, such as snappers and stone clams! It is difficult to get these things in large quantities by casting nets at sea. You have to rely on fishing one by one, and the quantity is too small. If we do large-scale breeding, it will definitely be popular in the market. Whether it is for domestic sales or export to earn foreign exchange, it should be very profitable!"

"Do you also raise snappers and clams?" Qi Long showed some interest again. "Snappers are easy to sell, but the most important thing is the taste. I just went to Jinhao Town yesterday. Some people there raise groupers, which are more valuable than snappers. Unfortunately, I heard that the taste is far worse than wild groupers, so they can't be sold at that price. I'm afraid snappers are the same as groupers. Farmed ones can't have the same taste. This is a big problem!"

"They should be farmed in ponds or shallow waters near the shore, right?" Liang Ziqiang analyzed. "That's not surprising at all. There is a way to solve the taste problem of farmed snappers and groupers. If I really want to raise them, I will go straight to deep sea!"

Liang Ziqiang paused and sighed, "Of course, deep-sea aquaculture requires a lot of investment and is not without risks. If the higher-ups are willing to give me a large area of ​​deep sea to contract, I'm willing to take the risk. Someone has to try it, right?"

"Farming fish in the deep sea? This does seem to be a good way to improve the taste, but it's a bit too difficult. Are you really determined to do this? If you farm the fish, are you sure that the quality can be close to that of wild snappers and groupers?" Qi Long asked in a series of questions.

It is of course impossible to make the taste completely close to that of wild ones, but it is definitely much better than farming in ponds or by the sea, and the difference between it and wild snapper and grouper is not that big.

Liang Ziqiang knew this because some people in later generations cultivated sea bream and grouper in deep sea cages, and the taste was significantly improved compared to ordinary farmed fish.

"I chose some deep-sea reef zones for aquaculture, and the difficulty can be greatly reduced. Whether it will succeed or not, we won't know until we try!" Liang Ziqiang expressed his thoughts.

"If we really want to expand aquaculture, it is really worth a try to develop in the deep sea!" Deputy Mayor Liao Neng also said thoughtfully.

"It seems that today's visit to Pomfret Village is very fruitful. Comrade Aqiang, your idea is very bold and visionary. I think it is feasible! But I can't give you an immediate answer now. The right to contract for aquaculture in deep sea areas is not at our county level. It must be approved by the city. When I go back, I will report to the Municipal Fisheries Administration and promote this matter. I will try to implement it as soon as possible so that you can contract a piece of sea area for trial this year!"

Qi Long seemed to see hope for a new path in breeding and made up his mind.

Hearing this, Liang Ziqiang realized that things had successfully taken a big step forward today...

(End of this chapter)