Villagers in SW China's Yunnan harvest fish in paddy fields

(Photo courtesy of publicity department of the Communist Party of China Anning municipal committee)

Residents in Luoming village, Anning city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, recently harvested fish in their paddy fields.

"I secured a bumper harvest of fish this year," said Zhang Junsheng, a farmer in the village, adding that he raised fish in more than 2 mu (about 0.13 hectares) of paddy fields, with the yield of fish exceeding 150 kilograms.

Zhang explained he could earn a considerable amount of income if his fish were sold at the market price of 45 yuan (about $6.49) per kilogram. "We never worry about the sales of fish because visitors who come here to catch fish will buy some and many restaurants have placed orders for our fish," the farmer said.

When fish are kept in paddies, they eat aquatic insects, flowers of rice and weeds, and their excrement serves as fertilizer.

In recent years, the rice-fish co-culture system in the village has boosted the virtuous cycle of the ecosystem of the paddy fields and has paved a new path for villagers to increase their incomes.