Fishing for solutions

A mountainside village that practices aquaculture in rice paddies might hold the key to improving agronomy nationwide. Xu Junqian reports.

Fish have played a greater role in life in remote Zhejiang province's Longxian village than perhaps in any other of the country's seaside fishing towns. Fish are the theme of folk songs and dances, and festival celebrations. The village's ancestral hall is laden with fish-shaped lanterns. Every family's front yard hosts a square fishpond brimming with red and spotted carp. More emphasis is put on the ponds than on the gates in this settlement in Qingtian county. That's because a unique symbiotic rice-fish aquaculture system has fed the village for more than 1,700 years. Fish are raised in rice paddies, saving space and labor so farmers can produce more crops and fish. "Land conservation is, of course, the biggest advantage," agronomist Wu Minfang says, standing by the stone fish statue that marks the mountainside village's entrance. On the back of the human-sized statue is a marble sign that reads: "Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS)". The sign rises above the gravel main road to the village of 1,500. It was erected after the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) named the village's rice-fish system among the first five GIAHS programs in 2005.

The village has come to prominence as the Chinese central government prioritizes agricultural technology.