Zhang Zhuang, a master of raising snakes in Danzhou, has persisted in exploring the way of raising snakes for 8 years.

Snakes, which most people are afraid of, will become a promising industry of 100 million yuan in the hands of Zhang Zhuang.

Zhang Zhuangbang, who is in his thirties, is the chairman of Danzhou Baofa farming Farmers' Professional Cooperative. The cooperative is located in Nanfeng Town, Danzhou City, connecting more than 20 farmers and now raises more than 100000 water snakes (also known as mouse snakes).

According to the current situation, a total of nearly 500 peasant households will be driven by the end of 2017. At that time, the water law snake industry in Danzhou will give full play to the economies of scale.

Eight years of unremitting learning

For 8 years, it was only a brief moment in the long river of time, but for Zhang Zhuang, it was an unforgettable experience in the process of starting a business.

In 2009, by chance, Zhang Zhuang heard people say that raising water snakes makes a lot of money. As a result, he crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and "traveled" to the water snake breeding bases in many provinces.

In 2010, the Zhang Zhuang gang began to try to raise water snakes. Since then, he has repeatedly inspected and studied in the hydrological snake breeding bases inside and outside the province, and "learned" from a number of breeding experts.

According to Zhang Zhuang, who is now full of Snake Classics, the water snake is a non-venomous snake with a yellowish brown back and irregular black stripes on the back, mainly distributed in the south.

When it comes to farming techniques, he goes on and on. For example, snakes should take a "medicine bath" before entering the shed to prevent germs from entering the shed. "Medicine bath" can be used with boric acid, potassium permanganate and other disinfectants, dilute and soak the snake for 2 to 5 minutes.

After long-term and unremitting investigation and research, in addition to mastering rich breeding techniques, mainly fed with chicken, Zhang Zhuangbang also groped to ferment a kind of Chinese herbal medicine. "feeding water snakes with this fermented Chinese herbal medicine is not only environmentally friendly, but also makes snakes appetizer and build up their physique." He said proudly.

Drive all the villagers to earn together if they have money.

With certain skills, Zhang Zhuang, with the encouragement and help of his father, raised 5 million yuan from all sides and launched the Danzhou Baofa farming Farmers' Professional Cooperative in 2013.

"the purpose of setting up a co-operative is to encourage the villagers to breed and earn money together if they have money." Zhang Zhuangbang said that through the "cooperative + peasant household" model, it specializes in the characteristic industries of water law snake breeding, incubation and sale of snake seedlings, promotion of breeding technology, epidemic prevention services, and integrated acquisition and processing of commodity snakes.

Zhang Zhuangbang revealed that the cooperative is still in the stage of laying the foundation, mainly supporting farmers to raise snakes and not selling to the outside world for the time being. Cooperatives provide snake seedlings to farmers, train farmers in breeding techniques, and are responsible for the recovery of commercial snakes, with a minimum protection price of 100 yuan per jin and 30 yuan per egg to ensure that farmers have a stable source of income.

Raising snakes makes money quickly, because snakes have a strong ability to reproduce. Zhang Zhuangbang said that farmers now connected to cooperatives generally raise more than 300 female snakes, and a female snake lays about 30 eggs a year. Farmers can make a profit by selling snake eggs in the same year.

Danzhou Baofa farming Farmer specialized Cooperative, located in Qitan Village Group of Maling Pai Miao Village Committee, Nanfeng Town, now the number of snakes has exceeded 100000, with an annual output value of more than 30 million yuan.

Talking about the construction of the base, Zhang Zhuangbang told reporters that according to the current development momentum, more than 300 farmers will be driven by the end of 2016, more than 500 by the end of 2017, more than 400,000 aquatic snakes will be raised, and the annual output value is expected to reach 120 million yuan.

Develop the snake industry and increase the added value

Baofa farming farmers' professional cooperatives in Danzhou raised water snakes on a large scale, which also led to related industries. Only from the point of view of raw materials, the food needed by the water snake is mainly chicken, which has promoted the chicken industry in Danzhou to a certain extent.

In December 2015, Zhang Zhuangbang's "Hydrological Snake farming" project won the third prize in the start-up Competition of Hainan Province.

This project has the soil to take root in Danzhou. It is understood that in order to promote the rapid development of the project, the government of Nanfeng Town has made great efforts to adjust the agricultural industrial structure, adopting the method of half of the government's contribution and half of the farmers' contribution to buy 150 yuan of snake seedlings from the cooperative to support farmers to take the road of common prosperity.

Zhang Zhuangbang said that he plans to carry out multi-level development of snake products: at the first level, snake meat will be divided into bags and docked with Shang Chao, so that snake meat can be served on the dining table of thousands of households. In the second level, snake blood, snake bile and snake oil are extracted to play their different functions. For example, snake blood can be used to make medicinal wine and treat a variety of diseases; snake bile can also be used medicinally to enhance human immunity and delay aging; snake oil can be used to treat burns and is also a high-end pure natural cosmetics.

On how to expand and strengthen the snake industry in the next step, Zhang Zhuang said: "the key is to pay attention to deep processing and enhance the added value."