Li Zhujiang, an expert at raising scorpions in Shijiazhuang, turns "poison" into a rich baby.

Scorpions have long been regarded as "poisons" for fear of avoiding them. However, according to Li Zhujiang, president of the Scorpion farming Association in Yuanshi County, scorpions are treasures, treasures that can drive farmers to increase their income and become rich.

"Scorpion has a long history of edible and medicinal use, and now there is a great demand for scorpion. There are many ways to eat scorpions, such as deep frying, barbecue and soaking wine, and the prospect is very broad." Li Zhujiang said.

Li Zhujiang, a native of Dongchengjiao Village, Suyang Township, Yuanshi County, began to try to raise scorpions in 1989. After years of exploration and practice, he mastered the breeding skills of scorpions, achieved better economic benefits, and led some farmers in the surrounding villages to develop together. In order to enhance the ability to resist market risks, in 2009, Li Zhujiang contacted the scorpion farmers and distributors in this village and the surrounding villages, established the Yuanshi County Scorpion farming Association, held training courses on breeding techniques, expanded sales channels and expanded the scale of breeding.

The association popularizes two core technologies to farmers, one is "accelerated growth in summer" and the other is "winter dormancy management", which directly determine the yield and quality of scorpion. Wang Xiaosan, a farmer, said: "since mastering these technologies, the output of our farmers has increased by 20%, 30%, and profits have increased by 20%, 30%."

It is understood that the association adopts the model of "association + base + farmers" to guide the masses to develop scorpion breeding, and the association implements unified seed supply and unified sales, which not only improves the breeding efficiency of farmers, but also reduces the market risk. "We have also set up a popular science Huinong service station based on the Scorpion farming Association, purchased books, computers and other office supplies, burned CDs and distributed them to members, and built six popular science propaganda columns to provide technical services for scorpion farming for the masses all the year round." Li Zhujiang said.

Up to now, the association has developed 1561 members, including 500 scientific and technological demonstration households, driving 1318 surrounding farmers. The annual output of scorpion is nearly 100000 kg, making it the largest scorpion breeding base north of the Yellow River in China. In June this year, the association was awarded the title of "National Science Popularization Huinong Xing Village Advanced Unit" by the China Association for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance.

With the expansion of the scale of breeding, the income of members is getting higher and higher, scorpion farming has become one of the main sources of income of the surrounding villagers. Li Zhujiang is not satisfied with this. "the scorpion deep processing project has become the goal of the development of the association." He revealed that in the next step, the association will vigorously develop deep processing of products, study scorpion nourishing food and scorpion venom extraction, and further improve economic benefits.