Current Situation, Problems and Optimization Countermeasures of Rice and Shrimp Cultivation Industry in Hubei Province

Hong LI

Economics and Management School, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China

Abstract In recent years, the scale of rice and shrimp cultivation in Hubei Province is expanding year by year, and cultivation model is innovating continuously, while consumption market is enlarging constantly. It realizes "dual use of one land, win-win of grain and fishery, stable grain production, and efficiency increase", and effectively solves the problems that "benefit of grain planting is low, and it is difficult to increase farmers’ income". But there are still many problems at present, such as degeneration of crayfish germplasm, increase of disease incidence, centralized entering in the market affecting breeding efficiency, the benefits of rice not brought into full play, large number of business entities, lack of leading enterprises and sufficient supporting. To realize sustainable development of rice and shrimp cultivation industry, Hubei Province should adhere to the problem orientation, do a good job in supporting and capital guidance, increase effective supply, promote scale operation, cultivate leading enterprises, strengthen production management, and improve product quality.

Key words Rice and shrimp cultivation, Hubei Province, Grain security

1 Introduction

Grain security is not only a major livelihood issue of China but also a national security issue, which should not be taken lightly. Rice is one of the most favorite staple foods for the Chinese people, and it has very important significance for guaranteeing grain security in China to stabilize planting area of rice. Since single rice planting has lower comparative benefit, the willingness of agricultural operators to plant rice decreases year by year. In recent years, comprehensive cultivation model of paddy field is promoted vigorously in Hubei Province. Yield of rice could reach 7 500 kg/ha, while crayfish production could reach 1 500-2 250 kg/ha, and pure income is between 30 000 and 75 000 yuan/ha. Compared with single rice planting, production benefit is improved by 2-4 times, and more than 50% of pesticide and chemical fertilizer could be reduced. Integrated cultivation model of rice and shrimp realizes "dual use of one land, win-win of grain and fishery, ecological environmental protection, stable grain production, and efficiency increase", solves the problems that "benefit of grain planting is low and it is difficult to increase farmers’ income", and opens up a new way[1]. Under the background of fully implementing the construction of ecological civilization, impelling the structural reform of agricultural supply side, and promoting the implementation of the strategy of rural revitalization, how to optimize rice and shrimp cultivation structure, realize rational and orderly development, scale expansion, benefit growth, prosperous production and marketing, and become local pillar, characteristic and enriching industries has very major significance.

2 Current situation of rice and shrimp cultivation industry

2.1 Production scale enlarging year by yearIn 2001, continuous cultivation model of rice and shrimp was carried out in Qianjiang City of Hubei Province. Crayfish was bred in a low-lying cold soaked winter fallow field, and middle rice was planted continuously after crayfish was harvested in next April. The test area in the year was 66.67 ha, and 150 000 kg of crayfish was harvested in next year, obtaining 6 300 yuan/ha of income increase. After the test was successful, area of rice and shrimp cultivation in each region of Hubei Province increased year by year, and the yield was improved continuously. During 2016-2018, plantation areas of rice in Hubei Province were 2.796 35, 2.846 12 and 2.839 47 million ha, in which areas of rice and shrimp cultivation reached 0.264 73, 0.334 89 and 0.393 50 million ha, respectively accounting for 9.47%, 11.77% and 13.86%, and the proportion of rice and shrimp cultivation area rose year by year. In 2018, the yield of crayfish bred in paddy field was 673 000 t[2].

2.2 Cultivation model continuously innovatingAt present, there are three kinds of rice and shrimp cultivation models: (i) "1+1 rice and shrimp continuous cultivation model", namely raising crayfish once a year and then planting a season of rice. (ii) "2+1 rice and shrimp continuous cultivation model", namely raising crayfish twice a year and then planting a season of rice. The first batch of crayfish cultivation: breeding prawn shrimp, using good feed, and obtaining high price; the second batch of crayfish cultivation: using good feed, frequently changing the bottom, and increasing benefits; a season of rice was planted after June. (iii) "rice and shrimp co-cultivation" model, namely breeding crayfish in paddy field. Crayfish weeds, loosens soil and fertilizes for rice, while rice provides bait and shade, and avoids harm for crayfish. Shrimp and rice work together to complement each other.

2.3 Consumption market continuously enlargingSince there is no pesticide and chemical fertilizer, rice produced by rice and shrimp cultivation model is full and sweet, which finally reaches the effects of green planting and ecological breeding. It improves not only utilization rate of land and water resources but also ecological environment. Compared with pond shrimp cultivation, breeding density of crayfish in paddy field decreases greatly. In the growth process of crayfish, feed is reduced greatly, and incidence rate of disease is low. Crayfish is cleaner, and its meat is more delicious. At present, crayfish of Hubei Province is sold to Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and other places, and even is exported to foreign countries[3].

2.4 Social capital continuously inputtingHigh benefit of crawfish industry attracts social capital to enter one after another, and a lot of jobs are created. For example, Meihao Real Estate Co., Ltd., Tongwei Group, Meister Group, Born Group and other enterprises of Jingzhou City have transferred cultivated land in Honghu, Jianli, Gong’an and other places to develop rice and shrimp cultivation, and industrial scale is improved continuously. There are 355 centralized continuous cultivation bases that area is more than 66.67 ha, and the area is 50 700 ha, accounting for 29.8% of rice and shrimp cultivation area. Additionally, there are 845 village-level acquisition points of crayfish, 148 town-level acquisition points, 58 county-level circulation points, 3 121 catering enterprises related to crayfish, and 20 476 employees[4].

3 Problems in rice and shrimp cultivation industry

3.1 The benefit of crayfish culture needing to be further improved(i) The degradation of germplasm and the occurrence of disease lead to the decline of crayfish quality. In current rice and shrimp cultivation model of Hubei Province, many farmers use crayfish propagation in situ. The inbreeding for several years has resulted in the degradation of germplasm. Due to cultivation of the same species in the same field for many years, the accumulation of pathogens leads to the increase of disease occurrence, such as leukoplakia syndrome and parasite, and size and quality of commercial shrimps declines. (ii) Concentrated entering in the market of crayfish affects breeding benefit. At present, no matter which model of rice and shrimp cultivation, the fishing period is from April to August, catching big and keeping small, and period of prosperity is during May-June. Due to higher concentration degree of entering in the market, the annual sales price of crayfish has been in the shape of "dumbbell". That is to say, sale price is higher at initial and final stage, but is lower during May-June, which seriously affects breeding benefit[5].

3.2 The benefits of rice not brought into full play"Shrimp rice" is a kind of rice that is almost natural, and it can be made into a distinctive brand of green rice. But the market awareness of shrimp rice is not high at present, and the price is almost the same as that of ordinary rice, and its value is obviously underestimated. The reasons are as below: (i) agricultural operators prefer crayfish culture and neglects rice planting, and rice planting is not excavated sufficiently. (ii) There is lack of fine variety of "shrimp rice". At present, there are not many high-quality rice varieties that are really suitable for shrimp and rice cultivation model, and varieties of "shrimp rice" on the market are various, up to more than 200 at present. Many and miscellaneous "shrimp rice" varieties make that the shape, taste and quality of the harvested rice are different, causing that processing quality is difficult to improve, and it greatly affects market competitiveness[6].

3.3 Large number of business entities, and lack of leading enterprisesIn Hubei Province, whether it is rice and shrimp breeding, rice processing, or crayfish processing, there is the phenomenon of "large scale but weak brand" and "many brands but scattered and small" in the main business. In Jingzhou City, there are 1 159 rice and shrimp cultivation cooperatives and 26 crayfish processing enterprises, and the output value is less than 6 billion yuan. Additionally, there are 233 agricultural and sideline food processing enterprises based on rice, and the output value is less than 3 billion yuan[7]. Small scale and weak brand become the short board of rice and shrimp industry development.

3.4 Lack of adequate support for rice and shrimp cultivation(i) Inadequate water conservancy facilities. Hubei Province belongs to subtropical monsoon climate, with uneven hydrothermal distribution, and flood disasters occur frequently in summer[8]. If there lack flood control and drainage facilities, waterlogging will easily occur, causing that crayfish escapes from rice and shrimp fields. (ii) Lack of agricultural machinery and equipment suitable for use in rice and shrimp cultivation. The mud of paddy field is relatively deep, and the compactness of soil is significantly lower than that of single cropping model of middle rice, with worse soil bearing capacity. Agricultural machinery and equipment in paddy field are easy to fall into the mud and are often "trapped", especially transplanter. Therefore, direct seeding, artificial transplanting and other methods are often used for rice, but rice of direct seeding is easy to lodge. For example, lodging area of rice in Qianjiang City in 2017 reached 40 000 ha, and the area of direct seeding reached more than 90%[9]. Manual transplanting costs labor, and labor cost is high. (iii) A chaos that the back end of the industrial chain is crowding the front-end profits. When the price of crayfish falls, the price of crayfish in restaurants of some cities remains high, showing the phenomenon that the price of production land is low but it is higher in the consumption land, and the shrimp farmers lose money but the shrimp merchants make money.

4 Countermeasures for the optimization of rice and shrimp cultivation industry

4.1 Adhering to the problem orientation and doing a good job in complete supportingRelevant departments of Hubei provincial government should do the following: (i) make plans for the development of rice and shrimp industry. Planning time should be divided into near and far, and development target should be scientific and reasonable. Meanwhile, there should be road map and assignment. (ii) Establish research fund for rice and shrimp industry development, guide scientific research institutions, colleges and universities to pay attention to the development of rice and shrimp industry, to solve technical problems, excavate potential value, and propose suggestions for industrial development. (iii) Build irrigation and water conservancy. It should increase investment in water conservancy construction, construct the real good land that could ensure stable yields despite drought or excessive rain, and resolve the natural risks of rice and shrimp industry. (iv) Establish Hubei Rice and Shrimp Industry Association (or similar organizations), and collect the problems in the development of rice and shrimp industry. It could not only dock with government departments, scientific research institutions and relevant enterprises but also make technical standard for rice and shrimp production, carry out relevant technical training, issue relevant information for operators of the whole industry chain of rice and shrimp, especially do a good job in early warning of information.

4.2 Doing a good job in capital guidance and improving effective supply

4.2.1Market before production. (i) It should enhance variety selection and breeding of crayfish, and promote upgradation of shrimp fry. (ii) It should increase breeding of high-quality rice varieties suitable for rice and shrimp cultivation, which could resist lodging and common and frequently occurring diseases of rice, with high yield and good taste. (iii) It should increase effective supply of biopesticides and organic fertilizers.

4.2.2Market in production. (i) There should be mechanized service companies providing tillage, transplantation and harvest in production process of operators. (ii) There should be companies providing technical support or production management services for operators.

4.2.3Market after production. (i) Processing enterprises should call green brand, containing rice processing enterprise. (ii) Processing enterprises of crayfish should reduce the pressure of crayfish concentrated entering in the market, and make that consumers could buy crayfish all year round, to solve the market risk of rice and shrimp industry. (iii) Catering enterprises. Rice and shrimp production enterprises should appropriately associate with catering enterprises, to achieve benefit sharing and minimize the situation that catering enterprises occupy the interests of production links.

4.3 Promoting scale operation and cultivating leading enterprisesOne of the preconditions for agricultural products processing enterprises to create famous and excellent brands is that a large number of agricultural products with quality reliability and identity must be used as processing materials, and it is difficult to be provided by many small agricultural operators. In Jianghan Plain and other major rice producing areas, it must integrate resources and enlarge operation scale. (i) It should enlarge land circulation strength. For the farmers with the willingness to transfer the management right of cultivated land, it could increase land transfer, and promote large-scale rice and shrimp cultivation enterprises to continue to expand business scale. (ii) It should vigorously develop rice and shrimp cultivation cooperatives. Farmers who do not want to transfer the right of farmland management could obtain technology and variety under the leadership of the cooperative, and produce high-quality agricultural products with consistency. (iii) The model of "rice planting by households, and shrimp raising by joint stock" could be taken. On the one hand, households willing to raise shrimp are integrated, and they co-cultivate shrimp according to the contracted area. On the other hand, farmers who do not want to raise shrimp could grow their own rice, and their paddy field could be contracted to shrimp farmers. In sum, it should promote the continuous development and scale production of rice and shrimp, and consistency of product quality, lay the foundation for cultivating geographical indication brand products, and pave the way and build a bridge for rice and shrimp creating advantage brand.

4.4 Strengthening production management and improving product quality

4.4.1Growth link management of crayfish. (i) It should excavate artificial shrimp ditch. It should make project scheme according to the size of the field, rationally determine shape, width and depth of shrimp ditch. (ii) It should construct anti escape facilities. Crayfish has a strong escape ability, and anti escape facilities must be built around the paddy field. (iii) It should create good eco-environment of shrimp culture. Crayfish has the habit of fighting. When the crayfish scattered in the paddy field has to concentrate in the shrimp ditch, the probability of mutual injury increases greatly. In order to improve the survival rate of crayfish, submerged plants are cultivated in the shrimp ditch. (iv) Selection and stocking of crayfish fry should be done well. The operators should set up a special shrimp breeding pool to carry out high-quality fry breeding and ensure good varieties.

4.4.2Production link management of rice. (i) It should select the varieties resistant to common diseases of rice. (ii) Seed disinfection should be conducted before sowing, to prevent that seeds carry disease. (iii) Deep irrigation in the field should be conducted to control borer before transplanting. (iv) It should enhance ecological control, containing doing well in the water and fertilizer management in the field, to avoid rice plants grow too dense and green, and decline disease risk. (v) It should protect and use natural enemy. Without chemical pesticides, it can create suitable environment for the growth of natural enemies of rice pests and give full play to the control role of natural enemies. (vi) It should use light and sex lure. (vii) It should scientifically spray biological pesticide to control diseases and insect pests of rice in critical period[10].