The village's farmers are happy to sell their juvenile crabs and help buyers weigh them. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

A truck filled with five tons of baby crabs drove off on March 4 from Gonghe village – administered by the county-level city of Qidong in East China's Jiangsu province – on a journey to market set to bring in a handsome profit for the local farmers engaged in the crab-breeding industry.

The breeding business for kouxie – juvenile crabs weighing more than 2 grams each – took off in the village thanks to the pioneering spirit of farmer Zhang Nisheng, 58.

Zhang found a gap in the market 28 years ago and he spent a long time exploring and mastering breeding techniques with persistent effort until he succeeded.

Over the past two decades, his aquaculture pond has expanded to cover about 23.3 hectares, with average output per ha this year of more than 6 tons, which is one of the highest yields in the industry across the city.

The development process was accompanied by continuous improvements on juvenile crab selection, feeding portions, crab pond operations and crabbing methods which have led to an increase in individual crab weight and total yields.

Zhang, however, didn't enjoy the fruits of his hard work alone. He was encouraged by the village Party branch to establish a crab-breeding cooperative in 2005. It kept growing to today's size, involving 533 ha of aquatic breeding farms and more than 130 farmers. It achieved an average output of 5.25 tons per ha this year and total net income topped a record 30 million yuan ($4.61 million).

The baby crabs the farmers cultivate not only enjoy good sales in the main traditional river crab-breeding areas, but have also carved out a market in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.