We all know that through farming, grains, pulses, oilseeds and various types of vegetables are grown in the fields. Apart from this, businesses like poultry farming, goat farming and fish farming are very popular in rural areas, but have you ever heard about snake farming? It may sound strange, but snakes are cultivated on a large scale in our neighboring country China. Lakhs of poisonous snakes are reared here and the business of products related to them is worth crores of rupees.
A small village named Jisiqiao, located in Zhejiang province of China, is famous all over the world for its unique snake farming. The population of this village is about one thousand people, but every year about 30 lakh poisonous snakes are produced here. If the average is taken, then every person in the village cultivates about 30 thousand snakes in a year.
Why do we cultivate snakes?
Many types of dangerous and poisonous snakes are reared in Jisiqiao. These include snakes ranging from big pythons to poisonous cobras, vipers and many other species. However, the snake which is most feared among the local people is the Five Step Snake. There is an interesting belief behind the name of this snake. People believe that if this snake bites a person, he is able to walk only a maximum of five steps and after that he dies. Although this is a popular belief, this is the reason why this snake got this name.
In this village, snakes are reared mainly for their meat, leather and other parts. In China, snake meat is considered a special delicacy and many people eat it with great enthusiasm. Apart from this, in traditional medical systems, various parts of snakes are also used to make medicines. This is the reason why snake farming has become a profitable business here.
Interestingly, Jisiqiao village was not always famous for snakes. A few decades ago, farmers here used to cultivate traditional crops like tea, jute and cotton. But with time the identity of this village completely changed. Today this village is considered the center of snake farming not only in China but all over the world.
This change was initiated by village farmer Yang Hongchang. He told that he had fallen seriously ill in his youth. During treatment, he needed a snake, for which he caught a wild snake from the forest. This experience gave birth to the idea of a business related to snakes in his mind. He started rearing some snakes as an experiment. Gradually this work started becoming successful and his income increased.
Leave a Reply