At nine in the morning, paddy fields in Xingguang Village, Shishou City, Hubei Province, come alive with activity as Xie Meiqi, a doctoral student from Huazhong Agricultural University, carries a sweep net to begin her daily pest monitoring. The waist-high rice plants gleam a vivid green, and within the irrigation ditches along the field ridges, crayfish can be seen moving inside submerged traps. This 27-year-old researcher is a member of the university's "Double Water, Double Green" team and has devoted six years to these fields—arriving like clockwork at the end of June each year and returning only when the rice ripens to a golden yellow in mid-to-late September, much like a migratory bird on a precise schedule.

In 2017, Zhang Qifa, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, and director of the Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, introduced the "Double Water, Double Green" concept. The approach utilizes a single plot of land to cultivate both "green rice" and "green aquatic products," advancing the "double water" industries of rice cultivation and aquaculture while producing premium "double green" products such as eco-friendly rice and high-quality crayfish. Since then, university teams across the fertile Jianghan Plain, known as the "land of fish and rice," have promoted the "Huamoxiang" rice variety and conducted research on "crayfish-rice rotation" and "rice-duck co-cultivation," ultimately developing an integrated rice-duck-crayfish ecological farming system.

Raising crayfish in rice paddies prohibits the indiscriminate use of pesticides, so how are field pests controlled? "In the rice-duck-crayfish model, pest management relies on the combined action of water management, soil fertility, crayfish activity, and natural enemies," Xie Meiqi explained, brushing aside a clump of rice to point at small insects crawling between the leaf sheaths. "Look here—spiders, parasitic wasps, and ground beetles are all resident 'pest control guards' in the field. Additionally, the roaming duck patrols significantly suppress rice leaf rollers and planthoppers while also trampling and consuming many weeds."

The rice-crayfish co-cultivation model not only greens the fields but also enriches the local farmers. Liu Zhengwen, a crayfish buyer from Xinchang Town, Shishou City, purchases over 800 tons of crayfish annually, with more than 300 tons sourced directly from the Xingguang Village rice-crayfish base. "These crayfish have small heads and claws but firm, springy meat, making them more popular in the market and commanding considerably higher prices," he noted. Mei Fangzhu, executive deputy director of the Double Water Double Green Research Institute at Huazhong Agricultural University, told reporters that over 90% of the locally promoted Huamoxiang premium black rice is grown in rice-crayfish fields. The purchase price for this rice is double that of ordinary paddy, boosting farmers' per-mu income by more than 1,000 yuan.

Today, the rice-crayfish industry model is well-established across Hubei Province and the Yangtze River basin, with widely recognized benefits for agricultural efficiency, ecological balance, and environmental protection. "Under this model, farmers not only produce higher-quality rice but also harvest an additional crop of crayfish each season, yielding dual returns from a single mu of land," said Yang Zhengwu, vice president of the Hubei Province Crayfish-Rice Industry Association and head of the Shishou Shuanglvfeng Crayfish-Rice Rotation Cooperative. By the end of 2025, the cooperative's "rice-duck-crayfish ecological farming technology" had earned third prize in the finals of Hubei Province's Rural Revitalization Practical Technology Competition.

Furthermore, Hubei Province's No. 1 Central Document for 2026 explicitly calls for continued promotion of provincial public brands such as "crayfish, eel, rice, tea, lotus root, mushroom, orange, and mugwort" alongside Wuchang fish. According to data from the Hubei Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the province's rice-fishery area reached 9.14 million mu in 2025, establishing a modern agricultural development framework characterized by "multiple uses per field, grain-fishery mutual benefits, and ecological prosperity for farmers."