The province is situated on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau in north-western China, at an altitude of 2–5,000m. Though covering a large area of almost 2 million sq.km., most of the province is very sparsely inhabited, and the population totals only about 4.5 million. Of these people, over 40% are of minority racial or cultural groups, especially Tibetans, Mongolians and Moslems.
Qinghai Province is one of the poorest in China, due to its remote location, away from most mainstream economic developments in the country, and a mountainous environment and cold, dry climate which do not favour sedentary farming operations. Only about 0.8% of the total land area is under cultivation. However, in much of the province animal husbandry is a major activity. Sheep and yaks are grazed on high pastures, and sheep and cattle in lower areas. Average per capita income in Qinghai is among the lowest in China.
Despite the low rainfall, there are many water resources in Qinghai. Approx. 266 natural lakes and 277 rivers give a total surface area of more than 1.5 million ha. The 4,500 sq.km. Qinghai Lake is the largest inland water body in China, and three of the great rivers of Asia, the Yangtze, Mekong and Yellow River, have their sources in this province. In addition there are more than 120 man-made reservoirs and dams, bringing the total water area available in the province to around 1.8 million ha.
In spite of the abundance of water, the fisheries sector in Qinghai has been developed very little. The only significant commercial fishery is based on Qinghai Lake. This brackish water body supports a population of only a single fish species of economic importance, i.e. the coldwater cyprinid Gymnocypris przwalskii, known as the naked carp due to its lack of scales.
Pond culture of common and Chinese carps is practised in Qinghai, but the cold climate results in very slow fish growth and limits the reproduction of these species, making large-scale increases in carp output in Qinghai impossible. For these reasons the Provincial Government became interested in the prospects for culture of an exotic, high value cold water fish - the rainbow trout.
UNDP-assisted project CPR/88/077 successfully demonstrated the technology for commercial culture of rainbow trout in Qinghai. This initial success has convinced the Provincial Government of the large potential for development of this industry. It now appears that the project's aim to demonstrate both the technical and economic feasibility of trout farming in the province will be fully realized. Table 1 shows the progress in trout output over the project period.
TABLE 1. OUTPUT OF RAINBOW TROUT IN QINGHAI
| Year | Production of trout at the project site (tonnes) |
| 1991 | 11 |
| 1992 | 50 |
| 1993 | 96 |
| 1994 | 300 |
The fish were well accepted by local markets, and trout offered for sale at a first-sale price of approx. US$3/kg was readily purchased in the provincial capital. As a consequence, the Qinghai Provincial Trout Company was set up to further develop the industry based on the good result of the project. The company, which now owns the trout hatchery, raceways, feeds factory and floating cage site initiated by the project, has so far realized a profit every year. Fish growth during the growout phase was better than originally expected, giving an average size of over 500g for two-summer-old fish. This size is considered optimal for the Chinese market.
At present there are about 50 trout farms spread over more than 10 provinces in China. However, most of these are small family farms, and total trout production from Chinese farms was only about 1,000 tonnes in 1993. Most of this came from the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Shanxi.
In most provinces of China, trout production is severely limited by a shortage of good quality, cold water suitable for fish farm use. Qinghai Province, on the other hand, is well endowed with suitable sites, and competing demands for water from industrial and domestic users are small in this sparsely populated region. Thus Qinghai has the potential to become the foremost rainbow trout producing area in China. This development would not only provide an enormous boost to the previously-neglected fishery sector in the province and help improve the nutritional standards of local people, but would also generate jobs and incomes in Qinghai by establishing a substantial new industry geared to “export” high value fish to other provinces of China and perhaps overseas.
Consequently the Provincial Government is now planning a rapid development of trout production, and has set a medium term target output of 10,000 tonnes/year. The success of this venture would completely transform and revitalize the fisheries sector in the province. On a tonnage basis, official fish output would rise by a factor of about five times from current levels. On a value basis the improvement would be an even more dramatic rise of over 20 times, due to the much higher market value of trout compared with fish of the carp family, and perhaps even more if added value products are taken into account.
