Yunnan's Vegetables and Its Green Mountains and Clear Waters Together Paint a Beautiful Picture
At present, the whole prefecture has a total of 6 vegetable bases certified as green food, with an area of 35,000 mu; 68 pollution-free vegetable bases, with an area of 314,000 mu; and 6 famous vegetable trademarks of Yunnan Province have been created. Data show that in 2014, the total vegetable planting area of the whole prefecture reached more than 1.5 million mu, ranking second in the province; vegetable output reached 2.333 million tons, and the total vegetable output value reached 2.68 billion yuan. The out-of-prefecture sales volume of vegetables in the whole prefecture reached 1.4 million tons.
According to statistics, at present, the whole prefecture has more than 700 vegetable-related specialized cooperative economic organizations, and 45,000 vegetable farmers have joined specialized cooperative economic organizations; the ranks of large specialized vegetable growers and specialized marketing teams have continued to grow. In the whole prefecture, there are more than 3,000 specialized large households planting more than 5 mu of vegetables annually, and more than 8,000 specialized vegetable marketing personnel (including both inside and outside the prefecture).
The whole prefecture has a total of 6 provincial-level leading agricultural industrialization enterprises in the vegetable category and 11 prefecture-level leading enterprises, driving more than 20,000 farming households, basically forming a group operation model of “company + base + cooperative + farming households.”
The pollution-free white radish products of Shaochong Town and Longwu Town in Shiping County are not only sold well in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, but also crossed the oceans and were exported to South Korea, Russia, Vietnam, Singapore and other countries. Jianshui's small chili peppers, cattail shoots, and onions, Kaiyuan's Chinese onions, and others, after becoming “geographical indication certification trademarks,” emerged from the situation of “being kept in deep boudoirs and unknown to others” and became “hot favorites” in domestic and foreign markets.
What force has strengthened our prefecture's vegetable industry? And what has won it a broad market? The answer is building highland characteristic agriculture.
Our prefecture is located at the Tropic of Cancer. The whole prefecture has a land area of 33,000 square kilometers and 4.8 million mu of land. The vertical climate of “one mountain divides the four seasons, and ten li brings different weather” makes this place have “fruits and vegetables continuously and spring in all four seasons.” Resource advantages are fertile ground for developing agriculture and even more a “feng shui treasure land” for cultivating the vegetable industry. Mengzi, Kaiyuan, Mile, Jianshui and other counties and cities fully write a new chapter of “vegetable” poetry and pictorial charm amid fine mountains and waters.
Walking into Daxing Village, Zhongshu Town, Luxi County, one sees that amid green mountains and clear waters, there are patch after patch of flourishing vegetables, while on the field roads, trucks are loading vegetables, preparing to transport them to Hong Kong, China, Guangdong, Shanghai and other places.
“Our vegetables are very popular in other places. Five or six truckloads are hauled out from here in a day.” said local villager Yang Amu happily.
“The key to these vegetables selling well in the market is that Luxi County has a good environment. Our vegetables ‘drink’ Longtan water, grow in a natural oxygen bar, and absorb organic fertilizer, so the quality of the vegetables is naturally different.” said Luo Peixin, person in charge of the Luxi vegetable base of Honghe Xingzaiji Vegetable Co., Ltd.
Based on a good ecological environment and excellent soil and climate resources, Luxi County is committed to developing highland characteristic agriculture and is becoming our province's “green vegetable garden,” attracting more and more outside investors to Luxi to invest in and develop the vegetable industry.
Good mountains and good waters produce good vegetables, and Luxi County is only a microcosm of our prefecture.
Good mountains and good waters are resources. How can resource advantages be transformed into development advantages? In recent years, based on resource advantages and adapting measures to local conditions, our prefecture has adjusted the agricultural industrial structure, built the Honghe highland characteristic industry system, promoted the rapid development of advantageous industries, and gradually formed a new development pattern in which 9 major “red series” industries advance together: red tobacco, red wine, red fruit, red vegetables, red wood, red rice, red medicine, red sugar, and red livestock.
While developing and strengthening the vegetable industry, our prefecture has actively sought superior-level funding support, increased fiscal input at the same level, and continuously accelerated farmland infrastructure construction through the implementation of the national “vegetable basket” project, vegetable standard garden construction, low- and medium-yield farmland improvement, dry farming demonstration and other projects. Over the past 5 years, more than 100 million yuan has been invested, 11 vegetable standard gardens and more than 10,000 mu of vegetable greenhouses have been built, driving the whole prefecture's greenhouse vegetable planting area to reach 151,500 mu, and more than 120,000 mu of low- and medium-yield farmland has been improved. The area of high and stable yield vegetable planting zones in the whole prefecture meeting the “four connections and one leveling” standard is 750,000 mu.
To develop and strengthen the vegetable industry, our prefecture has continuously explored diverse effective interest linkage mechanisms among leading enterprises, farmers' professional cooperatives, family farms, large growers and farmers (especially farmers who transfer land), established economic interest communities, realized deep integration among new agricultural operation entities and between new agricultural operation entities and farmers, and focused on building a new agricultural operation system combining intensification, specialization, organization and socialization, so that small farmer entities transform into modern new agricultural operation entities.
At the same time, our prefecture has vigorously implemented the brand-driven strategy. According to the brand strategic vision of “building one brand, driving multiple industries, and enriching the people of one region,” it has concentrated on building the “Nine Reds” high-quality series agricultural product brands: red rice, red fruit, red vegetables, red wood, red medicine, red sugar, red livestock, red wine, and red tobacco.
In promoting brand strategy construction, our prefecture has vigorously promoted pollution-free and standardized vegetable production techniques, eliminated the use of highly toxic and high-residue pesticides and unqualified vegetable production inputs; actively carried out pollution-free, green and organic vegetable base recognition, product certification and market circulation, and steadily advanced the standardization, packaging, labeling and modern marketing methods of vegetable commodities such as chain supermarkets, cleaned vegetable distribution, auctions and e-commerce; and accelerated the construction of detection and supervision systems, quality standard systems, credibility systems and quality traceability systems for all links of vegetable production, circulation, processing and consumption. Since 2014, our prefecture has successively implemented quality traceability certification for 15 products from 8 bases within the million-mu highland characteristic agriculture demonstration zone, making quality more guaranteed and brand effects further highlighted.
In order to increase industrial benefits, push Honghe vegetables into a broader market, and fully promote the “red vegetable” brand, the prefecture party committee and prefecture government have encouraged leading enterprises, production cooperative organizations and other operation entities to actively carry out “three products and one label” certification and brand building through methods such as replacing subsidies with awards, tax reductions and exemptions, scientific and technological support, and project investment. For example, “Heyuan” brand vegetables and fruits are sold far beyond the province and to Southeast Asian countries, enabling more consumers to know Yunnan's vegetables and fruits. This trademark can be called an outstanding representative among agriculture-related trademarks.
Now, Mengzi's Chinese cabbage and sweet peppers, Gejiu's chili peppers and green vegetables, Jianshui's onions and small chili peppers, Shiping's cabbage and white radishes, and others, one green vegetable brand after another stands out, spreading fragrance in all directions and selling well in domestic and foreign markets.