Agriculture boosts ecotourism, one part investment yields three parts harvest
Having just graduated from university last year, Xiao Liu came alone to work in Zhongshan. New to the place with few friends, she often “stayed” at home and did not know much about the city where she worked, not even what local specialties it had. This spring, Xiao Liu joined a one-day tour organized by her workplace, visiting the Zhan Garden in the South District and also going to the nearby Xujing Agricultural Science and Technology Park to pick fruit and have a barbecue. Only then did she discover that so many delicious fruits are produced in Zhongshan's orchards, and that this place not only has a beautiful urban environment but also has countryside with an even more distinctive charm. Her colleague Sister Mei told her that this orchard in the South District is not far from the city center, and that she also often invites friends and brings her children here to play, where they can eat delicious, pollution-free fruit and let the children get close to nature.
Spring mulberries, summer dragon fruit, autumn grapes, winter bananas…… Visitors to the Xujing Agricultural Science and Technology Park, located in Shuyong Dawei, South District, can experience the joy of harvest in all four seasons of the year. This four-season orchard, built in 2010, covers an area of more than 480 mu and integrates functions such as science and technology training, popular science education, demonstration and promotion, and tourism sightseeing. It is a fairly representative modern agricultural demonstration park in Zhongshan. The Xujing Agricultural Science and Technology Park's Lingnan small fruits, grown with adherence to organic cultivation, have always been very popular with visitors. In the past two years, it has also switched to planting some mulberries, grapes and other fruits that are very popular on the market, and its infrastructure has also gotten better and better.
⟦NL> Ecotourism projects based on specialty agriculture, such as the Xujing Agricultural Science and Technology Park, are rising in Zhongshan, distributed in Minzhong, Tanzhou and Gangkou, and attracting visitors and tour groups from Hong Kong, Macao and other cities in the Pearl River Delta. As an outstanding example among them, the Xujing Agricultural Science and Technology Park, because of its large scale, high technology and good benefits, was rated in 2013 as one of the first batch of Zhongshan municipal-level “Top Ten Modern Agricultural Demonstration Parks.”
Average input-output ratio exceeds 1:3
In recent years, the Municipal Agriculture Bureau, through measures such as orderly advancing rural land circulation to promote appropriately scaled operations, strengthening the infrastructure construction of modern agricultural demonstration parks, and increasing the introduction, experimentation, demonstration and promotion of new varieties and new technologies, has enabled the construction of modern agricultural demonstration parks to achieve remarkable economic and social benefits, and development has also been very rapid.
Through high-starting-point planning and high-standard comprehensive improvement, the agricultural ecological environment and production conditions of modern agricultural demonstration parks have been greatly improved, comprehensive production capacity has been notably enhanced, overall agricultural efficiency has been remarkable, and farmers' incomes have continued to increase. According to statistics, as of the end of last year, total investment in the construction of modern agricultural demonstration parks across the city was 201 million yuan, with annual output value reaching 898 million yuan and an average input-output ratio exceeding 1:3, with remarkable benefits.
In 2012, the city implemented the construction of 12 modern agricultural demonstration parks, with a construction area of 4,755 mu, a radiating area of more than 10,000 mu, total park output value reaching 70 million yuan, newly added output value per mu reaching 1,300 yuan, newly added total park output value of 6.18 million yuan, farmers' operating income after entering the parks about 85% higher than before, and land output rate within the parks reaching 15,000 yuan per mu, effectively achieving increased agricultural efficiency and increased farmers' incomes. By 2013, the city had a total of 30 standard-qualified modern agricultural parks with contiguous integrated development scale reaching more than 500 mu, covering more than 80,000 mu. Among them, a total of 16 were evaluated as municipal-level or above modern agricultural demonstration parks, 3 were Ministry of Agriculture standardized production demonstration parks, and 6 were provincial-level modern agricultural parks, with a construction area of 52,400 mu, annual park output value reaching 898 million yuan, and average land output value per mu reaching 17,100 yuan.
“Community effect” radiates to surrounding areas
Through implementing the development strategy of modern agricultural demonstration parks and giving play to their demonstration and driving role, radiating to surrounding areas and even the whole city, the process of Zhongshan's agricultural modernization has been advanced. On the one hand, modern agricultural demonstration parks introduce new varieties and new technology demonstrations, promote agricultural mechanized cultivation, and implement an integrated model of production, processing and sales, driving surrounding areas' agricultural production toward industrialization, mechanization and modernization; on the other hand, the parks give full play to the “community effect,” radiating to surrounding areas and achieving an improvement in overall benefits. For example, the “Green Expo” held at the Southern Green Expo Park in Guzhen Town highlighted the “exhibition effect,” driving the newly planned construction of more than 10,000 mu of integrated production, supply and sales greening seedling production bases on both sides of “Gushen Highway.” At present, land rent on both sides of “Gushen Highway” has generally risen from more than 1,000 yuan per mu per year in the past to more than 4,000 yuan, with the highest rising by nearly 10,000 yuan, fully reflecting the social benefits brought by the “community effect.”
The construction and development of modern agricultural demonstration parks has effectively integrated surrounding resources, optimized industrial structure and standardized production, raised land output value and rent, increased the income of village collectives and farmers, mobilized the enthusiasm of local farmers to enter the parks to engage in appropriately scaled production and operations, and to a certain extent reduced the entry of outside personnel and the loss of rural land, thereby reducing industrial pollution and environmental damage and promoting the stable development of rural society. For example, the flower and tree base in Yunhan Village, Shaxi Town, through the village collective integrating land resources and vigorously developing the flower and seedling industry, demolished about 150 simple buildings at the edges of fields within the park, cleared out a group of mobile agricultural production personnel, and thoroughly changed the dirty, messy and poor appearance of the field area as well as effectively solved problems such as safe production, family planning, environmental pollution and pesticide residues.