China's high-mountain vegetable sown area reaches 22 million mu
China's high-mountain vegetable sown area reaches 22 million mu, becoming an important driver of poverty alleviation in mountainous areas
Xinhua News Agency, Yinchuan, July 29 (Zhang Liang Yang Wenxi) - Qian Keming, Chief Economist of the Ministry of Agriculture, recently revealed at the 6th China (Ningxia) Horticultural Expo that China's high-mountain vegetable sown area has reached 22 million mu, becoming an important driver for impoverished populations in vast mountainous areas to escape poverty and achieve prosperity.
It is understood that China's main production bases for high-mountain cool-climate vegetables are distributed in the Wuling Mountain area, Qinba Mountain area, Dabie Mountain area, Liupan Mountain area and the Bashang area of Hebei, involving more than 120 high-altitude cities and counties across more than ten provinces and municipalities.
⟦NL> “For example, in remote mountainous areas such as Bijie in Guizhou, Taibai in Shaanxi and Guyuan in Ningxia, these areas are both concentrated contiguous areas of particular difficulty in China and old revolutionary base areas. Scientifically advancing the development of highland vegetable industries in these areas is of great significance to local poverty alleviation work.” said Qian Keming.
Guyuan City in Ningxia was rated as “China's Home of Cool-Climate Vegetables” in July this year. The total cool-climate vegetable planting area has reached 587,000 mu, all of which has passed pollution-free agricultural product origin certification, with an annual total output of 2 million tons, of which 70% is sold to some large and medium-sized cities in China and to Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
In Yaomo Village, Pengbao Town, Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, the Ruifeng Vegetable Production and Marketing Farmers' Professional Cooperative is one of the forces in the high-mountain vegetable growing army. Cooperative president Yao Xuan said: “There are more than 240 households in the village growing high-mountain cool-climate vegetables, and my cooperative alone has 154 member households. Our products are now sold as far as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai, and we also plan to further expand our scale and enter the Hong Kong, China market.”
Not only in Guyuan, Ningxia, in recent years many places in China have given active support to the development of highland cool-climate vegetables. According to Qian Keming, high-mountain vegetables organically combine “pollution-free” and “off-season” characteristics, with excellent quality and good market returns. At present, the national high-mountain vegetable sown area has grown to 22 million mu, with an output value exceeding 50 billion yuan, becoming a new path for mountainous residents to increase income and achieve prosperity.