Taibao carrots become farmers' golden ingots for prosperity through scientific cultivation

Recently, visiting the home of Nie Xiuchen, a villager of Sihe Village in Taibao Town, Sifangtai District, we saw Nie Xiuchen and his workers busy harvesting carrots, with the home filled with a bustling scene. This year, 47-year-old Nie Xiuchen, on the advice of the Taibao Town government, planted 101 mu of carrots. He adopted mechanized sowing, manual weeding and thinning, and fluorescent lamps to control pests, with an estimated yield of 8,000 jin per mu and a total of 710,000 jin.

With clear autumn skies and abundant fruits, the harvest season has come around again. Recently, visiting the home of Nie Xiuchen, a villager of Sihe Village in Taibao Town, Sifangtai District, we saw Nie Xiuchen and his workers busy harvesting carrots, with the home filled with a bustling scene. And this is just a microcosm of the villagers of Taibao Town getting rich by growing carrots; many farmers like Nie Xiuchen have prospered with the government's support, and carrots have become the "golden ingots" that make villagers rich.

This year, 47-year-old Nie Xiuchen, on the advice of the Taibao Town government, planted 101 mu of carrots. He adopted mechanized sowing, manual weeding and thinning, and fluorescent lamps to control pests, with an estimated yield of 8,000 jin per mu and a total of 710,000 jin. Because last year's carrots sold very well, and the town government also helped contact sales channels in many ways, and because of Nie Xiuchen's demonstration, this further strengthened the villagers' confidence in growing carrots.

In recent years, Taibao Town in Sifangtai District, in accordance with the requirements of developing modern agriculture, has taken actively expanding carrot cultivation as an important measure to increase farmers' income and promote new rural construction, persevering in this effort and achieving remarkable results. Since 2000, the town, through policy guidance, has actively encouraged and supported the expansion of carrot planting area, successively introducing varieties such as "Dayu", "Huanong 237", and "Huanong 868" for selection and breeding, and has integrated the original "fighting alone, going it alone" style of planting and sales into a large-scale, standardized cooperative marketing model. In 2015, with the communication and help of the municipal Party committee and municipal government, Haotian Vegetable Cooperative was recognized by Shenzhen Nongmai Tianxia as a direct-supply base for carrots, and signed a long-term carrot supply agreement. Sihe Haotian black-soil carrots meet the standards for pollution-free vegetables: 3 liang or more and 1 jin or less, with no mold or rot, no green tops, no soil, no cracks, and no forking. On October 13, 2015, the first batch of 37.2 tons of carrots was sold to the Pinghu Vegetable Market in Shenzhen, winning the recognition of the general public.

This year, the carrot planting area of Haotian Vegetable Cooperative in Taibao Town reached 1,010 mu, with an estimated annual output of 10 million jin of carrots, achieving an output value of 7-8 million yuan, and profits of 3-4 million yuan. During the planting and sales period from April to November each year, 70 workers will be employed every day. At the same time, in order to actively promote the development of Haotian Vegetable Cooperative, the Party committee and government of Taibao Town used existing idle assets in the town to coordinate and help Haotian Vegetable Cooperative establish a 1,500 sq m rough processing workshop, thereby completing processes such as washing, fine sorting, and bagging.

"Now it seems that choosing to grow carrots at that time was the right decision. If we hadn't grown carrots, I really don't know what our lives would have been like." The path of branding, scientific cultivation, sustainable management... The cultivation of carrots has brought farmers generous returns. Looking at the carrots in the field waiting to be harvested, grower Zhang Youbo was overjoyed.

"Our area has abundant sunlight, a wide area of arable land, and rich wind and water resources. At the same time, Taibao Town is located on cold-region black soil, with a large temperature difference between day and night, which brings great favorable conditions for crop growth." Zhang Lichun, Party secretary of Taibao Town, said that on the basis of superior natural conditions, the Taibao Town government, through scientific guidance, has formed the development models of "government + cooperative organization + farmers + base" and "Party branch + enterprise + base". The development of Taibao carrots has received great attention from the municipal government. At present, the Sihe carrot planting area has been listed as the core area of the core gathering zone of Shuangyashan City's green and organic planting industry plan, with the core area used to expand the carrot planting area, and it has also been listed as a base for the city's high-quality vegetables for export, striving to use 3 to 5 years to develop downstream industries such as carrot beverage processing and dairy cow raising based on this planting base.