Carrots in Sifangtai District Help Farmers Get Rich

With clear autumn skies and abundant harvests, the season of bounty has arrived once again. Recently, a reporter visited the home of Nie Xiuchen, a villager from Sihe Village in Taibao Town, Sifangtai District, and saw Nie Xiuchen and his co-workers busy harvesting carrots, with the household bustling with activity. This is just a small snapshot of how villagers in Taibao Town have grown rich by planting carrots. Many farmers like Nie Xiuchen have prospered with government support, and carrots have become the "golden ingots" that help villagers get rich.

Nie Xiuchen, 47 years old this year, planted 101 mu of carrots on the advice of the Taibao Town government. He adopted mechanized sowing, manual weeding and thinning, and fluorescent lamps to control pests, with an estimated yield of 8,000 jin per mu, totaling 710,000 jin. Because carrots sold very well last year, and the town government helped find sales channels through multiple means, combined with Nie Xiuchen's demonstration, this further strengthened the villagers' confidence in planting carrots.

It is understood that in 1986, villagers of Sihe Village began introducing Japanese "Wucunshen" carrot seeds for trial planting. After the autumn harvest, they found that the harvested carrots differed from those of neighboring villages in appearance, taste and yield. Sihe Village's farmland itself has a thick black soil layer, and the humus soil is not sticky but has sandy soil characteristics. It sits on a coalfield, and the deep underground has been mined, damaging the original geological structure, creating a feature where the upper soil is well aerated. In addition, the region has large temperature differences and abundant rainfall, providing conditions for growing high-quality carrots, and the unique black oily sandy soil is of good quality and does not waterlog. The carrots produced in Sihe Village have a smooth and neat appearance, deep red color, straight and forkless shape, and a sweet and crisp taste. From then on, Sihe carrots became famous, and almost every household in Sihe Village grew carrots, expanding from the initial small area to large-scale, wide-ranging cultivation, selling as far as Jiamusi and other areas. In 1989, Sihe carrots were listed in the Sifangtai District Directory of Famous, Excellent and Local Specialty Products.

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, persisting 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 "going it alone, fighting solo" 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 carrot direct supply base, and a long-term carrot supply agreement was signed. Sihe Haotian black soil carrots meet the standards for pollution-free vegetables: more than 3 liang and less than 1 jin, with no rot, no green tops, no soil, no cracks and no forks. On October 13, 2015, the first batch of 37.2 tons of carrots was sold to the Pinghu Vegetable Market in Shenzhen, winning recognition from 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 a profit 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 procedures such as washing, fine sorting and bagging.

At present, a 1,500 sq m product fresh-keeping warehouse and a 200 sq m controlled cold storage are under construction, and active help is being provided to Haotian Vegetable Cooperative to complete the "Green Label" certification work within the year.

"Looking back now, choosing to plant carrots at that time was the right decision. If we hadn't planted carrots, I really don't know what life would have been like." The path of branding, scientific planting, sustainable management... carrot cultivation has brought farmers generous returns. Looking at the carrots waiting to be harvested in the field, grower Zhang Youbo was overjoyed.

"Our area has ample sunlight, vast farmland, and rich wind and water resources. At the same time, Taibao Town is located on cold-region black soil, with large temperature differences between day and night, bringing 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 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 cluster of Shuangyashan City's green and organic planting industry plan, with the core area used to expand the carrot planting area, and it has been listed as the city's base for exporting high-quality vegetables, 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.