After 5% of the artichoke's heart is scooped out, its utilization rate is higher
Original title: After 5% of the "heart" is hollowed out
--Changde West Dongting, Hunan, tackles the full utilization of the specialty crop artichoke
Artichoke (image from the internet)
The artichoke, also known as the "French lily." When it blooms, its spherical form, dandelion-like petals and brilliant purple color make it truly beautiful. In Europe and the United States, its flower buds are a precious vegetable hailed as the "king of vegetables."
Given the business opportunities this plant brings, in 2005 the export enterprise Huimei Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. introduced its cultivation to Changde West Dongting. Since then, the company's canned artichokes made from processed fresh flower buds have sold well in Europe and the United States.
Artichoke cultivation also greatly interested the West Dongting Management District Administrative Committee. Zou Rulong, Party secretary of the management district, told a reporter from Science and Technology Daily that the artichoke is one of the most profitable winter fallow crops in the Dongting Lake area. Local farmers grow it in winter fallow rice paddies and cotton fields, which neither affects the subsequent crop nor fails to make effective use of land resources. Contract-based planting and favorable purchase prices guarantee farmers' returns. "The net income per mu is at least 800 yuan or more. Artichoke cultivation is low in labor intensity and requires little labor, and it avoids the busy farming season, so farmers are highly motivated to grow it," Zou Rulong said. In this way, artichoke cultivation and industry were listed as key targets in the development of local specialty agricultural industries.
After several years of popularity, local artichoke cultivation hit a bottleneck in 2009. That year, "hollow stem wilt disease" caused large-scale reductions in artichoke yields. With the intervention of departments including the Changde Science and Technology Bureau of Hunan Province, Zhang Pingxi, vice president of the Changde Academy of Agricultural Sciences, served as a science and technology commissioner to tackle the plant disease that caused the large-scale yield reductions.
Besides "treating the disease," Zhang Pingxi both loved and lamented this plant. What he loved was the high nutritional value this plant is rich in, and the "benefits" it brought to local agriculture. What he lamented was that after 5% of the "heart" was "hollowed out," the remaining 95% was all wasted. "What a pity. As a specialty agricultural industry of West Dongting, it would be so good if it could be comprehensively utilized to the greatest extent, especially through deep processing, so that the 95% could create the most considerable economic value. Moreover, the Chinese people should be able to afford and have access to this delicious, highly nutritious plant," Zhang Pingxi thought.
This idea "clicked immediately" with the Changde Science and Technology Bureau and the West Dongting Management District. With collaborative efforts by units including the Changde Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the West Dongting Management District, China Agricultural University, Hunan Agricultural University and Hunan University of Arts and Science, they not only effectively controlled the major diseases affecting artichoke growth through comprehensive prevention and control measures, but also continued to carry out research across the entire artichoke industry chain before, during and after production, including seedlings, cultivation techniques and new product development.
At present, West Dongting's artichoke industry, whether in development and utilization research or cultivation techniques, has become the "leader" nationwide. After years of planting exploration, West Dongting has become the country's largest artichoke planting base, seedling cultivation base and deep processing base. Over 10 years, more than 100,000 mu of artichokes have been planted cumulatively, achieving total agricultural output value of 500 million yuan and industrial and agricultural profits and taxes of 150 million yuan.
On April 26, at the Artichoke Biotechnology Summit Forum, the West Dongting Management District released nine new varieties from the past year, including nine new deep-processed products such as artichoke tea, beverages, effervescent tablets and cynarin instant powder. They even developed artichoke spicy pickles suited to Hunan people's tastes, refreshing, fresh, spicy and delicious.
"We have been conducting comprehensive research. We have successfully produced tissue-cultured seedlings in the laboratory and are conducting small-area trial planting. After factory-scale tissue-cultured seedling production, tissue culture costs can be greatly reduced. Seed production research has also been underway for more than four years. However, because seed production technology still needs to be strengthened, the germination success rate of the seeds produced so far is still very low. More scientific and technological support is still needed," Zhang Pingxi said.
Through the efforts of Zhang Pingxi's team, the average yield per mu for local farmers has now increased to 500-600 kg. In high-yield demonstration areas, the yield has exceeded 1,000 kg. "The current international average level of artichoke cultivation is around 1,000 kg. Popular science on farmers' cultivation techniques still needs to be further strengthened and improved." Zhang Pingxi's team drafted the country's first artichoke cultivation technical operation process and carefully compiled "High-Yield Artichoke Cultivation Techniques" to help local growers improve their cultivation techniques.
It is reported that the Changde Science and Technology Bureau has supported the project for six consecutive years, and the Hunan Provincial Department of Science and Technology has also provided support for the rural specialty industry demonstration base. "We have cooperated with Hunan Agricultural University for many years on artichoke plant extraction and research and development. Last year, we began cooperating with the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on human live stem cell experiments, and with Hunan University of Arts and Science on white mouse tests of artichoke extract for liver protection and liver nourishment," said Xiao Li'an, chairman of the enterprise. (Science and Technology Daily, Changsha, May 2 -- Reporter Yu Huiyou, Correspondents Liu Huan, Quan Bicheng)