China’s central Hunan Province is one of the country’s biggest agricultural production hubs. A town called Chunhua has been used for pilot projects since the 1950s. In recent years, the town has used high-tech methods to develop the local agricultural industry. Cao Chufeng is there with more.
This is a Comprehensive Pilot Demonstration Zone located at Chunhua Town, which covers an area of 200,000 square meters. By improving the quality of cultivated land, seeds and planting methods, it hopes to improve product quality and yield per unit. And the results so far have been pretty good. The yield of summer rice this year has been more than 620 kg for per mu, nearly 180 kg higher than other regular rice fields in the same area. The zone uses various kinds of high-level technologies, including full coverage of eco-friendly pest control devices. ZHAO ZHENGHONG President, Hunan Province Rice Research Institute “This device uses both sex attractants and food attractants to kill insects. It’s environmentally friendly and kills more pests than the traditional ones, that only use sex attractants.” The demonstration zone is built as a model to be replicated in other areas. It currently uses full mechanized production, which local authorities say makes local farmers’ job a lot easier.
LUO AO Deputy Mayor, Chunhua Town “The mechanization of agriculture means that farmers can take care of fields more easily. In the past, a farmer could only plant a few mu of fields, but now we have some farmers who can take care of several hundred mu of fields by themselves.” And because of its great natural environment for agricultural production, and its long history in local agricultural industry, Chunhua has attracted almost 20 agricultural research companies and institutions. HE JIUCHUN Chairman, PEPPERA Seed Co., Ltd “We specialize in the breeding, production, promotion and sales of new vegetable varieties. Each year, we develop 6,000 new types of agricultural products, and only 5 or 6 of them enter the market.” CAO CHUFENG Chunhua Town, Hunan Province “This kind of pepper is called ‘Xiang shuanla.’ It’s super spicy, and normally not used for home cooking. And it is developed by this company.” Local officials say they hope to develop modernized agricultural industry, and to do that, they not only create demonstration zones and attract institutions, but also educate modern professional farmers, as they believe talented people are key to development. Cao Chufeng, CGTN, Chunhua Town.
Source: This news is originally published by cgtn