home news forum careers events suppliers solutions markets expos directories catalogs resources advertise contacts
 
Market Page

Market data
Market data sources
All Africa Asia/Pacific Europe Latin America Middle East North America
  Topics
  Species
 

Inner Mongolia leverages vegetable development


China
July 28, 2014

According to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region’s “8337” development strategy, the region will develop itself into a green agricultural and animal products processing output base that offers a new opportunity for the local vegetable industry.

Greenhouses produce wealth

Vegetable greenhouses were built on top of each other in Shebiya village, Saihan district, Hohhot city, an area where villagers had relied on cattle breeding before 2007.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and kidney beans fill up the three greenhouses owned by Gao Xiuling, a local villager.

She goes to the greenhouses first thing in the morning every day, controlling fresh air input based on weather conditions, greenhouse humidity and vegetable growth period. Good weather calls for more fresh air, while cloudy days call for less. In this way the temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide concentration can reach an optimum level to reduce disease and increase output, according to Gao.

“It’s hard to keep a greenhouse, but the income is good,” said Gao. “I can rake in 20,000 yuan ($3,202) from each greenhouse every year.”

The village is now home to 1,000 vegetable greenhouses, nearly one for every villager. The vegetables are mainly supplied to Hohhot and have enjoyed brisk sales. Some local farmers also found business opportunities at the fruit-picking market. Zhao Zhongtang, a local villager, has four greenhouses, where he has started planting various vegetables since 2007. Last year, he began planting strawberries, nectarines, honey peaches and grapes, all for visitors to pick.

The price of 120 yuan per kilogram can’t stop his strawberries from being snapped up by eager visitors, according to Zhao. “My fruits are grown without fertilizer or pesticides, and are pollution-free. That’s why they’re popular,” said Zhao.

Wuchuan’s potatoes target foreign market

Wuchuan county in Hohhot has launched large-scale potato plantations in recent years, trying to find a larger market for its potatoes.

Last year, a specialized cooperative led by Zhang Chengzhong, a local villager, reaped a harvest of 4,000 tons of potatoes. Zhang himself planted a 300 mu (20 hectare) area of potatoes and raked in 400,000 yuan. He expanded the plantation area to 800 mu this year.

“Potatoes received a good harvest and price last year, and most of them were sold at my doorstep. Some went to supermarkets or starch processing companies. We never worried about the sales,” said Zhang.

When Inner Mongolia proposed to develop itself into a pollution-free agricultural and animal products processing base, Zhang began considering how to export those green products.

Zhang began to talk with supermarkets in Beijing and Shanghai five years ago to supply Wuchuan’s potatoes to these supermarkets. He made plans to sell them to the Middle East three years ago. However, agricultural products export requires many procedures, such as soil and irrigation water tests. Despite this, Zhang, a junior high school dropout, prepared 80 percent of the required materials on his own. At the moment, he is on the home stretch of sending his potatoes abroad. Zhang said that all the efforts were based on Inner Mongolia’s development strategy.

Zhang has achieved what past generations have failed to accomplish in only a few years, but he still aims for greater development. “We don’t have professional technicians, hardware and funds, and I hope I can find professionals to help me with export procedures. If not, we still have a very long way to go before we can get our potatoes abroad,” said Zhang.

Grafting makes for high output

Hohhot’s Qianbutaqi village is famous for its cucumbers, and many farmers are engaged in cucumber cultivation, with a plantation area approaching 1,000 mu.

One may find it surprising to see so many cucumbers growing on pumpkin roots, which is a grating technique developed by the Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences.

The academy introduced a new cucumber variety in 2013 to the village, and assigned Jia Linhui as a technical consultant for local plantation guidance.

Farmers fully experienced the grafting technique’s charm when they saw that the new cucumbers are superior in quality and output than previous varieties and generate more income.

“The grafting technique has produced significant results. It extends the picking period from three months to five and can increase annual output from 40,000 kilograms to 80,000 kilograms per mu,” said Jia.

In 2013, the central financial department helped promote 12 technologies on 18 agricultural products in Hohhot, Baotou, Erdos, Chifeng, Ulanqab and Bayannur.

The core demonstration areas reached 311 mu, increasing annual income by 2.56 million yuan. They helped build surrounding vegetable facilities measuring 30,000 mu, which are expected to increase annual output value by 125 million yuan.

Slack vegetable supply to be redressed

Zhao Laihe, a businessman at Dongwayao farm and sideline products wholesale market, has a firm grasp of vegetable price movement.

“Tomatoes are sometimes sold at 8 yuan per kilogram in winter and 0.8 yuan in summer. The high price keeps the public from buying tomatoes, while the cheap price puts farmers out of business,” said Zhao.

Fu Xiaojie, an official of the Inner Mongolia commercial crop workstation, is no stranger to such price swings. “The year-round vegetable demand was 5.93 million tons in Inner Mongolia in 2012, while supply hit 14.76 million tons, an amount that could have fully met demand and export,” said Fu. However, the greenhouse vegetables went on the market from April to December, with non-greenhouse fresh vegetables arriving from July to October. Vegetables were only cultivated on an area of 400,000 mu for the winter supply, creating a dilemma where Inner Mongolia needed to sell 6.8 million tons of vegetables outside while importing 2.62 million tons in slack seasons, according to Fu. “The seasonal contradiction in vegetable supply is becoming a major problem that harms the public and farmers.”

Therefore, Inner Mongolia invested 140 million yuan in 2012 to solve the problem, including 125 million yuan on greenhouse vegetables. The Ministry of Agriculture unveiled guidance on vegetable and food project implementation in 2013. It also urged the enhancement of winter supply in major cities and counties in Northeast,

North and Northwest China. Inner Mongolia plans to stabilize the vegetable plantation area at 6 million mu and output at 23 million tons, including 3 million mu for greenhouse vegetables and vegetable processing capacity reaching 4.3 million tons. It will focus on solving the winter supply problem.

Inner Mongolia will build a group of pollution-free, highly effective and standardized vegetable parks around Hohhot, Baotou, Erdos, Beijing and Tianjin to ensure supply, according to Jia Yuefeng, deputy director-general of Inner Mongolia’s Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Department.

Advantages of Inner Mongolia’s vegetable plantation

Inner Mongolia’s landform consists of mostly plateaus, with altitudes above 1,000 meters. It has a temperate zone continental monsoon climate, which gives rise to a cold ecological environment. Its area accounts for 70 percent of the total agricultural and animal husbandry production area. The cold environment helps grow high-quality and nutritious vegetables, and the high air volume and low humidity helps avoid the spread of pathogens and pests, making for pollution-free vegetables.

Wang Yong, director of the Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, said that the key is to solve a series of problems in vegetable production. Farmers should make a profit from planting vegetables, so the vegetable industry can enjoy healthy development, according to Wang. In addition, vegetable plantations should be large scale and based on market demand. Quality enterprises in seeds, mulching film, pesticide and fertilizer productions should be introduced to provide better service for vegetable production, said Wang.

Farmers have to grasp cutting-edge plantation technology so vegetable production can enjoy long-term development. Production should also be regulated by market, according to Wang.

“Inner Mongolia’s vegetables feature good quality, high nutrition and zero pollution. I think the idea of transforming the region into a pollution-free agricultural and animal products processing facility can greatly boost local vegetable production,” said Wang.



More news from: China, Ministry of Agriculture


Website: http://www.agri.gov.cn

Published: July 28, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Copyright @ 1992-2024 SeedQuest - All rights reserved