Wang Yonghong, the district mayor of Suzhou District, Jiuquan City, Gansu (China) recently gave an interview comparing traditional open-field agriculture with the way things are done in Gobi. "Ecological agriculture presents advantages such as land-saving, water-saving, and labor-saving."
Suzhou District has continued to promote area expansion and upgrades of Gobi ecological agriculture. The district continues to develop and expand new varieties, forming three categories of vegetables, edible fungi, and fruits, more than 120 planting varieties, with full traceability of the production, acquisition, storage, and transportation of Gobi agricultural products.
At present, the local area has successively certified 44 non-pollution agricultural products, 10 green foods, 1 geographical indication agricultural product, and 21 registered brands.
The development of Gobi agriculture not only meets the local supply-demand of "vegetable baskets" throughout the year, but also solves the problem of relying on the "old three" (potato, cabbage, white radish) for winter. It also effectively brings down the price of vegetables and improves the economic benefits of agricultural water use. It has opened up a new way for social capital to enter agriculture and farmers to do something for increasing income while in the "winter off-peak" season.
"We need to expand to Central and Western Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, to open up foreign markets, and increase the added value of products", Wang Yonghong said, adding that there are still relatively insufficient investments in the development of Gobi agriculture in Suzhou, and the system needs to be further improved.
Source: www.chinanews.com