Guizhou sends specialists to aid rural farmers

A provincial specialist (R) investigates Luodian's vegetable plantation situation. [Photo/ddcpc.cn]

Southwest China's Guizhou province is well known for its high-quality agricultural products, which benefit from the province's policy of sending specialists to provide agricultural technology services for villages.

Since 2015, Guizhou has selected 5,000 specialists to meet the industrial development and technology needs of poverty alleviation in rural areas.

Luodian county in Qiannan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture has an ideal climate for early spring plowing. Compared with other areas that start planting in March or April, Luodian's vegetables can launch on the market in early March to earn more profits.

Affected by this year's cold weather, Luodian's spring plowing is estimated to be delayed by half a month, which will reduce the revenue for locals. A specialist offered a solution to the villagers to ensure that they can plant their vegetables on time: heat preservation.

Although the solution increases the cost per mu (1 mu = 0.07 hectare) by 500 yuan ($77.32), the plantation will still profit off the vegetables.

As one of Guizhou's rural revitalization demonstration villages, Luodian's Luohua village has promoted a high-efficiency vegetable production model that sees three harvests annually, improving land utilization and increasing economic benefits.

Wangmo county in Qianxi'nan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture shares a similar latitude and climate with Luodian. Specialists found that Wangmo is more suitable for mango farming than the county's traditional crop – corn.

In 2011, Wangmo started trial planting mango trees with the help of research teams and achieved great business revenues. Mangoes are now one of the county's pillar industries, and mango trees are planted in Wangmo's nine towns and townships.

In 2020, Wangmo added 50,500 mu of mango plantations, bringing the total plantation area to 105,600 mu and helping more than 10,000 families increase their incomes.