Guiyang makes progress in securing vegetable supply

In recent years, Guiyang has made notable advancements in enhancing its vegetable production and supply by improving land productivity and optimizing production structures.

The city has established two 100,000-mu (6,666.67 hectares) vegetable demonstration bases and developed 161 specialized vegetable-growing villages.

A stable vegetable supply not only ensures citizens have reliable access to vegetables, but also increases the incomes of farmers, noted a local official.

"The first season of cabbage has already been fully harvested, yielding 4,000 kilograms per mu. The second season is expected to yield around 2,500 kilograms per mu", said Du Maojin, head of a vegetable plantation in the city.

Du has planted 60 mu of cabbage and encouraged surrounding residents to cultivate over 1,000 mu of vegetables.

The strong performance can be largely attributed to the implementation of a raft of measures rolled out by authorities, including establishing a robust working mechanism to vigorously promote the "vegetable basket" campaign.

In 2024, the city plans to invest a total of 134 million yuan ($18.74 million) to upgrade "vegetable basket" production bases, maintaining stability in the city's 770,000 mu of vegetable bases and enhancing 160,000 mu of relatively concentrated, large-scale vegetable bases.

"In upgrading vegetable bases, local authorities are focusing on improving production facilities in 30,000 mu of high-standard vegetable bases", said Zhang Zhizhu, deputy director of the vegetable promotion station at the Guiyang agriculture and rural affairs bureau.

Zhang added that the city has replaced 1,330 mu of greenhouse top films, 1,000 mu of insect-proof nets, installed 9,110 mu of weed barriers, and set up seven integrated water and fertilizer systems and over 300 mu of sprinkling and drip irrigation equipment.

In the first half of the year, Guiyang had a vegetable planting area of 1.31 million mu which produced 1.62 million metric tons of vegetables, year-on-year increases of 1.08 percent and 2.72 percent, respectively.

The city aims to increase its vegetable planting area to 2.13 million mu with a production capacity of 3.48 million tons by the end of the year, according to authorities.