A vegetable is one of the important agricultural industries in Gulang County and Dingxi City. It has played an important role in improving farmers' income and Rural Revitalization. We and the local agricultural bureaus work together to carry out the following activities to promote the development of the vegetable industry, benefiting many smallholders and increasing their incomes.
Vegetable production technology training: in order to improve the planting technology of vegetable growers, technical training was provided for the growers and technicians in Dingxi and Gulang. The content of technical training includes vegetable cultivation, pest control, and water and fertilizer management. The forms of training include indoor training and field on-site training. More than 5900 people have received training so far.
Support for technicians in the vegetable sector: We support the development of agricultural technicians (progressive farmers) in the resettlement area of Gulang County. They are responsible for the technical services in Xijing Town, Gancheng Town, Hengliang Township, and Xinbao Township, and focus on the demonstration of standardized cultivation technology, assessment, and prevention of diseases and pests, early warning of disastrous weather, farmers' scientific and technological training organization, etc. These technicians supported more than 2000 farmers in the resettlement area to grow vegetables. This is the so-called ‘Train the trainer’ approach. In addition, we also invited technicians from the government vegetable station to visit Shouguan Vegetables Expo and other advanced vegetable growers elsewhere, where exchange with a more advanced vegetable farming system was facilitated.
Support the introduction of new vegetable varieties - Based on local requests, we introduced over 30 new vegetable varieties for field trials, in both open fields and greenhouses, and provided technical training for farmers. New vegetable varieties such as tomato, pepper, cucumber, spinach, cauliflower, and recently mini pumpkin were introduced. Farmers were encouraged to participate in the field trials, and they were also invited to see the results of other field trials. This helps to screen out high-yield and high-quality vegetable varieties for growers and potentially increase their income. In addition, we support the development and professionalization of the local seedling enterprise, so that vegetable farmers can have access to high-quality seedlings.
Market linkages - We put great emphasis on good market links for our targeted farmers. We organized for the heads of our supported agriculture cooperatives to visit wholesale markets in major cities to extend the sales channel. We also helped them to establish a booth at the national vegetable exhibition.
