Day: October 25, 2022

SHANGHAI, Oct. 24, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/– More than 30 percent of the total area of Chongming is covered by forest. The 36,000 hectares of forests on the island district account for nearly one-third of Shanghai’s total.

That high forest coverage plays an important role in air purification, water conservation and climate regulation. Agricultural products grown in forests can also reduce the adverse effects of wind, drought, diseases and pests.

The forest ecosystem comprises many animals, plants and other organisms, which has a high economic value if reasonably developed, giving rise to “forest economics”.

The Shanghai Conghui Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative plants matsutake mushrooms in the forest in Xincun Town. The mushrooms are grown with local rice straw as the substrate and organic fertilizer is applied. Yang Ji, head of the cooperative has calculated that the output of the fungi planted in the forest is almost the same as that planted in the field, but it can greatly reduce costs and save land resources.

Chongming is also exploring planting Chinese herbs such as dendrobium and some shade-loving flowers and plants in forests.

Agricultural products

While it is widely believed that high forest coverage can help improve the quality of local agricultural products, few may know that tall fruit trees such as orange and pear trees are also forest resources. Chongming fruit forests have both ecological and economic value.

Gu Chao, head of Chongming Luhua Agricultural Trade Co, said that the sales price of locally produced Cuiguan pears has surged more than 30 percent this year, and the brand-name pear was sold out as early as before the end of July.

Gu believes that the popularity of Chongming pear lies in its superior quality. In addition to the ecological planting and natural maturity that Chongming always insists upon the island’s environment is also suitable for the growth of pear trees.

“Pear trees grow well and have fewer pests and diseases,” Luo Jun, a research fellow with the Forestry and Fruit Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, pointed out.

Luo added that Cuiguan pear was selected as the main variety of pear to be grown in Chongming because it was found through research that the soil pH, groundwater level and climate conditions in Chongming were particularly suitable for its growth.

The forest coverage in Chongming has increased together with the money in Chongming people’s pockets. This is a kind of wisdom.

Source: Information Office of Shanghai Chongming District People’s Government

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SHANGHAI, Oct. 24, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/– Good air quality has a huge impact on the output and quality of agricultural products. This was amply proved by American research, which showed that the improvement in air quality in the United States from 1999 to 2019 was one of the main reasons for the increase in corn and soybean production..

The researchers collected data on ozone, suspended particulates, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide content provided by air quality monitoring stations and satellite telemetry stations in nine American states, as well as crop yield data in various regions for comparative analysis.

The results showed that the above four air pollutants would reduce the yield of corn and soybeans. As coal-fired power plants are one of the main sources of air pollution, the research team also found that farms farther away from such power plants saw increased crop yield.

The researchers said that toxic gases in the air, such as sulfur dioxide, ozone and nitrogen oxides, can enter the leaves through the open stomata on their surface, thus affecting photosynthesis efficiency and damaging leaf tissue, leading to yellowing, whitening and withering of the leaves.

Some pollutants (such as heavy metals ) will naturally settle or invade the soil through rain. At this time, the ability of roots to absorb nutrients will be disturbed, thus hindering the growth of plants.

In this regard, the excellence of air quality on Chongming Island increased from 80.5 percent in 2017 to 92.8 percent in 2021, and the concentration of fine particulate matter PM2.5 decreased by 31.6 percent during the same period.

The concentration of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide continued to decrease, reaching the national first-class standard. Chongming’s overall air quality is one of the best among Shanghai’s 16 districts.

Farmers who plant crispy taros in Luhu Village are proud of their better quality product compared to neighboring provinces. The 10 hectares of honey pear planted in Xinhe Town also require a high growth environment, and only in Chongming can they grow well, according to local farmers.

Huang Guochao, who plants rice in Miaozhen Town and initiated the “rice-fish symbiosis” project, said, “We don’t use pesticides to enhance rice growth because the soil is good, the water is good, and the air is good.”

Although there is no direct research data, the positive impact of good air on agricultural products has been unanimously recognized by Chongming farmers.

Source: Information Office of Shanghai Chongming District People’s Government

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SHANGHAI, Oct. 24, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/– For the highest quality produce, from restaurants to kitchen tables, green, organic, and fresh are the standard. The concept of “green” guarantees a certain quality of agricultural product, while flavor adds to the market value. In this regard, Chongming produce has a clear advantage as high-quality soil leads to high-quality crops.

Chongming’s soil contains much less cadmium, mercury, arsenic, lead, chromium, copper, nickel and zinc. It’s in line with the standard of the Ministry of Agriculture, with over 70 percent of Chongming’s farmland using high-quality or above average soil.

Chongming is also the largest estuarine alluvial island in the world, with the land saturated with sediment carried by the Yangtze River. With less alkaline and sandy soil and rich in nutrients, the soil on Chongming Island provides fertile ground for the growth of rhizome plants such as yams, sweet potatoes and taros.

Chongming crispy taro has been cultivated for over 400 years and has already become a national well-known product.

In Luhu Village, half of the farmers grow crispy taro, a top-seller among downtown buyers. Gu Junjie, Party chief of the village, said that Chongming’s crispy taro is highly recognizable both in appearance and taste.

“Someone tried to plant crispy taro in nearby Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, but the flavor was clearly different. That’s because of our environment, land and planting methods, among other things,” Gu said.

Dr. Du Hongmei, a research fellow at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been paying close attention to Chongming crispy taro. Through various measurements, he found that the amylopectin content and other flavor substances in Chongming crispy taro is indeed higher than those from other plantation regions.

Besides crispy taro, white lentil, golden melon and rice are all Chongming’s characteristic agricultural products. In recent years, Chongming has accelerated the development of seed sources, thus promoting the commercialization, scale and industrialization of these agricultural products.

In addition to natural advantages, Chongming farmers are good at “cultivating soil”. The Shanghai Yingyu Fruit and Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Xinhe Town mainly grows honey pears. The cooperative has insisted on using only organic fertilizers for many years. Shi Liping, head of the cooperative, said the use of chemical fertilizers would not guarantee the quality of the pears, and would also make the soil hard. Shi’s cooperative uses soybean as organic fertilizer,

and prepares the land by growing grass. They then cut the grass with a mower and leave the clippings in rows. As the dead grass rot, it in turn nourishes the soil.

So far, Chongming has formulated stringent access standards for the inputs in agriculture to ensure the safety and sustainable use of farmland. It has established a green food chain mechanism and eliminated the circulation of unqualified agricultural material from the source.

It has also carried out agricultural pollution control, increased the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure, accelerated the resource utilization of agricultural production waste and orderly implemented soil remediation.

Source: Information Office of Shanghai Chongming District People’s Government

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NANNING, China, Oct. 25, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/– Recently, the 10th Forum on China-ASEAN Technology Transfer and Collaborative Innovation, an important high-level forum under the framework of China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO), has been held in Nanning, Guangxi. Coinciding with the inaugural year of China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership, the event announces the launch of a special action for technology transfer between China and the ASEAN, involving 1,000 advanced and applicable technologies in sustainable fields selected nationwide and uniformly introduced to ASEAN nations. China-ASEAN Technology Transfer Alliance – the first cooperation mechanism of technology transfer for ASEAN in China – is officially established, which will join hands with China’s provincial and municipal innovation institutions with strong scientific and technological innovation capabilities and pooled resources to more effectively meet the innovation needs of ASEAN nations. The opening ceremony of China-ASEAN Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition & China-ASEAN Innovation and Entrepreneurship Camp is unveiled at the same time, striving to make the Competition the most influential and the most participated with the highest project quality among other ASEAN innovation and entrepreneurship contests as well as an open platform for resources sharing, value enhancement and strength demonstration.

Over the last few years, Guangxi has given full play to its role as an important gateway for China’s opening up and cooperation with ASEAN members, including, for instance, always taking ASEAN as the priority direction of overseas science and technology collaboration, positively building an ASEAN-oriented science and technology innovation and cooperation zone, and thoroughly implementing the China-ASEAN Science and Technology Partnership Program and the “Belt and Road” Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan.

The province has carried out fruitful exchange and collaboration activities with the member countries of ASEAN countries in manifold fields, such as exchanges of science and technology and humanity, co-construction of laboratories and science and technology parks, technology transfer, and innovation and entrepreneurship.

Guangxi has currently set up bilateral governmental technology transfer mechanisms with nine ASEAN countries (including Thailand and Cambodia), formed joint working groups on technology transfer with seven ASEAN members, and built a China-ASEAN technology transfer collaboration network of over 2,600 members, covering 10 ASEAN nations and some “Belt and Road” countries, according to Department of Science and Technology of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

In the meantime, with the support of the China-ASEAN Technology Transfer Center and the Forum on China-ASEAN Technology Transfer and Collaborative Innovation, Guangxi has kept the “ASEAN Talented Young Scientists Guangxi Program” running and attracted a group of scientists and technicians from ASEAN member countries. For example, BGI builds a “Huo Yan” laboratory for Brunei to carry out nucleic acid tests; China-ASEAN Information Harbor becomes Indonesia’s smart city solution partner. Both exemplify the profound and extensive collaboration on science and technology between China and ASEAN.

As of May 2022, Guangxi has organized more than 140 science and technology innovation and technology transfer activities for ASEAN at home and abroad, nearly one-third of which were held in ASEAN nations, covering more than 7,800 projects, serving over 9,900 enterprises, and helping enter into 653 cooperation agreements, which has promoted the application of modern agriculture and other advanced and applicable technology achievements in the member states of ASEAN.

Source: Department of Science and Technology of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

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NANNING, China, Oct. 25, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/– Recently, the Guangxi-ASEAN Fudi battery project with a total investment of  about RMB 8 billion was officially launched in the Guangxi-ASEAN Economic and Technological Development Zone, which is expected to generate an output value of over RMB 10 billion a year and create about 9,000 jobs after the production scale reaches the design capacity. Located in the pivotal development region, north of Nanning, the Guangxi-ASEAN Economic and Technological Development Zone (“Zone”), featuring convenient transportation, beautiful environment, agglomerated industries, pooled human resources, etc., is now speeding up the transformation from a unitary production-oriented park economy to a new area of industry-city integration.

According to Zuo Wei, Party Working Committee Secretary and Director of Guangxi-ASEAN Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, the Zone will be divided into “one belt and four plots” based on three leading industries, namely, a manufacturing industry belt, a Nanning Education Park (west part), a modern agriculture demonstration area, an eco-tourism area, and a high-speed railway north business area. The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are shoulder-to-shoulder equals that will continue to work on industry-city integration to vigorously spur the development of the Zone with high quality.

From the beginning of 2022, the Zone has taken the introduction of competitive and lucrative projects and businesses as the core of developing the industrial chain and the focus of bringing in investment and talent worldwide. In the first half of the year, nine industrial projects with a total investment of over RMB 50 million, 18 projects started, five projects in production, 22 headquarters companies and 32 high and new tech enterprises introduced, and 553 new market entities added in the Zone.

After years of development, the Zone has gradually formed three leading industrial patterns of green food, new materials and advanced equipment manufacturing, gathering the Fortune Global 500 and China’s top 500 enterprises such as Budweiser, COFCO Group, Shuanghui, Cargill, BYD, and Pearl River, as well as Chinese famous brand enterprises like Li-Ning and Toly Bread. At present, among the 4,698 companies settled in the Zone, there are more than 550 industrial companies, 147 industrial businesses above the scale, and 37 enterprises that achieved an output value of over RMB 100 million in 2021; as of August this year, there are 48 above-the-scale food processing and related companies, realizing an output value of RMB 5.091 billion, accounting for 51.4% of the total production value of industrial enterprises above designated size.

To stimulate the innovation vitality of enterprises, the Zone will give more long-term support for scientific and technological innovation to accelerate the convergence of multifarious innovation elements in businesses. The Zone lays out the innovation chain around the industrial chain to expedite the cultivation of new driving forces for industrial transformation and upgrading:

relying on more than 100 specialty food companies to promote the integrated development of the specialty food processing industry chain and innovation chain, creating four municipal-level and above R&D platforms in total, approving six food high-tech firms, three smart factory demonstration companies of Guangxi, and one digital workshop of the province; at the same time pushing on the “industry-college-institute cooperation” after the Nanning Education Park is built, and exploring the local innovation and entrepreneurship of the students who graduated from colleges and universities through the construction of a “business startups and innovation street”, in hopes of creating a good ecology for training innovation-minded personnel and building a talent pool.

Source: Guangxi-ASEAN Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee