http://www.bjreview.com AUGUST 29, 2019 BEIJING REVIEW 33NATION
T
he life of Zeng Xiangji, a farmer in Minqin County, Gansu Province in northwest China, is closely
linked to Hong Kong although he has never been to the special administrative region (SAR)
in the south. In 2017, the 46-year-old started to sell vegetables to Hong Kong, including the
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“The sunshine hours in Gansu are long and the temperature varies dramatically from day to
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Guangdong Province. The trend of produce from the northwest winning over the Hong Kong mar-
ket started a decade ago, thanks to its melting-in-the-mouth taste.
In 2017, some villages in Minqin leased farmland to an agricultural cooperative to grow non-
local vegetables for the Hong Kong market. The resulting Suwu Modern Agriculture Park (SMAP),
sprawling over nearly 900 hectares, has already sold 33 million tons of vegetable to Hong Kong and
Macao, another SAR of China, as well as Guangdong.
Besides tasting better, the SMAP’s vegetables have another selling point. They are grown using
organic fertilizers and pesticides. Agricultural technicians from the Gansu Academy of Agricultural
Sciences are stationed in the park to assist the farmers, who get special training to grow chemical-
free vegetables.
Minqin is an arid place trapped between China’s third and fourth largest deserts. Water is scarce
and to protect the environment, the local government has rationed water for the park. So the farm-
ers are careful to use each drop wisely.
“We use mechanized sprayers and drip irrigation to save water,” Wang Xuemei, an official in
Yanglu Village, said. Yanglu is part of the SMAP. The irrigation systems cap water consumption,
spending 1,245-1,950 cubic meters per hectare less than the ceiling set by the local government.
According to Wang, every day, 36 tons of vegetables are packed, precooled and transported to
Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong by refrigerated trucks. “It takes only 48 hours for our vegetables
to reach Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong,” she said.
Today, more and more villages in the northwest have become Hong Kong’s “vegetable baskets”
though they are thousands of miles away. There are eight production bases like the SMAP in Gansu
alone.
Growing vegetables for Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong has become an effective way to
create jobs and help the locals shake off poverty. At the peak season, 500 farmers are employed in
the SMAP. Also, there are 120 greenhouses in the park that are managed by local farmers, who get
to keep 80 percent of the proceeds. The average earning is 28,000 yuan ($3,970) for seven months’
farming. After working in the park, Zeng’s annual income has doubled.
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etables and ask if the Hong Kong buyers like them or not,” he said. Q2- A farmer at work in the Suwu Modern Agriculture
Park (SMAP) in Minqin County, Gansu Province in
northwest China - The sprawling SMAP occupies nearly 900
hectares - The process of storing and precooling
vegetables starts prior to transporting them by
refrigerated trucks to Hong Kong and Macao
special administrative regions and Guangdong
Province in south China - Vegetables from the SMAP are snapped up by
buyers in Hong Kong
Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
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