Survey Report on Accelerating Development of Modern Vegetable Industry in Zibo City, Shandong Province

Dongwen SUN, Bo GENG, Fuling KONG, Haijuan ZHANG

Zibo City Vegetable Office, Zibo 255036, China

Abstract At present, Zibo is in the critical stage of rural revitalization. In order to accelerate the development of modern vegetable industry and promote rural revitalization, Zibo City Vegetable Office organized special personnel to carry out this survey. This survey report comprehensively analyzed the current development situation of vegetable industry in Zibo City: the industrial structure has been constantly optimized, the standardization has made new breakthroughs, the project implementation has achieved remarkable results, and the technological level has realized constant improvement. It found out the problems that restrict the development of modern vegetables in Zibo City: small-scale scattered planting accounts for a large proportion, vegetable output rate is not high, product quality supervision is difficult, and some vegetable farmers are low in technological quality. In view of the current situation and existing problems of vegetable development in Zibo City, it came up with recommendations for accelerating the development of modern vegetable industry, including driving through project leading, to achieving innovative development, accelerating scientific and technological training and strengthening talent support, developing new organizations to promote industrial upgrading, strengthening quality supervision and improving vegetable quality, and industrial integration and development to expand and strengthen the vegetable industry.

Key words Zibo City, Modern vegetable, Survey report

1 Introduction

The vegetable industry is one of the four major agricultural pillar industries determined by the Zibo rural revitalization strategy. It is an important part of agricultural efficiency and farmers’ income, and it is also an important daily consumption industry for the majority of residents. In order to fully grasp the development of vegetable industry and take targeted countermeasures to accelerate the development of modern vegetable industry in Zibo City, Zibo City Vegetable Office organized key personnel from June 2019 to April 2020 to go deep into vegetable bases, leading enterprises, wholesale markets,etc. of the five districts and three counties in the city. It has surveyed, visited and inspected Weifang, Linyi, Dezhou and other regions. Based on the survey, it prepared this survey report.

2 Basic situations of the development of vegetable industry in Zibo City

In recent years, taking the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy as the overall guider, the transformation of new and old power as the lead, and the in-depth advancement of agricultural supply-side structural reforms as the main line, Zibo City Vegetable Office has insisted on promoting quality, green, and branded vegetables, constantly promoted the transformation and upgrading of the vegetable industry’s quality and efficiency, realizing stable and healthy development of vegetable industry of Zibo City. By the end of 2019, the vegetable planting area was 31 133 ha, with a total output of 2.097 million t and a total output value of 3.58 billion yuan. The vegetable industry of Zibo City has following characteristics.

2.1 Constant optimization of industrial structureMaking full use of the advantages of different regions and topography in the northern plains, central suburbs, southern mountainous areas, Zibo City constantly adjusts the vegetable planting structure according to local conditions, develops intensive, standardized, and large-scale vegetable production, and eliminates backward and scattered vegetable bases. Zibo City has basically formed three major vegetable belts with obvious advantages: (i) the 16 666 ha of facility vegetable production base in the northern plains mainly includes greenhouses, large arch sheds, medium and small arch sheds and other facilities to plant zucchini, tomato, sweet pepper, and cucumber; (ii) the 5 333 ha of fast-growing vegetable base in the central suburbs, mainly relying on open fields or arched sheds to plant leafy vegetables such as rape, Crowndaisy Chrysanthemum, spinach, and celery; (iii) the 8 000 ha of over-summer vegetables in the southern mountainous, mainly planting open-field radish, potato, cucumber, and chayote.

2.2 Constant improvement of scientific and technological levelZibo City has strengthened the promotion and application of science and technology in vegetables. Through field survey and inspection, it has hired well-known vegetable experts across the country to guide, test and demonstrate various measures, and promote more than 30 new vegetable varieties and 8-10 new vegetable technologies every year, organized more than 30 training courses at the city, district and county levels, more than 420 training courses in towns and villages, and trained more than 1 200 technical backbones, and 13 000 farmer technicians. At present, the contribution rate of science and technology to the vegetable industry in Zibo City has reached 70.7%.

2.3 Remarkable effects of project implementationIn the past three years, Zibo has won 26 national, provincial and municipal vegetable projects with a total of 69.5 million yuan. Among them, through striving for the support of Shandong Provincial Department of Agriculture, it helped and guided Linzi District, Zichuan District, and Gaoqing County to undertake the fruit and vegetable industry project of the provincial modern agricultural production development fund, and each project has a provincial support fund of 5 million yuan. The implementation of the project has greatly promoted the high-quality, high-efficiency and ecological development of vegetables in Zibo City, and promoted the scientific and technological progress of vegetables in the districts and counties where the project is located.

2.4 New breakthroughs in standardizationZibo City Vegetable Office has formulated 50 local standards for Zibo vegetables, and the standardization work is at the forefront of the whole country. It has formulated 5 local standards for vegetables in Shandong Province:TechnicalRegulationsfortheProductionofPollution-FreeFour-colorHotbedChives,TechnicalRegulationsfortheProductionofGreenFoodWaterCulturedBlanchedGarlicLeaves,TechnicalRegulationsfortheUseofVegetableLightinGreenhouses,TechnicalRegulationsfortheProductionofGreenFoodOpenFieldTomatoes,andTechnicalRegulationsfortheProductionofGreenFoodOpen-fieldZucchini. Zibo City has built 268 high-level vegetable parks, including 19 national level, 88 municipal level, and 162 district/county level. It is the first national, city, and district/county three-level standard park joint creation mechanism in Shandong Province.

3 Existing problems of modern vegetable industry in Zibo City

Under the overall planning and promotion of epidemic prevention and control and the new normal of vegetable development, the development of modern vegetable industry in Zibo City has entered a new stage. However, there are still many problems in the development of the vegetable industry, which restrict the further development of the vegetable industry.

3.1 Large proportion of small-scale scattered vegetable plantingLarge-scale, industrialized, and intensive development are the inevitable trends in the development of modern vegetable industry. Due to the lack of arable land (0.046 ha per capita) in Zibo, farmers’ sentimental attachment to the land has led to a widespread phenomenon of scattered vegetable cultivation among households. Approximately 31.7% of the vegetables in Zibo City are cultivated in a scattered manner, and the planting area of each household is less than 0.1 ha. The area of vegetables operated by leading enterprises and cooperatives is less than 20%. The traditional small-scale operation not only restricts the promotion and application of new vegetable varieties, new technologies and new materials, but also restricts the development of new models and high-quality vegetable industry.

3.2 Low yield rate of vegetableThe yield rate of vegetables in some areas of Zibo City is low. For example, in Zichuan District, the yield of greenhouse tomatoes is 141 750 kg/ha, and the income is 273 000 yuan/ha, which is significantly lower than the yield of 205 125 kg/ha in Linzi District, and the income is 426 000 yuan/ha. Open-field vegetables are affected by price fluctuations between the years, and the benefit is greatly affected. For example, in the case of low price years, the price of celery is only 0.6 kg/yuan, which is less than the production cost. Sales difficulties of vegetable occur in Zibo City every year, which affects the enthusiasm of vegetable farmers in production.

3.3 Low scientific and technological level of some vegetable farmersThe survey found that some vegetable farmers are low in technological quality and could not master some key technologies in the application of vegetable production, leading to technical errors in planting, and resulting in a reduction in planting efficiency and even losses. For example, a vegetable base in Wenchang Lake Resort and a vegetable base in Zhangdian District. Due to lack of technology, the vegetable of many vegetable farmers suffered weak vegetable growth and serious diseases. The annual output of a greenhouse is less than 15 000 yuan, after deducting various costs, they suffered great losses.

3.4 Great difficulty in supervision over product qualityThe existence of small-scale vegetable production and scattered planting in Zibo City has greatly increased the workload and difficulty of vegetable quality supervision. In addition to the fact that there are few employees in vegetable product quality supervision and insufficient supervision funds, a very small number of vegetable farmers have repeatedly used the prohibited pesticides. Due to the structural nature of the development of vegetable varieties in Zibo City, more than 70% of the city’s vegetables are sold to other areas, and more than 35% of the vegetables consumed in Zibo City are purchased from other areas. The large amount of input and output of vegetables has increased the number of quality supervision links and also increased supervision costs.

4 Recommendations for the development of modern vegetable industry in Zibo City

4.1 Project leading and driving, to promote innovative developmentIt is recommended to carefully study the support policies at all levels, plan projects, update and enrich the project reserve, and actively strive for the establishment of vegetable projects[1]. In the next five years, Zibo City will strive for more than 50 projects at the municipal level and above, and strive for more than 90 million yuan in financial support funds, including more than 5 large projects at the provincial level and above. Besides, it is required to do a good job in the project organization and implementation. It is necessary to organize and implement projects in strict accordance with the project requirements, and conduct the regular inspection and supervision, to ensure the project achieves the planed objectives. Zibo City should take the project as the carrier to orderly guide industrial and commercial capital and social capital to invest in the vegetable industry to realize a virtuous circle of vegetable input. In addition, it is recommended to make innovation of the input mechanisms, use the "two platforms" of rural property rights transfer transactions and mortgage financing to promote the successful experience of vegetable greenhouse mortgage loans in Linzi District, explore and promote rural contracted land management rights mortgage loans, solve the problem of difficult loan, continue to try and promote vegetable prices index insurance, natural disaster insurance, to stabilize the income of vegetable farmers.

4.2 Accelerating the scientific and technological training and strengthening talent supportThe key to the development of the vegetable industry depends on talents. "Talents thrive, agriculture will thrive; talents are strong, agriculture will become strong"[2]. (i) Actively cultivating rural talents. The large number of rural talents can solve the last one kilometer problem of agricultural technology promotion. For example, Li Meisheng from Nanwoshi Village, Huangcheng Town, Linzi District, and Pan Guoxiang from Hejia Village, Zhoucun District, are outstanding rural talents, experienced planting experts and technical instructors, and have played a positive role in guiding and driving the development of the surrounding areas. It is necessary to take the cultivation of rural talents as an important part of the development of the modern vegetable industry. According to the local reality, strengthen measures to solve the problems of the construction of new rural talents, give full play to the leading role of these people, and effectively promote the high-quality development of the vegetable industry. (ii) Cultivating high quality farmers. It is recommended to start from the actual situation in the rural areas, adopt methods such as field classrooms and on-site observations, and take advantage of the slack season or morning and evening to deliver training and technology to farmers. It is necessary to attach importance to the training of middle-aged and elderly farmers and left-behind women, give full play to their expertise, so that they have the ability and interest to invest in the development of the modern vegetable industry, and promote vegetable work to a new level.

4.3 Developing new type organizations and promoting the industrial upgrade(i) Actively building vegetable parks. It is recommended to guide some of the city’s surplus funds from real estate, chemical, and ceramic construction companies to invest in the vegetable industry, build high-tech vegetable parks, introduce advanced equipment in the parks, promote precision and automated operations, and realize intelligent production and digital management in remote monitoring and temperature and humidity control of the park’s vegetables, water and fertilizer management, pest control, quality traceability, product marketing,etc., truly build the vegetable standard park into a precision and intelligent high-tech demonstration park, and drive the technological progress of vegetables in the whole city. (ii) Relying on new business entities such as family farms, farmer cooperatives, leading enterprises,etc. It is recommended to work hard to implement technical regulations, improve production standards, optimize pest prevention and control, improve product quality, and promote the integration of production and sales to drive the transformation and upgrading of the vegetable industry.

4.4 Strengthening product supervision and improving vegetable qualityThrough three measures, it is recommended to do a good job in monitoring the quality of vegetables to ensure the food safety of consumers. (i) Through publicity and training, it is recommended to improve the quality and safety awareness of the majority of vegetable farmers and vegetable business operators, so that they can consciously abide by the various requirements of vegetable quality supervision and control taking consumers in their hearts. (ii) It is recommended to establish quality traceability system[3]. For example, it is recommended to implement a QR code system to include the origin of vegetables, growers, field management, business owners, and quality sampling inspections. Consumers can scan the QR code to know the information of the purchased vegetable products, so as to implement the whole-process quality control of vegetable products from the field to the dining table. (iii) Intensifying quality inspection and punishment. It is necessary to change the sample inspection to sampling inspection, increase the sampling density and frequency. All unqualified vegetable products should be destroyed, and heavy fines will be imposed, so that vegetable practitioners always have a sense of awe for the product quality.

4.5 Realizing integrated industrial development, and streng-thening modern vegetablesIt is recommended to expand the thinking and promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries of vegetables on the basis of high-quality, high-yield and high-efficiency vegetable cultivation. In the first place, develop the secondary industry of vegetable, extend the vegetable industry chain through vegetable storage preservation, fine packaging, and processing and value adding of vegetable industry. In the second place, energetically develop the tertiary industry of vegetable. For example, launch a series of activities such as vegetable tourism culture, strawberry, cucumber, tomato and other vegetable picking, vegetable planting experience, and teenager agricultural education practice to enrich people’s spiritual demand for vegetables. The integrated industrial development needs absorbing large amount of urban capital to invest in vegetable, and numerous urban talents to undertake vegetable industry, so as to realize high precision positioning, high starting point and high standard development of vegetable industry.