Agricultural Innovation Drives Prosperity: Huan County's Path to Modern Farming Excellence
As autumn arrives with clear skies and abundant harvests, Huan County's rural landscape transforms from summer's deep green to brilliant golden hues, radiating the joy of harvest season. In Gengjia Valley Village of Huancheng Town, experimental fields showcase vast stretches of oat grass swaying in the breeze; within the intelligent greenhouses of Guanying Village in Mubo Town, fruits and vegetables glisten with freshness; and at the edible mushroom cultivation base in Chedao Town, mushroom logs burst with plump fungi, signaling another prosperous year.
From transforming "winter idle fields" into "income-generating lands" to deeply embedding smart agriculture, Huan County employs technology as its brush and innovation as its ink, continuously strengthening food security foundations and cultivating distinctive industries while steadily advancing on the path of high-quality agricultural development.
**Technology as the "Golden Key" Opens New Revenue Streams in Fertile Fields**
"Previously, land would remain idle after autumn harvest, but now we plant oat grass, bringing another income stream by year-end!" exclaimed farmers in Gengjia Valley Village, Huancheng Town, observing their thriving oat grass.
This year, Huan County implemented a planting project centered on "technology-driven experimental replanting demonstration leadership" in the village. Through precise control of sowing density and soil fertility, utilizing oat grass's short growth cycle characteristics, the project skillfully bridges the gap between wheat and corn harvest and sowing periods, revitalizing previously idle autumn and winter lands.
Currently, the experimental field's oat grass has entered its critical growth phase, not only providing replicable planting models for surrounding farmers but also supplying quality forage for local livestock industries, successfully expanding income channels.
Today, new productive forces are becoming the core driving force for high-quality agricultural development. Huan County uses technology as its engine, deeply integrating facility agriculture with modern technology to construct a new agricultural production system characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality. This approach not only promotes steady increases in vegetable and fruit production and continuous quality optimization but also drives farmer income growth, significantly enhancing agricultural quality and efficiency while unleashing tremendous development potential.
With greenhouses maintaining year-round greenery and continuous vegetable and fruit production, seasonal produce is available throughout the year.
At the modern agricultural demonstration park in Guanying Village, Mubo Town, intelligent ecological vegetable greenhouses function like "smart sunrooms," quietly transforming traditional planting methods. These greenhouses feature "greenhouse drizzle" intelligent control systems, allowing farmers to remotely monitor and adjust key indicators such as temperature, humidity, and lighting through smartphones. This effectively reduces heat loss and achieves precise control of rolling shutters, temperature and humidity, and nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium elements, continuously providing ideal growing environments for crops.
This year, leveraging intelligent greenhouse technology, Huan County achieved year-round vegetable cultivation and off-season marketing. The county planted 102,000 acres of vegetables, producing 77,000 tons. The facility vegetable industry belt formed along National Highway 211 is becoming a new "oasis" that enriches people's "vegetable baskets" and fills farmers' "money bags."
**Grain Production as the "Ballast Stone" Builds Strong Security Foundations**
Grain production forms the foundation of Huan County's agricultural development. To ensure full "rice bowls," the county implemented the Helianwan Irrigation District's efficient water-saving irrigation project and the Tianshuibao Irrigation District's supporting construction and modernization transformation project, continuously optimizing cultivation conditions. The county promoted film mulching and double-ridge furrow sowing technology across 1.2 million acres annually, with grain crop planting area reaching 2.4021 million acres, establishing a solid foundation for stable and increased grain production.
In the fields of Zhaozhang Village, Tianshui Town, 3,100 acres of buckwheat are in full bloom, with red and white flowers adorning branches. Mountain breezes create gentle flower waves while bees buzz busily, attracting numerous beekeepers from afar. As a traditional crop in Huan County, buckwheat not only adapts well to local conditions but also possesses excellent economic and nutritional value, fostering the development of processing enterprises like Rongkang Grain and Oil, which focus on developing products such as buckwheat noodles and buckwheat hazelnut products.
"As a major grain-producing county, Huan County continues to increase agricultural technology investment while promoting soybean and corn yield improvements and demonstrating strip intercropping technology. We implement key measures like 'one spray, multiple promotions' to increase grain production, strengthen green prevention and control of crop diseases and pests, and comprehensively promote high-quality agricultural development," stated Zhang Zhiping, Party Group Member and Deputy Director of Huan County's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau.
Currently, with autumn grain harvest in sight, the fields overflow with confidence and anticipation. Under the guidance of "compensating small autumn losses with big autumn gains," Huan County has promptly adjusted planting structures and actively expanded replanting of drought-resistant crops with short growing periods. This year, the county's potato planting area reached 300,000 acres, with minor grains expanding to 340,000 acres, effectively stabilizing total grain production while ensuring farmer benefits.
In enhancing farmland quality and efficiency, Huan County adheres to the deep integration of "good fields, good methods, good technology, and good machinery," advancing high-standard farmland construction and grain production transformation and upgrading in an integrated manner. By establishing a full-cycle closed-loop management mechanism for "planning, construction, management, and utilization" and conducting regular "review" work, the county has effectively addressed prominent issues such as high-standard farmland being "built but not solid, built but not planted, built but not managed." Currently, the 2025 construction task of 220,000 acres of high-standard farmland has begun implementation, with preliminary design fully completed and projects progressing steadily according to plan, providing solid guarantees for firmly securing food security baseline.
**Distinctive "New Engine" Drives Industrial Integration toward Prosperity**
At the Sanyuan Bidirectional Edible Mushroom Cultivation Base in Chedao Town, 45 four-season mushroom cultivation greenhouses are neatly arranged, presenting a bustling production scene. The base has invested a cumulative 7.23 million yuan, deploying 420,000 mushroom logs this year, with expected fresh mushroom production of 700,000 pounds and total annual output value potentially exceeding 4 million yuan.
This represents not only output value improvement but also an important milestone in Huan County's edible mushroom industry moving toward scale and modernization. The base includes supporting construction of mushroom preservation facilities and drying workshops, integrating cultivation, drying, packaging, and sales functions, effectively reducing production costs, enhancing overall efficiency, and creating the Sanyuan Bidirectional Green Circular Agriculture Demonstration Base. This industry provides over 5,000 labor opportunities annually for locals, generating labor income exceeding 1 million yuan, bringing tangible benefits to local communities.
This represents merely one example of Huan County's distinctive agricultural development. In recent years, based on resource endowments, Huan County has used the "planting-breeding-mushroom" three-element bidirectional circulation model as its foundation, creating a "one primary, multiple secondary, diversified income" modern agricultural system, injecting new momentum into rural revitalization.
More remarkably, the base innovatively implements a "planting-breeding-mushroom-fertilizer" circulation model, purchasing large quantities of corn stalks, cattle and sheep manure, and other agricultural waste from surrounding farmers as raw materials. After mushroom production, the spent logs can be returned to fields as fertilizer. This model both addresses environmental pollution issues and achieves resource recycling, truly making agriculture "green."
Meanwhile, in Hudong Town, Hongde Town, and Xiaonan Valley Township, continuous traditional Chinese medicine plantations are thriving. "Traditional Chinese medicine has become the 'golden treasure' for increasing people's income. We focus on traditional Chinese medicine characteristic industry development, continuously optimizing industrial structure and promoting transformation from traditional crops to high-efficiency economic crops. The township has established a 30,000-acre standardized Bupleurum intercropping demonstration base," introduced Chang Shiren, Deputy Township Chief of Xiaonan Valley Township.
Viewing the entire county, a distinctive agricultural development pattern has emerged: focusing on Huancheng Town, Hudong Town, and Xiaonan Valley Township, 10,000-acre traditional Chinese medicine demonstration zones have been established; leveraging smart container mushroom factories, 146 mushroom production greenhouses have been built, driving coordinated development of six production bases including Wuliqiao Village and Guanying Village, forming a "one core leading, six locations coordinating" edible mushroom industry cluster. These industries are becoming Huan County's "new engines" for agricultural quality and efficiency improvement and farmer income growth.
"Huan County focuses on distinctive industries such as 'fruits, vegetables, medicine, grains, potatoes, and mushrooms,' adhering to the principle of 'adapting to local conditions and implementing differentiated policies.' Through reward-instead-of-subsidy and contract purchase methods, we precisely support distinctive industry development, making Huan County agriculture truly present a vibrant scene of 'a hundred flowers blooming,'" Zhang Zhiping stated.