Industrialized agriculture and superior crop
cultivation in China:
Advanced methods of crop cultivation
Suharshi Perera in Shanghai
|
Cactus grown in the park. Pictures by
Suharshi Perera |
|
An
instructor examining flowers |
Agriculture, including export crop cultivation is a vital component
in our economy in terms of meeting domestic need and as a foreign
exchange earning avenue. Development of agricultural techniques and
agriculture research play a pivotal role in boosting production and
capturing foreign markets at a moment when Sri Lanka has embarked on a
massive State-initiated cultivation drive - Api wawamu Rata nagamu - in
the face of a looming global food crisis.
China, being one of the leading countries that place substantial
importance to develop agriculture, has yielded fruitful results by
developing industrialized agriculture based on research.
The Shanghai Sunqiao Modern Agriculture Development Zone is one such
effort dedicated to research and introducing advanced methods of crop
cultivation.
Countries like Sri Lanka that are based on agriculture can explore
new vistas and reap more benefits by closely studying the trends that
emerge in the field of agriculture research linked to industrialized
agriculture, prevalent in these countries.
The Shanghai Sunqiao Modern Agriculture Development Zone established
in 1994 serves as two bridges. One is to connect Chinese agriculture
with foreign advanced agriculture and the other to connect traditional
agriculture with modern agriculture.
The function of the Zone is six folds: seed and seedling production,
facility farming, agricultural product further processing, factory
farming, bio-tech production, sight-seeing and popularizing of science
and technology.
The ideas and innovations generated in the Zone combine modern
agriculture with bio-tech and widely used throughout China. The area
dedicated to mid and high quality flower and seedling production is
30,000sq meters.
The methodology developed in green houses in the Zone called the
Soil-less Culture is a remarkable solution to cultivate barren lands and
use limited land area for maximum utilization.
Soil-less culture introduced to China by Holland is a way of crop
culture with nutrient solution or with substrate and nutrient solution
instead of natural soil. Compared with traditional culture it has
certain advantages such as;
1. It can avoid negative phenomena in plant growth caused by pest and
disease usually occurred in repeatedly planting the same crop.
2. It can reduce soil-borne pests
3. It can meet more precisely the crops’ demand for water and
nutrients
4. It saves water and fertilizer
5. Increases crop yield
6. Saves space and can be used in a barren mountains.
The methodology has been used to grow three kinds of vegetables in
the greenhouse environment. They are tomato, cucumber and sweet pepper.
|
|
|
|
Wall garden- plants grown on walls using soil-less culture |
plants grown on the wall using soil-less culture |
Tomatoes
grown in the soil-less culture |
Pillar-shaped flower plants to save space |
These three types are successfully cultivated using the soil-less
culture and it has helped to control pest attacks that usually harm
these crops when grown in the traditional way, an instructor of the Zone
said.
Cucumber plants grow up to 14 meters under these conditions and it is
an organic cultivation. The output is around 30 kilos per square meter.
This method is successfully implemented all over China and the produce
is sold within the country and also exported to many countries including
Japan and South Korea. These are mainly exported as fresh vegetable,
processed agriculture products and vegetable and herbal extracts for
cosmetics.
This technology has been exported to Africa as well, the instructor
said. However, the technology cost is fairly high. It was nearly US$
300,000 when introduced in 1994.
This technology has been used to grow flowers throughout the year,
mainly for export. Flowers are grown in the pillar shape to save space.
This has provided an effective solution to grow in a limited space.
Certain plants can be grown within a very limited space and on the walls
as well. Those who live in a restricted land area and
flat-dwellers can make their home garden on their walls and the
balcony!
Herbs and cactus varieties have been grown in the conditions in the
Zone. However, it has been found that these herbs are not very effective
as the naturally grown herbs in terms of curing diseases.
Many varieties of fruit, flower and vegetables are grown using this
technology throughout China dismissing the term ‘seasonal’. They use the
produce for domestic consumption as well as export purposes. However,
the challenge of implementing this technology in countries like Sri
Lanka remains a challenge due to its astronomical costs. |