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Industrialized agriculture and superior crop cultivation in China:

Advanced methods of crop cultivation

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.

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