Sichuan rural daily, full-media journalist liu jia/text
In mid-february, as the tomato base around the capital was busy with planting plants, in miyi district, in the climbing area, tomatoes had reached the peak of the market, which would continue until the end of april. More recently, journalists followed specialists from the sichuan academy of agricultural sciences into the modern agricultural park and the fruit and vegetable shed in miyi county, where they saw tomatoes full of branches, farmers busy picking, three-wheeled cars travelling with large trucks, which constituted a hot harvest volume, vividly capturing the development of the country's largest tomato-growing district。
Journalists followed the experts into the tomato shed。
What's the matter with you
Milu, with abundant light and heat resources and appropriate temperature differentials, is the ideal area for tomato cultivation. According to the miyi county agricultural rural bureau, in recent years, the area under tomato cultivation has continued to expand throughout the county, reaching nearly 50,000 acres in 2024, yielding more than 300,000 tons and producing 1. 58 billion yuan yuan, not only in sichuan, but also throughout the country。
As the first county in which tomatoes are grown throughout the province, the variety of tomatoes is very rich: there are both the traditional big pinks, the big red nuts and the new millennium nuts, cherry tomatoes, etc. Among them, the pollen is very popular in the market with its large and inexpensive characteristics, while the millennium fruit is well known for its small and sweet taste, which, despite a slightly higher price, is still scarce. In addition, there are special varieties such as provence tomatoes, powdered beetle tomatoes and seven-coloured tomatoes, which are not only thin, sweet and sour, but also rich in natural vitamin c, tomato erythromatology and micronutrients, and of high nutritional value。
Mieto. Interviewee for map
Therefore, to “image” rice tomatoes, it is not a single red that can be covered, pink, yellow, green ... Should be all and all。
Is the "new" the better the tomato varieties
So how many varieties of rice tomatoes are there? What are the main varieties? According to the head of the rural rural bureau of miyi county, the number of varieties ranged between 30 and 40, with the dominant varieties covering the “high harvest of 189” “farm powder 708” in the powdered fruit system, and the “high harvest of 501” in the red fruit system, such as “sad 802”, and the variety of items such as cherry tomatoes。
Mieto. Interviewee for map
The abundance of varieties is the result of continuous advances in tomato selection techniques. “at present, tomato selection techniques are well developed, new varieties are emerging and tomatoes have become one of the fastest growing cash crops.” the chief expert of the specialized vegetable innovation team of the institute of horticulture of the sichuan agricultural college stated that “with project support, the sichuan agricultural college has introduced more than 100 models of tomato varieties in miyet”
The market-oriented introduction of new varieties to meet the needs of consumers in recent years, combined with strong government support and industry-driven diversification of the rice tomato industry, reflects the flourishing of the tomato industry and offers consumers more options。
However, does it mean that the more the tomato varieties are “new” the better the more the “unusual”? Yang has given the negative answer: tomato varieties are not the newer the better, and the benefits of new varieties depend on a number of factors, including market demand, production, quality, disease resistance and adaptability。
Specialists at the provincial agricultural school are surveying rice tomatoes。
There is also a concern about the blind pursuit of “new”: small-scale farmers have limited risk resistance, and blindly and wind-growing popular varieties can lead to oversupply and lower prices and economic losses. According to child treasurer, deputy secretary of the village run-down in the town of valley c, mie county, this year the tomato growers in the village generally described the market as “untouchable”: in some regions, more technically difficult and previously market-oriented powdered tomatoes are priced at slightly lower prices than red fruit tomatoes, which, although influenced by yunanan's attempts to market tomatoes during the same period, are important reasons for wind cultivation, neglect of technology and quality。
How is it wise to follow the new
How, then, should growers pursue “new”? Yang believed that the choice of suitable varieties should be based on local climatic conditions, soil conditions, planting habits and market demand, while at the same time ensuring that the selected new varieties were formally validated and promoted with stable genetic characteristics and good performance, and that they had secondary knowledge of associated planting techniques. In addition, before planting new varieties, markets should be fully investigated and risks assessed in order to develop sound planting plans and marketing strategies。
In recent years, milu has been carrying out an orderly campaign to promote the selection and demonstration of new varieties of tomatoes with the expertise of the agricultural institute of the province of ito. Li zhi, deputy director of the institute of horticulture at the provincial agricultural college, described the establishment of three expert laboratory sites in miyou, involving 10 experts in the fields of vegetables, rice, soil fertilizer and processing, including the selection of new varieties of tomatoes, comparative experiments, the introduction of screening tests for new varieties of tomatoes and rice, the optimization of tomato fertilization, precision seeding, mechanized transplantation and green pest control。
In terms of results, yang indicated that the provincial agro-horticulture institute had introduced, selected and tested a variety of high-quality varieties of tomatoes in milu, including a combination of the oral tomato series “returning childhood taste” and the “sakura 1” for fissure-proof fruit, which had been created through modern biological breeding techniques, such as molecular marking, genetic editing techniques, which had significantly reduced the number of years of breeding and increased the efficiency of breeding。
Demonstration of new varieties of tomatoes。
Technology-enabled and “new” tomato varieties have been accompanied by a growing consensus among rice tomato growers to achieve double quality and efficiency gains. In the case of the family farm in the town of salien, mie county, where the farmer liu xiaojong described the stock of tomato-dominated varieties as being updated every three to four years, the number of varieties of tomato is now as high as 13, of which the “tenyu 618” pollen dominates. To ensure that the benefits of the new varieties are maximized, she has worked with the sichuan provincial agricultural institute to build high-yield demonstration gardens, with a significant increase in the number of tomato nuts, a significant increase in the disease resistance and a rise in farm size from 80 acres a decade ago to 200 acres today。
“the quest for new varieties is accompanied by the upgrading of planting techniques and market orientation, so that the rapidly changing market environment can be neutral and undefeating.” in the future, the sichuan agricultural institute will further improve the quality and efficiency of rice tomatoes through the demonstration of varieties, technological empowerment and effective guidance to growers to raise their organizational level and eventually increase farm incomes and mutual enrichment
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