Alfalfa crop brings prosperity to Tumd Left Banner
A tractor gets busy as alfalfa crop is harvested at Taijiying village. [Photo provided to en.hhhtnews.com]
Tumd Left Banner – located in Hohhot, capital city of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – has extensively implemented its rural vitalization strategy and has started to intensively cultivate alfalfa, in an initiative that takes advantage of ideal local conditions for the crop.
Alfalfa is a plant that is high in vitamins and minerals. People commonly eat it as a sprouted green or use it as a garnish. It is also most commonly grown as food for livestock.
This year, a total of 3,200 mu (213 hectares) of alfalfa grass was planted in the Chilechuan Ecological Green Corridor and the annual output per mu there is expected to reach about 1.2 metric tons.
Unlike other cash crops, alfalfa can be harvested four times a year.
In recent years, Tumd Left Banner has actively developed a green agricultural and livestock product processing industry cluster led by grass seeds industry and has planted 21,900 mu of alfalfa in the entire banner. It is expected that the output of high-quality alfalfa will reach 15,300 tons this year.
There are 63 dairy farms in Tumd Left Banner stocked with 137,000 cows, producing 1,639 tons of milk per day and there are five dairy farms with a herd of more than 10,000 cows.
Since the start of the year, the banner has continued to strengthen the construction of high-quality milk source processing bases and invested 664 million yuan ($92 million) to build the Shaerying No 2, 3 and 4 pasture projects.