In recent years, the city of Jinzhong in North China's Shanxi province has been working to forge a new high-quality development path for modern agriculture by building up the Jinzhong National Agricultural High-tech Industries Demonstration Zone.

Jinzhong cultivates and promotes new varieties via technological innovation. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

Prioritizing breeding breakthroughs, the demonstration zone has established a series of innovative platforms, such as a millet research institute and a quinoa research institute, and introduced a batch of high-tech agricultural enterprises like Syngenta and Longsheng.

As one of the demonstration zone's flagship projects, the Donghui-Syngenta Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Demonstration Park, focusing primarily on organic dryland farming, works to cultivate and promote new varieties, new technologies, new equipment, and new facilities, so as to form an integrated model for the development of modern agriculture.

Vegetable seedlings thrive in a grass greenhouse. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

Li Qingye, chairman of Shanxi Donghui Modern Agriculture Development Group Co, said that the park has so far established 8,093.71 hectares of planting bases in multiple locations in Shanxi and promoted over 20 new varieties of fruits and vegetables and more than 10 new technologies. "Next, we will focus on technological innovation, seed industry cultivation, and talent training to strengthen local agricultural development and increase farmers' incomes," Li added.

A rice-fish symbiotic experimental field. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

In recent years, Jinzhong has focused on developing its organic dryland agriculture, with the processing of agricultural and sideline products as its leading industry. It has centered its development on three major distinctive industries, namely organic coarse cereals, protected agriculture, and modern traditional Chinese medicine, to comprehensively promote the development of the Jinzhong National Agricultural High-tech Industries Demonstration Zone and the Taigu National Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Center.

In the demonstration zone and the innovation center, a total of 54 high-tech enterprises and 47 key engineering laboratories and engineering technology research centers at or above the provincial level have been introduced, and three major provincial laboratories for organic dryland farming have been put into use. 

Furthermore, a platform for the transfer and transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements has been built up, and more than 1,000 new technologies and models of organic dryland farming have been promoted across the province.