Farmers pick red raspberries. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Lyu Pinsheng, who is in charge of Ningxia Lvtian Fruit Industry Co Ltd, has turned raspberries, which used to have only a 30-day fruiting period, into a year-round fruiting crop.
He said that the growth process of raspberries here has been completely controlled through environmental factors such as light, temperature and humidity, ensuring that consumers can eat fresh raspberries at any time.
Standing in the 20,000-square-meter temperature and humidity controlled greenhouse, surrounded by water-fertilizer integration and soilless cultivation, you can truly feel the power of technology and modern agriculture.
Each raspberry plant has a five-month growth period in the field. After about 1,000-2,000 hours of hibernation, it can be transplanted to the greenhouse.
When the land is no longer suitable for raspberry growth due to seasonal changes, the raspberries in the greenhouse can thrive under the regulation of temperature, light and humidity.
When a batch of raspberries complete the growth process, the fruits are picked and replaced with a new batch of seedlings, which is how the seasonal limitations can be overcome and year-round fruiting achieved, ensuring that fresh fruit can be marketed at any time.
When it comes to the original intention of planting raspberries, Lyu said, "foreign supermarkets have fresh blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, but domestic ones do not. Why can't it be me to achieve this?"
He found that there are at least three favorable conditions for developing the raspberry industry in Ningxia: dry climate and abundant sunshine, convenient transportation and air transport, low cost and a favorable investment environment.
Ningxia is not only an ideal place for raspberry cultivation, but also benefits from convenient access to China's four top-tier cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, so Lyu decided to settle the company here, in Xinrong village in Helan county, Yinchuan city, Ningxia Hui autonomous region.
Now, Lyu has built an intelligent greenhouse covering an area of 30 mu (about 2 hectares) in Xinrong village, with an outdoor soilless cultivation seedling field covering 70 mu, and has planted more than 150,000 raspberry plants, yielding an annual output of 70 tons of raspberries and a production value of 6 million yuan (about $872,000).
After completion of the five-phase construction, the total investment will reach 198 million yuan.
Ripe raspberries hang on the branches. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
A researcher does soilless cultivation. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Farmers pick ripe raspberries at a greenhouse. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
