Freshly dug Zihe taros in Huaguang town, Hailing district. [Photo/WeChat account: weihailing0523]
Huagang town, located in the Hailing district of Taizhou city in East China's Jiangsu province, has recently embraced the bountiful harvest season of its specialty – Zihe taros.
Zihe taro, along with Longxiang taro, Xiangsha taro, and Xianghe taro, is renowned as one of Taizhou's four most famous taro varieties.
It has a soft and glutinous texture, high starch content, and contains crude protein and trace elements, representing the town's main agricultural exports.
Despite facing numerous challenges this year, agricultural experts have offered technical guidance to address adverse factors such as high temperatures, drought, and pests.
"Our Zihe taros are growing well, and we expect the yield to increase slightly compared to last year," said farmer Zhu Dangzhen. "We water the taros every day, and the largest taro weighs over 5 jin (2.5 kilograms)."
Sangwan village in Huagang town currently cultivates nearly 1,000 mu (66.67 hectares) of Zihe taros, with a yield of over 3,000 jin per mu, which not only meets the local market demand but also supplies nearby cities such as Yangzhou and Suzhou.
The village has been committed to developing and expanding the Zihe taro industry in recent years, encouraging more local talents to join in. There are over 200 farmers like Zhu in the village at present.