The No.1 greenhouse in the Modern Agriculture Expo Park in Altay, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. 

(PHOTO: S&T Daily GONG Qian)

By GONG Qian 

“People in Altay couldn’t get locally grown fresh vegetables in winter, before the Modern Agriculture Expo Park was built in 2019,” said Yang Xiaojie, a technical instructor at the park.

Altay is located in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, where the climate and soil are not suitable for growing vegetables. 

Yang Xiaojie, a technical instructor at the Modern Agriculture Expo Park in Altay. (PHOTO: S&T Daily GONG Qian)

Yang, who is from Jilin province in northeast China, is a seasoned vegetable grower. She began to work for the park in 2019, teaching the locals, who were mostly livestock breeders, how to grow vegetables.

So far, 35 greenhouses have been built where fruits and vegetables are grown throughout the year. The main crops include tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies and eggplants, according to Yang.

It produces 130 tons of vegetables and 35 tons of fruit annually and its vegetable production accounts for five percent of the total vegetable production in Altay. The park has been playing an important role in increasing the city’s vegetable supplies and stabilizing their prices. At the same time, it is also helping the local people to increase their income.

The park is a part of China’s pairing assistance program in Xinjiang. The program “pairs up” better developed provinces and municipalities with cities and counties in Xinjiang to channel financial, technical and human resource support in various fields to them.