In the golden autumn of September, with abundant harvests on branches, Pingliang's land is filled with the hope of a bountiful harvest everywhere.

In the vegetable greenhouses of the Jingwei River basin, fresh tomatoes are being packaged for shipment to other regions; in Jingning's dwarf orchards, fruit farmers are busy adjusting water and fertilizer equipment; in the slaughterhouse workshops of Pingliang Red Cattle Industrial Park, automated production lines are operating efficiently...

Since last year, the city has closely aligned with the "three zones and one city" positioning goal, focusing on building Western China's modern premium agriculture model zone to coordinate "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" development. The city has deeply implemented actions to expand quantity, improve quality, extend chains, and increase efficiency of specialty industries, strengthening cattle, fruit, and vegetable sectors while connecting production, processing, and sales, and integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism. This has led to a new path of premium agricultural development featuring variety optimization, quality improvement, brand-driven growth, standard leadership, and full-chain upgrades, initially establishing a rural industry system with distinctive characteristics, optimized structure, complete chains, and integrated development.

To implement premium agriculture, top-level design is crucial. The city established a working group and issued the "Implementation Plan for Pingliang City's Focus on Building Western China's Modern Premium Agriculture Model Zone," innovatively implementing the industrial chain "chain leader system" and comprehensively implementing multiple policy measures to promote high-quality development of Pingliang Red Cattle, Jingning apples, and facility vegetables. To date, the city has secured 13 provincial modern cold and arid characteristic agriculture pilot base projects with total investment of 252 million yuan, and allocated 1.16 billion yuan in special funds to support specialty industry development. Meanwhile, 282 agriculture and agricultural product processing investment attraction projects have been demonstrated and stored with total investment of 24 billion yuan and actual funds received of nearly 12 billion yuan, injecting strong momentum for industrial upgrading.

**Full Industrial Chain Layout, Modern Agriculture Quality and Efficiency Improvement**

Walking into the Zhongbin Pingliang Red Cattle Industrial Park in Baishui Town, Kongtong District, automated feeding systems are precisely delivering feed, and glossy Pingliang red cattle are leisurely eating in standardized stalls. Intelligent management systems monitor cattle growth conditions in real-time, with scientifically planned functional areas including fodder storage areas and waste treatment zones.

In the first half of this year, the Pingliang Red Cattle industry adhered to the "small groups, large scale" development path and vigorously implemented the "ten thousand, thousand, hundred, ten" breeding expansion plan. Currently, 22 ten-thousand-head industry strong towns and 67 thousand-head cattle farming professional villages have been designated, 369 large-scale cattle farms have been built, and 16,800 large cattle farming households have been supported. The city's cattle stock reached 733,200 head with 224,500 head sold, representing year-on-year increases of 2.93% and 8.82% respectively, with growth rates ranking among the province's top.

Beyond the red cattle industry, the city's other specialty industries are all promoting quality improvement with "full-chain thinking."

The Jingning apple industry emphasizes "renovating old orchards, building new orchards, and strengthening chains," updating and renovating 159,000 acres of old orchards, with dwarf dense-planting orchards exceeding 300,000 acres, building 110,000 acres of water-fertilizer integrated orchards, and summarizing the "Pingliang Model" of dwarf dense-planting cultivation in highland arid areas.

The vegetable industry adheres to production park-based and single-product scale development, with the Jingwei River basin facility vegetable modern agricultural industrial park as the core, accelerating construction of "two belts and seven clusters" vegetable production concentration areas. The city's vegetable planting area reached 276,000 acres, up 5.5% year-on-year.

The potato industry established 300,000 acres of "Zhuangshu" series virus-free seed potato breeding bases.

Chinese medicinal material planting area expanded to 98,000 acres, up 11.9% year-on-year.

From vegetables to apples, from beef cattle to potatoes and medicinal materials, Pingliang's full industrial chain layout now covers all major specialty industries. Last year, the city's cattle stock reached 1.0576 million head, apple output was 2.54 million tons, vegetable output was 880,000 tons, potato output was 1.17 million tons, and Chinese medicinal material output was 36,800 tons.

To make the industrial chain "stronger," Pingliang treats agricultural product processing as a core focus, cumulatively cultivating 195 municipal-level and above agricultural leading enterprises with annual operating revenue exceeding 8 billion yuan.

This year, 23 agricultural product processing production lines were supported, agricultural product cold storage and fresh-keeping capacity reached 1.395 million tons, ranking first in the province, and the local processing conversion rate of agricultural products reached 65%, basically forming an integrated development pattern of production, processing, sales, storage, transportation, and services.

Currently, key projects including Kongtong District (beef cattle) National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park and Jingning and Zhuanglang apple industry clusters are accelerating, with 213 cattle, fruit, and vegetable industrial chain projects completing investments of 4.23 billion yuan. New business formats such as "apples + leisure picking," "red cattle + cultural tourism experience," and "vegetables + pastoral sightseeing" continue to emerge, with full industrial chain layout making Pingliang's modern agriculture both "scaled" and "profitable."

**Brand Marketing, "Ganwei" Agricultural Products Fragrant Across the Seas**

Brand building is a powerful tool for rural revitalization. Only when agricultural brands "resonate" can "local specialties" "sell well."

In the modern cold chain logistics center of Jingning County Hongliufu Fruit Industry Co., Ltd., intelligent forklifts shuttle back and forth, and workers skillfully package premium apples bearing the "Jingning Apple" geographical indication mark, ready for shipment to domestic and international markets.

Beyond Hongliufu Fruit Industry, the city is weaving a brand network of "public brands + enterprise trademarks" centered on the "Ganwei" brand. "Pingliang Red Cattle" and "Jingning Apples" are steadily advancing national agricultural brand premium cultivation, with 16 enterprise trademark brands newly selected for the "Ganwei" agricultural product brand directory, bringing the city's total "Ganwei" enterprise trademark brands to 63.

To make brands "sustainable," local authorities have implemented standards down to fields, cumulatively establishing 124 agricultural production technical regulations. From apple bagging timing to red cattle feeding ratios, all have clear "standards." "Zhuanglang Potatoes," "Huating Rhubarb," and "Huating Angelica" have successively obtained national geographical indications. The city has newly certified 16 green foods, with 149 "three products and one standard" agricultural products within validity period, and agricultural and livestock product sampling qualification rates maintained above 99%.

Brand confidence also comes from clean production environments. At Huating City's Baonong Planting Family Farm, manager Huo Tao moves through orchards. "Apple cultivation is technical work," Huo Tao says, pointing to bags on fruit trees. "Don't underestimate these small paper bags - they effectively prevent pests and diseases, reduce pesticide residues, and make fruit surfaces smoother, improving commodity rates."

The city promotes various ecological circular agriculture development models including "grain-feed-livestock-fertilizer-fruit (vegetables)" based on local conditions. Livestock and poultry waste comprehensive utilization rate reached 84%, waste agricultural film recycling rate was 85.4%, pesticide usage decreases annually, and even field irrigation uses intelligent water-fertilizer systems, saving water while reducing fertilizer waste, protecting "Ganwei" quality standards from the source.

To make brands "go global," the city has explored a combination of "exhibitions + showrooms + e-commerce." Since last year, agricultural products bearing "Ganwei" labels have appeared at over 50 national and provincial exhibitions including "Ganwei Enters Hunan" and "Ganwei Enters Tianjin," cumulatively opening over 300 agricultural specialty product stores, direct sales stores, and agricultural supermarket counters in first and second-tier cities, establishing 16 new flagship stores on e-commerce platforms, with online agricultural product sales reaching 3.6 billion yuan and completing 664 million yuan in consumption assistance.

Moreover, "Ganwei" has gone international. In Jingning County's 12 new export fruit bases, apples passing inspection and quarantine are being packaged for shipment to Kazakhstan; Pingliang Red Cattle's chilled segmented meat has obtained export food enterprise certification and entered Malaysian markets. As of 2024, the city has added 30 export fruit bases, 4 planting and breeding bases, and 4 export food enterprises, with products sold to 25 countries and regions. Fresh agricultural product exports account for over 80% of total city exports, with apple exports alone reaching 210 million yuan.

**Technology Innovation Empowerment, Small Farmers Connecting to Big Markets**

At the Changxin Park of Chongxin Jianchong Ecological Technology Co., Ltd., 460.5 acres of fruit trees are neatly arranged along mountain slopes. Park supervisor Wang Yanwei is leading workers to adjust water-fertilizer integration equipment sensors: "Previously, fertilization relied on experience. Now, after soil testing and formula preparation, organic fertilizers and microbial agents are precisely applied, combined with high spindle tree pruning, producing large and uniform fruits."

In orchards, drip irrigation pipes extend along tree rows, with sensors transmitting real-time soil moisture data. "This saves over 30% water compared to traditional flood irrigation, with cost savings that can be passed to farmers."

Beyond orchards, facility agriculture shows even more technological sophistication. In Pingliang Shengli Smart Agriculture Company's intelligent glass greenhouse, cluster tomatoes hang from vines, and packaging workshop workers are standardizing packages. Deputy General Manager Zhang Hanyuan points to the central control screen: "Temperature, humidity, and irrigation amounts are monitored 24 hours, with three checkpoints before harvest: sugar content testing + pesticide residue screening + sensory evaluation. Our developed smart agriculture big data center records complete planting, management, and harvesting process data, enabling farmers to learn and follow, ensuring marketable vegetables."

Such technology empowerment is blooming throughout Pingliang's countryside. Since last year, the city has promoted 26 practical technologies including intensive seedling cultivation and water-fertilizer integration, with thousands of technical personnel working in fields, establishing 56 hundred-acre research fields, 20 thousand-acre demonstration plots, and 5 ten-thousand-acre demonstration belts. The "Ten Key Technologies for Facility Vegetable Production in Pingliang City" has been compiled and published, introducing 221 new vegetable varieties for trial planting. Active creation of national hilly and mountainous area applicable small machinery familiarization and standardization bases and specialty industry agricultural machinery equipment promotion and application bases has been pursued, strengthening promotion and application of efficient agricultural machinery, advanced intelligent equipment, and management systems. Currently, the city has 120,000 agricultural machines with total power of 1.73 million kilowatts, orchard management machinery usage rate exceeding 70%, and agricultural technology progress contribution rate of 66%.

Technology not only helps "grow well" but also helps farmers "sell well." The city actively promotes development models such as "markets lead leading enterprises, leading enterprises drive cooperatives, cooperatives connect farmers to build bases," cumulatively developing 7,747 family farms, cultivating 5,515 farmer professional cooperatives and 2,400 agricultural socialization service organizations. Farmer cooperatives connect 41.5% of small farmers, with various leading enterprises covering 211,500 farming households, effectively embedding small farmers into specialty industry development chains and driving stable growth in farmers' operational income.

Today's Pingliang, from standardized planting in fields to deep processing in workshops to brand hot sales in markets, has an increasingly tight premium agriculture chain. For Pingliang farmers, crops are no longer dependent on weather but represent "peace of mind pills" with technology, sales channels, and benefits. For this city, this premium agriculture path is gradually becoming a prosperous rural revitalization road that is both solid and promising.