High-quality agricultural product parks, extended supply chains for specialty agricultural products, innovative integration of agriculture, culture and tourism... Walking through the fields of Pingliang, Gansu, one can witness the vibrant vitality of modern agricultural development everywhere. In recent years, Pingliang has focused on building a western modern premium agriculture demonstration zone to guide the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. The city has implemented actions to expand, improve quality, extend chains, and increase efficiency of specialty industries. By strengthening the "cattle, fruit, and vegetable" sectors, connecting production, processing, and sales, and integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism, Pingliang has forged a premium agriculture development path characterized by variety optimization, quality improvement, brand-driven growth, standard-led development, and full-chain upgrading. This has initially established a rural industry system with distinctive characteristics, optimized structure, complete chains, and integrated development.
**Building Modern Agricultural Industrial Parks**
Currently, it is the pepper harvesting season. In greenhouse No. 1 of the 10,000-acre vegetable industrial park in Baishui Town, Kongtong District, Pingliang City, Lin Jing, a villager from Maixian Village in Silishipu Town, is busy at work. "One greenhouse can yield 2,000 pounds of vegetables per harvest, and with good management, we can harvest every half month. I rent and cultivate 6 greenhouses, and last year each greenhouse generated 10,000 yuan in income," Lin Jing said. Previously working outside, she can now develop industries and earn money at her doorstep while taking care of her family.
In the intelligent glass greenhouse of Pingliang Shengli Smart Agriculture Co., Ltd., cherry tomatoes are growing well, and workers in the packaging workshop are busy packing the harvest. "Our cherry tomato base has achieved 24-hour intelligent monitoring of temperature, humidity, and irrigation data. The harvesting process implements a triple verification system of sugar content, pesticide residues, and sensory evaluation," said Zhang Hanyuan, deputy general manager of Pingliang Shengli Smart Agriculture Co., Ltd. Based on "Internet + Agriculture," the company has developed a smart agriculture big data control center, promoting the research and application of digital scenarios and smart agriculture development, achieving full-process control, refined management, and traceable production.
The Jinghe River 10,000-acre modern agricultural industrial park is a western modern agriculture demonstration zone created by Kongtong District, with a planned total area of 11,000 acres. It has built 2,700 high-standard solar greenhouses and supporting facilities including an agricultural product logistics trading center, vegetable sorting center, and seedling center. The park also features key functional areas such as vegetable exhibition halls, agricultural product quality testing rooms, new variety demonstration greenhouses, and organic fertilizer experimental greenhouses, forming a comprehensive platform integrating production, processing, circulation, display, and research. The completed area covers over 4,500 acres, achieving annual sales revenue of 116 million yuan, demonstrating strong industrial clustering effects and economic vitality.
"The city's vegetable planting area has reached 540,000 acres, including over 60,000 acres of facility vegetables, with a production of 870,000 tons and a total industrial chain value of 3.6 billion yuan," introduced Sun Xiaohe, director of the Industrial Development Division of Pingliang Agricultural and Rural Bureau. In recent years, Pingliang has developed the vegetable industry through production park integration and product scale development. Centered on the Jing-Ru River facility vegetable modern agricultural industrial park, it has built vegetable production concentration areas along the "two belts" of Jing River and Ru River, and "seven zones" in the watersheds of Heihe, Honghe, Daxi River, Shenyu River, Shuiluo River, Zhuanglang River, and Hulu River, creating a national modern facility vegetable innovation leading zone.
Meanwhile, Pingliang focuses on expanding the scale of advantageous specialty industries. The cattle industry promotes both moderate-scale breeding and household feeding simultaneously, vigorously implementing the "Ten Thousand, Thousand, Hundred, Ten" cattle raising plan, and building a standardized breeding base for one million red cattle in eastern Gansu. Currently, the city has established 22 industrial towns with 10,000 head capacity and 67 professional cattle villages with 1,000 head capacity, built 369 scale cattle farms, supported 16,800 large cattle households, with cattle stock reaching 1.05 million head, ranking third in agricultural areas across Gansu Province, and achieving a total industrial chain value of 18 billion yuan.
For the apple industry, while maintaining the existing 1.5 million acres of orchards, the focus is on renovating old orchards and standardized management, promoting variety iteration and upgrading, and developing four high-quality apple production belts in Hulu River and Shuiluo River watersheds, Jingchuan South Platform, and northern platform areas of Lingtai and Chongxin, building a million-acre high-quality apple production base in southeastern Gansu. The city's apple production reaches 2.54 million tons, with a total industrial chain value of 24 billion yuan.
**Deep Processing of Specialty Agricultural Products**
In the exhibition workshop of Gansu Ruihe Xiang Food Technology Co., Ltd. in Ganzhuang Village, Huangzhai Town, Chongxin County, Pingliang City, various red cattle cooked foods and leisure foods such as charcoal-grilled beef, soy sauce beef, and spicy beef are displayed. The production workshop is processing beef products, with raw beef materials sourced from Chongxin Jincheng Breeding Farm, just a few hundred meters from the factory.
"After slaughter, the red cattle beef goes through cleaning and marinating before entering the braising process. One pot produces 500 pounds, and at full capacity, we can produce 2,500 pounds daily," introduced Xu Haodong, production manager of Gansu Ruihe Xiang Food Technology Co., Ltd. The company started production in July last year with sales of 4.17 million yuan, and in the first seven months of this year, sales have reached 5 million yuan.
Pingliang focuses on chain extension and supplementation, actively promoting primary, refined, and deep processing of agricultural products, developing full-process green food processing industry, with the city's agricultural product processing conversion rate reaching 65%. By focusing on Pingliang red cattle, Jingning apples, and vegetable industries, the city vigorously implements the "strong dragon chain extension" project, producing six major series of 112 products including beef products, bone products, leather products, and biological products. It continues to improve the proportion of primary processing for Jingning apples including post-harvest sorting, grading, pre-cooling, and storage preservation, and accelerates processing of fruit chips, fruit crisps, nutritional health drinks, and vegetable processing including cut vegetables, clean vegetables, freeze-dried vegetables, and vegetable powder.
Currently, Pingliang has built 23 organic fertilizer processing production lines and 8 cattle slaughter and beef cutting production lines, with an annual slaughter capacity of 200,000 head. It has supported the construction of 23 production lines for Jingning apple seedling breeding and apple sorting, washing, and packaging, driving the development of 289 related enterprises in fruit storage, deep processing, carton packaging, logistics transportation, and branch utilization, basically forming an integrated development pattern of production, processing, sales, storage, transportation, and services.
In vegetable industry development, Jingchuan County Ruifeng Lukang Agriculture Company has been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as one of the first batch of national facility planting innovation leading entities, achieving Pingliang's breakthrough in vegetable processing. Since last year, the vegetable industry has built 2 new processing production lines and 1 sorting and processing base, with Pingliang's vegetable processing capacity reaching 70,000 tons.
**Promoting Deep Integration of Agriculture, Culture, and Tourism**
Entering Dananyu Village, Cedi Town, Huating City, Pingliang, the village shaded by green trees, vibrant farmland, blooming sunflowers, and children playing in the water park compose a harmonious rural landscape. At the snack street at the entrance of Dananyu scenic area, shops selling jar tea, potato stir-fry, and sour water fish gather, attracting tourists from around Huating during weekends and holidays.
"During holidays when there are many tourists, selling snacks can bring in over 200 yuan per day," said Yue Li, a Dananyu Village resident operating a small restaurant.
Li Haijie, Party Secretary of Dayu Village, told reporters that 42 households in the village have developed rural tourism, increasing income through operating water parks and restaurants, with average household income increases of 2,500 to 3,000 yuan. In 2024, the village collective income exceeded 220,000 yuan, achieving healthy development of the village collective economy through agriculture, culture, and tourism integration.
"Currently, rural tourism in the town has upgraded from a 'specialty industry' to a 'revitalization pillar,' providing over 300 job positions, solving employment for over 500 people, with per capita income increases of over 2,000 yuan, achieving dual income growth for village collective economy and residents," said Zhang Zhiqiang, mayor of Cedi Town. To accelerate deep integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism, leveraging unique natural and cultural resources, the town promotes construction of rural tourism demonstration zones along the Cehong Road, using the district as a "bridge" connecting Dananyu National AAA-level scenic area and Hongqi River Bouncing Cloud Paradise, and fruit and vegetable planting and red cattle breeding as catalysts for rapid tourism development, actively exploring "+tourism" models. Based on expanding planting scales of seasonal fruits and vegetables like figs, melons, strawberries, and peppers, it focuses on creating a pastoral complex integrating leisure sightseeing, agricultural experience, and study tours.
"Allowing tourists to appreciate pastoral scenery while experiencing agricultural fun and enjoying delicious food, achieving deep integration of agriculture, culture, tourism, and primary, secondary, and tertiary industries," Zhang Zhiqiang said.
Promoting deep integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism is an important pathway for comprehensive rural revitalization. In recent years, Pingliang has used innovative agricultural formats as driving force, promoted deep integration of agriculture and tourism as the focus, emphasized upgrading leisure agriculture, leveraged location advantages, developed leisure agriculture and rural tourism, further expanded agricultural functions, and continued developing "Apple+," "Red Cattle+," and "Vegetable+" initiatives. Using specialty industries as a medium, it actively develops new formats such as understory economy, leisure picking, garden sightseeing, experiential agriculture, and creative agriculture, creating batches of leisure sightseeing orchards, characteristic tourist villages and towns, wellness towns, and agricultural pastoral complexes. Through promoting integration of agriculture with tourism, culture, ecology, and health, it achieves agricultural efficiency improvement and farmer income increase.
To date, Pingliang has created 1 provincial-level rural tourism demonstration county, 17 provincial-level cultural tourism rural revitalization model villages, developed 234,000 acres of understory planting and breeding areas, and indirectly driven 58,000 people in rural tourism-related employment.