In the heart of the fall and winter agricultural season, Yongzhou’s Chenzhong District in Hunan has been making the most of its land’s downtime by promoting a “rice-vegetable” crop rotation system. This initiative is transforming seasonal fields into profitable land for local farmers.
At the vegetable planting base in Fuqiao Ba Village, part of the Gaoqi Township, farmers quickly set to work after the rice harvest, preparing the fields for the next crop—Chinese mustard greens.
The base operates under a model that integrates companies, cooperatives, farms, and individual farmers, utilizing idle farmland for contracted vegetable cultivation. This approach combines land transfer, large-scale planting, and labor opportunities, significantly boosting farmers’ income. Currently, the total scale of cultivation has expanded to over 500 acres.
“We’ve been growing mustard greens for three years now, and the yield is more than 6,000 pounds per acre, generating a net income of over 3,000 yuan,” shares Feng Demin, head of the Yongjia Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Fuqiao Ba Village. “We’ve secured purchase agreements with manufacturers in Guangdong, who come directly to the fields to buy our produce, so we don’t have to worry about sales.”
In recent years, Chenzhong District has leveraged its natural resources and advantageous location to actively promote a crop rotation system, alternating rice with specialty vegetables and rapeseed. This method not only improves soil health through water and dry farming techniques but also enhances fertility, maximizing land use and yields. The initiative ultimately contributes to increased agricultural efficiency and farmer income, playing a vital role in rural revitalization.
Additionally, Chenzhong District has selected 28 villages to implement an integrated design, construction, operation, and maintenance model. Village collectives are leading efforts to transfer land for the establishment of high-standard farmland, which is then uniformly contracted to cooperatives or larger farming operations. This initiative aims to develop approximately 36,000 acres of land and attract over 50 million yuan in social capital.
