Modern greenhouse industrial park drives rural income growth in Henan’s Qi County

According to China News Service, a comprehensive fruit and vegetable industrial park has been established in Wangdafu Village, Shawo Township, Qi County in Henan Province. Built under grassroots party-led rural governance mechanisms, the park integrates seed breeding, large-scale planting, cold-chain storage, primary processing and offline distribution to upgrade local agricultural development models.

On 9 June, intensive modern greenhouses are fully operational across the 340mu park. Ripe rainbow watermelons, spiral peppers and specialty tomatoes are harvested and sorted by local villagers for nationwide logistics delivery. The park started construction in April 2022, with the first batch of 10 greenhouses funded by village collective self-raised capital. Eight national and provincial agricultural projects have been secured with total investment reaching 8 million yuan, backed by township government administrative support.

Supporting cold-chain infrastructure has been completed to match on-site harvest capacity. A pre-cooling, sorting and preservation workshop now operates within the park to reduce post-harvest fruit and vegetable loss. Two types of high-standard agricultural facilities remain under construction, including conventional temperature-controlled greenhouses and intelligent glass seedling nurseries with automatic environmental regulation systems.

All core crop varieties planted in the park are independently developed by domestic agricultural research institutions. Rainbow watermelons, jointly bred by Henan Agricultural University and domestic seed enterprises, yield between 4,000 and 5,000 kilogrammes per mu with high sugar content and dual-colour flesh. Two pepper strains designed for double cropping deliver output of 10,000 kilogrammes and 6,000 kilogrammes per mu respectively. Specialty flavour tomatoes have gained stable orders from urban fresh food retailers across central China.

New agricultural technologies have reshaped local farming practices. Rain-fed traditional farming has been replaced by standardized greenhouse management, allowing two crop rotations within one calendar year. Per capita household agricultural revenue has recorded multiple-fold growth compared with previous rain-fed planting patterns. Local off-farm migrant labour outflow has decreased, as stable on-site greenhouse posts provide daily wages for resident villagers.

Grassroots industrial governance structures have been optimised alongside agricultural expansion. Industrial chain-based grassroots organisational layouts are adopted to coordinate technical promotion, quality supervision and market docking across the park. Cross-institutional technical cooperation with Henan Agricultural University and Fugou Vegetable Research Institute will be maintained for long-term seed renewal and planting scheme iteration.

Per regional agricultural statistics from China News Service, Shawo Township hosts over 4,000 mu of greenhouse farmland in total. The Wangdafu Village park will expand land circulation scale and upgrade intelligent irrigation systems in follow-up phases. Diversified processing lines for fresh fruits and vegetables will be deployed to raise product added value. The park will be positioned as a municipal-level demonstration site for intensive facility agriculture in Henan.