At the roadside of a small rapeseed planting base in Juancheng county in East China's Shandong province, vegetable trucks neatly queued up on Feb 20, waiting to load freshly harvested rapeseeds from the base.
Inside the base, farm owner Li Jianmin shuttled between the greenhouses, busy harvesting, sorting and packing plants with his workers, enjoying the joyful harvest on their faces.
"The market for small rapeseed has been good recently, and the timely harvest can bring us a good price," said Li while skillfully selecting the rapeseed, and telling other workers: "Please be careful, and discard those with yellow leaves and poor appearances. We must ensure the quality and let our customers satisfy with the crops".
Back in 2020, Li first attempted at growing small rapeseed in two greenhouses, earning huge economic benefits in the first year unexpectedly — far exceeding cultivating traditional crops. Seeing the potential of greenhouse planting, he gradually expanded his planting scale, making the number of his greenhouses to nine.
Li's success is a microcosm of the development of small rapeseed industry in Penglou town in this grain-producing county, which administers two sub-districts and 15 towns with a total population of over 923,000.
While upgrading the small rapeseed industry through large-scale intensive industrial development, the town's Party committee and government guided the transfer of more than 1,500 mu (100 hectares) of land, boosting unified cultivation of small rapeseed.
Meanwhile, Penglou also upgraded such infrastructures as distribution squares, roads, and high-standard drainage ditches, helping elevate its vegetable production towards scale, standardization and industrialization.
Wu Pei, a county resident, said that as of now, Penglou town has developed two specialized cooperatives for small rapeseed planting and built three small rapeseed planting bases, expanding the rapeseed planting area to over 3,000 mu.
"These planting bases can produce more than 5,000 metric tons of rapeseed annually, bringing cash income of some 45 million yuan ($6.33 million) for local residents, and driving more than 600 local farmers to land in their jobs," he said.
Wu added that the town also intends to rely on Huaxu Rural Revitalization Group Co Ltd in Juancheng to further integrate Penglou's resources and explore new paths for characteristic planting.
Moreover, Penglou has also invested in building supporting facilities such as sorting workshops and drug residue detection centers, extending its small rapeseed planting industry chain. In addition, it also made full use of e-commerce platforms and social media channels to broaden its brand promotion, he said.
