Farmers Welcome Modern TechniquesFarmers in China's vast western region know they desperately need the latest agricultural techniques that can help them grow more crops, Chinese agricultural officials and experts said Wednesday.That's why a recently concluded State campaign to bring agricultural science to western China was well received, they said. "The campaign was a great success and we were empowered by local farmers' passion and eagerness to learn the latest in agricultural science," said Xu Yuexian, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science. Backed by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the academy launched the month-long campaign that ended on June 28. More than 100 agricultural experts were sent to the west to help farmers. Agricultural experts travelled more than 7,000 kilometres in Gansu Province and in the autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. They assessed local agriculture and talked with farmers to determine the best way to raise their crop yield. They also held lectures and seminars to provide technical support for farmers. "To our surprise, thousands of local farmers, private entrepreneurs, officials, agricultural technicians flocked to listen to our experts' lectures. Some even travelled more than 200 kilometres to ask for advice from our experts," Xu said. The 100-member team answered about 20,000 questions from farmers and they were warmly applauded wherever they went, Xu added. More than 6,000 copies of agricultural brochures were distributed during the campaign. The experts also shared more than 1,000 agricultural techniques and signed 336 contracts for technical co-operation with local governments and enterprises. |
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