Village in S China’s Guangdong sees bumper winter potato harvest

A farmer sorts potatoes in a field of Tianliang village in Qingxin district, Qingyuan, south China’s Guangdong Province. (Photo/Jiang Yuanwei)

Tianliang village in Qingxin district, Qingyuan, south China’s Guangdong Province, recently embraced a bumper harvest of winter potatoes. Harvesters were busy operating in the fields, digging out round yellow potatoes, and farmers followed to collect, pack and transport them.

The village has already harvested over 100 mu (6.67 hectares) of potatoes, with an output of around 2,500 kilograms per mu, which is expected to add over 2,000 yuan ($290) to the farmers’ income per mu.

It’s the first time that the Tianliang village has grown winter potatoes on a large scale, and much remains to be improved technically, according to Li Xiaobo, an expert at the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

With the help of professional technologies, high-quality germplasm resources and advanced planting methods, the potato yield per mu could reach 3,000 to 4,000 kilograms in the future, Li said, adding that neighboring villages will be encouraged to join the building of a large-scale planting industry to bring prosperity to more farmers.