Our main farmland is located in Jiuquan, an ideal place to grow seeds in Ganzu, the inner province of Northwest China.
Jiuquan has become one of the most important and modernized seed production areas in China during recent 20 years owing to its unique geographic position and climatic conditions. It is located at the west part of Hexi Corridor with fertile land, rich sunshine and plenty of irrigation water.
Lying between 38°and 40°N latitude and 98°and 101°E longitude, with altitude ranging from 1,300 to 1,700 meters,
3,000-3,300 hours of sunshine, 3,398-4,086℃ of accumulated temperatures as well as 130-159 frost-free days per year and 12-16℃ of temperature difference between day and night, the seeds produced in Jiuquan are characterized by good appearance and high vigor.
Climate
Although the rainfall in Jiuquan area is very low(only 80 mm per year), there are still enough water for irrigation due to the 5,600-meter height of Qilian Mountains with eternal covered-snow extending on the south side of it.
The summers are relatively cool, whose day temperatures ranging from 25-30℃, night temperatures around 15℃. The winters are very cold, whose temperatures will drop down to extremely minus 35℃. Note that the Maximum and Minimum temperatures listed in the below chart are the MEAN data for that month.
The dry cropping seasons and the cold winters are unfavorable for many pathogens and insects hence insuring quality seed product. As mentioned before, the rainfall in Jiuquan is about 80mm per year, but the water evaporated is quite a lot, which is about 2100mm per year. Such a drought condition is a threat to agriculture to some extent, but it’s good for seed drying.
In a word, the unique geographical and climatic features in Jiuquan bring many advantages in seed producing.
Infrastructure
China has gone through many significant changes over the last few years. Since the central government launched the “West Development Campaign” in 2000, many preferential policies have been implemented to help improve the infrastructure construction in its vast west region.
A new highway, which connects Lanzhou, the capital of Ganzu province to Zhangye, Jiuquan, Jiayuguan and Yumen, was open to traffic in September of 2006.
The airport of Jiayuguan, which is only 18Km from Jiuquan, ensures safe and fast transportation of the products. In cropping seasons, there are 4 regular flights from Beijing to Jiayuquan per week.
Communication and hotel accommodations are of good quality in Jiuquan. The mobile phone network covers almost every region of Ganzu Province. Both Chinese food and western food such as KFC are available in Jiuquan. Hotels there provide
internet connection，Wi-Fi and IDD phone system.
Farmers
There are totally 2,680,000 mu(180,000 hectares) of agricultural lands in Jiuquan area. The mu
used in China indicates a fixed piece of land equaling 667 square meters. Thanks to the good geological conditions, Jiuquan has been one of the most important agricultural areas in China since ancient times. Hence the farmers there understand well how to grow, irrigate crops and work under the local circumstances.
The average farmer in Jiuquan owns 3to5 mu of land, which equals 2,000-3,300 square meters. This enables us to accept small quantity seed production contracts and to facilitate quality-control management.
It must be mentioned that the labor cost in this area is relatively low. For hybrid tomato seed production, we usually use 6 workers doing hand-seeding 20 to 30 days for one mu (667 square meters).
After years of seed production in Jiuquan area, we have established good relationship with local farmers. We hold 6,000 hectares of land for seed production. From contract production, local farmers make more money.
