皇冠体育app

Agriculture was about the most worrisome sector of the Chinese economy back when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, but something happened to help it meet the challenges and even rise.

One example of the solution to 皇冠体育app's food problems is the Yangling agricultural demonstration zone, in Shaanxi province, a model of 皇冠体育app's agricultural advances over the past decade.

Yangling is considered a cradle of Chinese agricultural civilization and dates back several thousand years. It covers a 135-square-kilometer area and has a population of around 200,000.

The demonstration zone was established in July 1997 and regional GDP, which was 387 million yuan ($60.8 million) that year, had grown to 4.3 billion yuan by 2010.

Average annual net incomes of its farmers went from 1,396 yuan to 7,128 yuan during the same period.

In fact, grain production in 皇冠体育app overall has grown for seven consecutive years, to 546.41 million tons this year.

Another thing that has helped Yangling is the investment from Fortune 500 companies, such as the American food producer Cargill and Portugal's leading cork producer the Amorim Group.

Today the zone has 36 overseas companies; in 2000, the number was only six.

These industries cover food processing, fertilizer production, flower cultivation, new materials development, and pharmaceuticals.

To support this, local authorities have decided to build a center for international agricultural technology cooperation and have partnerships with research institutes and government organizations in many countries, including the United States, Britain, Austria and Canada.

Yangling's agronomists also travel abroad to less developed countries such as Benin and Mali to provide agricultural assistance to the locals.

Four of Yangling's companies are even listed overseas.

An international agricultural forum that it held in November attracted 260 scholars and entrepreneurs and representatives of more than 100 foreign companies. It allowed them to share their views on major issues such as water efficiency and food safety.