Southern provinces called upon to fill possible vegetable market gap

Southern provinces less affected by the latest round of flooding are being called upon to step up vegetable production this winter using idled farmlands and increase the shipping of greens to the north to fill in the gap of supply that could possibly be induced by heavy deluges affecting large areas in the north, according to Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

In a media release on its website, the ministry on Monday urged immediate efforts to drain flooded fields as part of broader attempts to stabilize vegetable supply this winter, saying that the heavy downpours induced by typhoon Duksuri have caused serious flooding in areas including North China, Northeast China and the grain growing areas to south of the lower reaches of Yellow River.

"The flooding has submerged vegetable-growing facilities and fields, exerting adverse impact on vegetable production in certain regions," the ministry said, adding that greens are essential to people's livelihoods and stabilizing prices and therefore the utmost efforts are entailed in areas of production, sales, transportation and quality control to ease such impacts.

Local authorities should speed up draining flooded fields in preparation for the upcoming planting season for legumes, it said. For heavily hit lands that are unfit for planting in the foreseeable future, authorities are asked to organize farmers to grow seedlings in nursery gardens first and transplant them to fields when fields are fully prepared. Efforts are also called for reinforcing greenhouses and spraying disease-prevention drugs.

Farmers must make full use of the sunny days to prepare the fields and prepare fertilizers and other farming materials, so that they can seize the window for the upcoming planting season, the ministry said.

To bolster revenue, authorities are also asked to analyze the market and prevent farmers from growing identical green varieties that could hit the market at the same time, it added.