Modernized agriculture springs up in Shanxi

Shanxi has placed significant emphasis on the development of controlled environment agriculture in recent years.

Over the last three years, the provincial finance department has allocated 950 million yuan ($132.56 million) for the cultivation of greenhouse vegetables. It also secured 770 million yuan in central government's funds for refrigerated preservation facilities and invested 90 million yuan in controlled environment aquaculture, leveraging over 5 billion yuan in private capital.

Through the construction of fruit and vegetable cold chain storage facilities and grain drying facilities, Shanxi has reduced the loss of fresh agricultural products from 25 percent to 10 percent. This also led to an increase in profits of greenhouse-grown fruits by 30 to 40 percent compared to open-field grown fruits.

The modernization of Shanxi's agriculture has also driven agricultural efficiency and a growth in farmers' income. The income from solar greenhouses for vegetables in Shanxi ranges from 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per mu (666.67 square meters), while for plastic greenhouses, it is between 15,000 to 20,000 yuan. 

The per-mu income from greenhouse-grown fruits in the province is 18,500 yuan, which is 11,000 yuan higher than open-field grown fruits. 

So far, the total area of controlled environment agriculture in Shanxi is over 643 square kilometers, with a yield of 3.51 million metric tons and a total output value of over 20 billion yuan.