Nanyang is the top national organic agricultural producer

Nanyang topped the national lists for organic agricultural product variety and plantation area, according to a recent announcement by the Nanyang Agriculture Bureau.

The 145 agricultural export enterprises in Nanyang generated 7.01 billion yuan ($1.09 billion) of output value in 2017, an increase of 17.3 percent from the previous year.

In total, there were 264 organic certificates, 83 green food certificates awarded to these enterprises. Twelve goods were also recognized as nationally protected geographical indication products.

On the back of such achievements, the city has pledged to further improve itself as a high-profile national production base for organic agricultural products.

As planned, Nanyang will designate multiple functional zones in irrigated, mountainous and flat areas to continually cultivate a wide variety of agricultural products while developing ecotourism.

Honeysuckle is packed at a traditional Chinese medicine plantation area in Xichuan county. [Photo/News.cn]

New entities such as family farms, rural cooperatives and leading enterprises will be the major players of the local agricultural industry.

Eying the high-end market in big cities, Nanyang will take an active part in the domestic and international agricultural expos to raise its reputation.

Furthermore, the local government will allocate around 5 million yuan in rewards for the certification of green foods and organic agricultural products in the next three years.

Plantation of green and organic agricultural products in Nanyang is expected to hit 1 million mu (66,667 hectares) by 2020, with the different varieties to exceed 200.