There are 770 households with more than 3,000 people in Beigou Village, Bahao Township, Yushu City. In the past, Beigou Village was an impoverished village, but today, Beigou Village has 7 vegetable industrial parks with an annual output value of more than 114 million yuan. In 2020 and 2021, it was rated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as a "Village with Rural Characteristic Industries of 100 Million Yuan in China". The planting area of vegetables in the village's greenhouses accounts for 42% of the total cultivated land, and each household boasts an average of 1.5 greenhouses.
Tomatoes Are on the Market!
On July 14, 2022, the reporters went to work at the selected spot of Beigou Village for investigation and study.
It was raining at 3:00 p.m., there was not a single person in sight on the village road in Beigou Village. "Usually, there are basically no people on the road in our village, and everyone works in the greenhouses," said Wang Chunzhuang, the Party Secretary of the village.
When passing by Xujiapozi Village, we saw more and more four-wheeled vehicles.
"Back up! Back! Back!" We heard shouts of reversing instructions from far away, so we got out of the car and followed the voice.
In a plain greenhouse, tomatoes are piled like red hills. The four-wheeler was backing up into the greenhouse. Two unloading workers immediately unloaded the tomatoes and weighed them. The boss-like person clicked his calculator adeptly, and then made the payment with his mobile phone. The four-wheeler went out of the greenhouse empty.
Half a dozen women packed the tomatoes into boxes skillfully, labeled them, and stacked the boxes. The men were responsible for pushing them with carts onto the containers.
"Hurry up, everyone. this truck must roll before 8 o'clock tonight." A man with a nonlocal accent shouted. This was Lao Huang, a trader from Jiangsu.
"The tomatoes grown in Beigou Village are of good quality and stable in quantity. Therefore, we would rather offer a slightly higher price." Lao Huang had been buying tomatoes from Beigou Village for 8 years. He basically lived in Beigou Village from early July to the end of October every year. He pointed to the women who were packing boxes and remarked, "These villagers are our veteran workers with very rich experience. Their hands are standard rulers."
"Every year, when tomatoes come into the market, the prices nearby basically follow ours. Beigou Village has a bit of a say because of its scale," said a farmer who had just sold his tomatoes.
Beigou is a specialized village for vegetable film mulch cultivation in Yushu City. The entire village has 470 hectares of vegetable greenhouses and mulched cultivation areas, including 1,061 vegetable greenhouses and 347 nursery greenhouses, ranking the largest in Yushu City.
"Beigou Village's pillar industry is greenhouse and film mulched vegetable growth. 85% of farmers' household income comes from vegetable cultivation. Now the per capita disposable income of Beigou Village has reached 36,000 yuan," said Wang Chunzhuang, Party Secretary of the village Party committee. Beigou Village produces 65,000 tons of vegetables a year. Every time the vegetables are on the market, traders will come to the village to buy them in advance. Now the village is building a modern vegetable trading market, which is expected to be put into use in October.