China: Farming tradition meets innovation in China's vegetable heartland

From purple sprouting broccoli to tomatoes on the vine, this annual vegetable fair is a one stop shop for Chinese agricultural traditions and innovation. Traditional broccoli is round and compact. This is a newly developed variety. It can be eaten raw because it's green and natural. Location Pengzhou, a small city on the Chengdu Plain. It's a historic agricultural hub and now one of China's major vegetable bases. The city has a cultivation area of more than 500 square kilometers, yielding an annual output of more than 2 million tons. Vegetables here in Pong Zhou don't just stay in the farmland. The city has also partnered with leading agricultural research institutions to develop new varieties in the lab. This laboratory is designed to support the high quality development of the Pong Zhou vegetable industry. Researchers here are working to tackle key challenges such as food safety and the effect of climate change. In recent years, what we've observed most frequently is the irregularity of high temperatures, low temperatures and rainfall. This lack of pattern in the climate makes it difficult for scientists to conduct research and for local farmers to grow crops. Without a predictable pattern, it's hard to manage things properly. Such environmental changes affect plant growth significantly. This study focuses on stress resistance, developing crops that can thrive under extreme weather conditions such as high and low temperatures, excessive rainfall, or water scarcity. The goal is to identify and enhance the genetic traits that make these crops more resilient. We artificially create a high temperature or low temperature environment for it to grow in, and we observe how it performs in those conditions. After that, we conduct genetic modification and run tests to see whether it expresses the desired traits. When successful, we applied this technology to our vegetable varieties, a testament to how science and innovation can shape the future of one of humanity's oldest industries.