Rooted in sustainability
Ancient cultivation system lauded as global green model sows seeds of success, Alexis Hooi and Zhang Yu report in Chengde, Hebei province.
Local residents are justifiably proud of their sweet and plump chestnuts, grown with tried and tested farming practices stretching back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). Two iconic Kuancheng chestnut trees, which forestry specialists said were planted in the year 1303, still bear fruit.
The county is now poised to tap the latest green development trends following a global nod to its model of sustainability.
In November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization included the Kuancheng Traditional Chestnut Eco-Planting System on its list of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, citing its rich cultural content that embodies "the ecological view of respecting nature and the social organization form that promotes agricultural production".
