Chongqing mustard crop spices up rural incomes

Southwest China's Chongqing municipality is the country's leading producer of pickled mustard tubers, with goods carrying the Fuling Mustard brand being exported to over 50 countries and regions, as well as enjoying widespread domestic sales.

In 2023, Chongqing reaped 2.78 million metric tons of mustard tubers — whose stems are made into the famed mustard as a finished product — with a cultivation area of 1.96 million mu (130,666 hectares), with the output processed into 1.42 million tons of pickled mustard tuber sales, accounting for more than 70 percent of the nation's total.

Currently, Chongqing administers 38 districts and counties, including autonomous counties, as a municipality.

Dianjiang county's cultivation area of mustard tubers reached 170,000 mu in 2023, accounting for about 38 percent of its total vegetable cultivation area, leading to a total output exceeding 400,000 tons, and a value of fresh sales and auxiliary processing of mustard tubers hitting 400 million yuan ($56.33 million), said Shen Jinjuan, director of the functional laboratory of a mustard tuber technology system innovation team in Chongqing.

At a demonstration base of the Chongqing Yudongnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, located in Changlong town under Dianjiang, more than 200 mu of early-market mustard tubers of the "Yuzao 100"variety entered their harvest season on Nov 22, marking the first successful trial cultivation of early-market mustard tubers at low altitudes in Chongqing.

"This year, I planted 70 mu of early-market mustard tubers, which is expected to produce some 1,500 kilograms per mu. If sold at an average price of 4 yuan per kilogram, the produce can bring me a total income of around 400,000 yuan," said Xie Jianming, a grower from Changyan village at Changlong.

Developed by the academy's mustard tuber breeding innovation team, the Yuzao 100 variety can reach maturity two months earlier and double the output value of conventional varieties.

"The successful trial not only sets a precedent for growing early-market mustard tubers in Chongqing's low-altitude areas, but also enriches the vegetable market during autumn and winter," said Shen, adding that they plan to promote its large-scale cultivation.

Yang Guangxia, deputy director of the fruit and vegetable management station in Dianjiang, said, "Next, we will collaborate with Shen's team to enhance its technology and manage cultivation scientifically, thus further extending the harvest period of mustard tubers and helping to boost farmers' incomes amid rural vitalization."