Sci-tech Advances Boost Tibetan Agriculture

Agricultural science and technology have greatly contributed to the effective supply of agricultural products and helped raise the incomes of farmers and herders in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, local authorities said.

Financial spending on research and development in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry has long accounted for more than 60 percent of all the research and development investment in the entire region, according to the Science and Technology Department of Tibet.

The region has popularized a series of new agricultural and animal husbandry varieties, technologies, and equipment over recent decades, with more than 150 new nurtured crop varieties. Yields in Tibet’s highland barley surged from approximately 80 kilograms per mu (about 0.067 hectares) before the region’s peaceful liberation in 1951 to some 380 kilograms per mu at present.

Sci-tech innovation has also helped increase the income of farmers and herders. In 2020, the per capita disposable income of Tibet’s rural residents was RMB 14,598 (about US $2,250), up 12.7 percent over the previous year and marking the 18th year of double-digit annual growth.