China: Guizhou Steps up Infrastructure Development for Tobacco Production

Source from:  Golden Sun Times News 10/08/2008

Guiyang City in southwest China's Guizhou Province - a key high-quality leaf tobacco producing region - is taking steps to strengthen the development of infrastructure facilities for leaf tobacco production, including the earmark of 20 million yuan (2.85 million U.S. dollars) for building irrigation systems for tobacco fields. As a national-level high-quality leaf tobacco-producing region, Guiyang boasts a favorable ecological environment and geographical advantage for producing high-quality leaf tobacco. However, existing infrastructure facilities for tobacco production in the city have not been well established, which seriously restricts further development of high-quality leaf tobacco production in the city. Since 2007, Guiyang City has intensified efforts to develop infrastructure facilities for tobacco production, with the extension of 50 million yuan (7.14 million U.S. dollars) in investment mainly in the construction of irrigation systems for tobacco fields so far. By the end of July 2008, the city had put to implementation 34 projects of building irrigation systems for tobacco fields, newly covering more than 30,000 mu (2,000 hectares) of tobacco fields. Besides, the city had newly built large-sized horizontal-type curing barns and technically transformed small-sized intensive curing barns numbering 2,713, newly covering more than 33,000 mu (2,200 hectares) of tobacco fields. In 2008, Guiyang City is planning to invest a further 20 million yuan (2.85 million U.S. dollars) for building irrigation systems for tobacco fields, build 100 more large-sized horizontal-type curing barns, and technically transform 1,111 more external heating curing barns in the city. Enditem