On April 30, the 2024 "Belt and Road" Melon and Vegetable Industry Development Conference Achievement Exhibition and the 7th Hanting Watermelon Promotion Expo were held at the International Expo Hall of Weifang National Agricultural Comprehensive Zone.
2024 is the beginning of a new decade for the Belt and Road Initiative. The 2024 "Belt and Road" Melon and Vegetable Industry Development Conference actively responds to the national "Belt and Road" initiative and the major decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee on "East-West Cooperation", and builds bridges of exchange, mutual benefit and win-win results in Kashgar Prefecture of Xinjiang, Samolkhan Prefecture of Uzbekistan and Weifang of Shandong Province. From April 22nd to 30th, the event lasted for 9 days, focusing on topics such as intergovernmental scientific and technological cooperation, cultural exchanges, industrial innovation and development, and the co-construction of a big data platform for melon and vegetables in the future, setting off a "multi-dish" and "sweet" upsurge of melon and vegetable cooperation.
As the last stop of the 2024 "Belt and Road" Melon and Vegetable Industry Development Conference, the 7th Hanting Watermelon Promotion Expo was full of highlights, not only signed a germplasm resource sharing agreement, held a signing ceremony to jointly build a "Science and Technology Institute of Science, Industry and Education Collaborative Innovation and Education Consortium", but also held the exhibition of special agricultural products in Weifang, Shandong, China, Kashgar Prefecture of Xinjiang and Samarkand Prefecture of Uzbekistan, Hanting Watermelon Brand Exhibition, Unair New Variety Achievement Exhibition, etc.
At the opening ceremony, the new varieties of watermelon in Hanting, cluster watermelon and functional nutrition watermelon, were released on the spot.
It is understood that the new varieties of cluster watermelon can increase the planting density by 1-2 times per unit area, reduce the whole vine, increase the yield per mu, increase the income of farmers, and increase agricultural efficiency;
In recent years, Weifang Hanting District has vigorously developed the landmark agricultural products of "Hanting Watermelon", relying on the core area of the Agricultural Comprehensive Zone and the National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, guiding leading enterprises and farmers' professional cooperatives, family farms, farmers and other industrial associations to form an industrial consortium, giving scientific and technological strength to traditional watermelon planting and copyright registration and protection, and making the watermelon industry stronger and bigger. The watermelon planting area of "Hanting Watermelon" in the whole area reaches 57,000 mu, with an output value of about 1.8 billion yuan, which is a national geographical indication product and has also become a "sweet" cause for local melon farmers.