Cultivating capital cucumbers to keep cool

By Wing Tan  |   2008-7-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

SUMMER is the season for cucumbers - cool, delicious, nutritious and recommended by Chinese traditional medicine for their cooling, heat-expelling detoxifying properties.

The city's first cucumber cultivating base was set up last week in Jiading District's Xuhang Town. The suburban district adds another brand after nationally famous Malu grapes from Malu Town.

The Xuhang Cucumber Research Institute in Shuangying Vegetable and Fruit Park will develop new types of cucumbers with better quality, nicer taste and more nutrition.

With a total investment of 200,000 yuan (US$29,157), the institute covers more than 1.3 hectares of cucumber pilot fields tended by agriculture experts.

It was established jointly by the Shanghai Agricultural Committee, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Jiading District government.

The cucumber base has a room for monitoring growing vegetables and a laboratory with high-tech equipment to test soil condition, temperature, sun exposure and many other factors.

Its study team is comprised of six experts from the city's Academy of Agricultural Science, the district's and the town's agriculture committees.

The institute will cultivate new types of cucumbers by experimenting and analyzing the high-quality vegetables introduced from abroad. The aim is to satisfy the consumer market.

A cucumber trading center and distribution center are also planned as part of an integrated cucumber planting, selling and delivering chain.