General Introduction of Agriculture in Hainan

Hainan province, located in the southernmost point of China, is evergreen all year round and thus usually known as “the natural greenhouse”. As the most important production base of natural rubber，breeding base of crop seed in southern China, Specific Animal Disease Free Zone and tropical agricultural base, Hainan considers agriculture as the fundamental, pillar and competitive industry in its economy.     I. General Introduction of Agriculture in Hainan Located in the southernmost point of China, Hainan boasts a tropical marine monsoon climate with abundant sunlight and temperature which are suitable for the photosynthesis of plants. Therefore, Hainan is rich in resources of species and vegetations and is considered as the golden place for developing tropical high-efficiency agriculture with its own characteristics. Hainan covers a land area of 3.5354 million hectares, 42.5% of the tropical and subtropical land in China. The arable land is 769,000 hectares, which is 21.8% of the province’s total land area. Hainan has a population of 8.178 million, among which the agrarian population is 5.6 million, accounting for 68.5% of the total population.

In recent years, Hainan has carried out the development strategy of “a province with one base and one resort” (i.e. building Hainan into a newly industrialized province with a tropical high-efficiency agricultural base and a tourist resort.), continuously consolidated the fundamental and pillar position of agriculture, actively pushed forward the strategic adjustment of agriculture and rural economic structure with the market demand as the orientation and resources as the basis, intensified the effort in developing market agriculture, green agriculture and technological agriculture, promoted the industrialized operation of agriculture and the overall quality of agriculture so as to accelerate the development of agricultural economy. In 2006, the added value of agriculture in Hainan reached 34.42 billion yuan, increased by 9.1% compared with the same period of last year; the per capita net income of farmers is 3,256 yuan, increased by 8.4% compared with the same period of last year, which exceeds the goal stipulated by the Eleventh Five-Year Plan of a year-on-year growth rate of 6%The added value of agriculture still accounts for 32.73% of the total GDP of Hainan.     II. Development of Competitive Industries of Hainan’s Agriculture Unique natural resource and sound ecological environment contribute to the diversified structures and distinctive features of Hainan’s agriculture. Compared to other provinces nationwide, the competitive industries and industries with special characteristics of Hainan’s agriculture can be classified in six groups:     (1) Out-of-season vegetables. In winter, thanks to its abundant sunlight and suitable temperature, Hainan has incomparable advantages in cultivating vegetables with their low cost and outstanding quality. The annual vegetable acreage in Hainan is 3.2158 million acres with a total output of 4.487 million tons. This has become one of the major sources of farmers’ income. 80% of the out-of-season vegetables are sold to 50 large- and medium-size cities in mainland China, while the rest are exported to Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, etc.     (2) Tropical fruits. In recent years, tropical fruit industry has witnessed a rapid growth and ranked one of the competitive industries with great potential. Hainan boasts a great variety of fruits, such as banana, mango, pineapple, jackfruit, litchi, longan, carambola, green orange, wax-apple. The total fruit acreage in Hainan reaches 2.5461 million acres with a total output of 1.8785 million tons, among which banana acreage is 690,000 acres with an output of 1.0863 million tons, mango 692,500 acres with an output of 262,400 tons, ranking the first in China, pineapple 192,500 acres with an output of 211,400 tons, litchi and longan 633,800 acres with an output of 109,100 tons.     (3) Tropical cash crops. The tropical crop is a distinctive feature of Hainan’s agriculture, which includes rubber, coconut, betel palm, pepper, coffee bean, etc. The annual total tropical crop acreage of Hainan stands at 7.8923 million acres, among which natural rubber acreage is 6.0323 million acres with the dry glue output of 247,500 tons, accounting for 46.9% of the national total output, coconut 646,100 acres with an output of 214 million tons, 98.7% of the national total output, betel palm 796,000 acres with an output of 74,800 tons, 100% of the national total output, pepper 343,900 acres with an output of 31,400 tons, 98.7% of the national total output.     (4) Husbandry. Surrounded by sea, which provides a natural protection against epidemics, Hainan island has prominent advantages and distinct features in developing husbandry. Wenchang Chicken, Jiaji Duck, Dongshan Mutton, Lingao Roast Pig enjoy high reputation inside and outside the Island. In particular, as the construction of the Specific Animal Disease Free Zone and the epidemic prevention monitoring system continuously improve, Hainan has not only successfully controlled the occurring and spreading of the major animal epidemics such as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and safeguarded its brand name as the epidemic-free and healthy island, but also effectively promoted the rapid development of husbandry of the whole province. Last year, the total output of meat products of Hainan reached 683,100 tons with the double digital growth rate for five consecutive years. The meat products have been sold to the mainland market, which lays a solid foundation for the construction of the National Livestock and Poultry Product Export Base.     (5) Seed breeding industry. As the seed breeding base in southern China, every year Hainan receives 5,000 experts and researchers specializing in seed breeding from all over the country. They have come to Hainan to launch research and production in breeding seeds, adding generations and testing and made a great contribution to seed improvement and upgrading by breeding seeds of 150,000 acres with the output of 28,000 tons;     (6) Processing industry for agricultural products. Hainan has a wide range of agriculture specialties with considerable production capacity. But the scale of the processing industry is not large enough and still has room for improvement. There are more than 3,500 processing enterprises in Hainan, among which only 360 have realized economy of scale. Though the added value of the processing industry reaches 3 billion, the conversion rate is only 35% lower than the national average. Given the above factors, the processing industry of tropical agricultural products promises a vast market and immense potential.