4. Potato farming

Potatoes are the main crop in many impoverished areas, but farmers have been troubled by pests and disease. To address these problems, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a fertilizer aimed at helping crops absorb more nutrients. The academy also encouraged the use of fungicides to prevent diseases. Shuicheng, a county in the mountains of Guizhou province, is known for a shortage of arable land - the cultivated area per capita being only about 0.1 hectare. When the technologies were introduced, grain output increased by about 70 percent compared with 2017. The academy said these technologies have also been promoted in the Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions.