A neighboring county of Beijing is developing ecologically friendly farms so as to help ease the water shortage in Beijing.

Located in the upper reaches of the major rivers that flow into the Miyuan reservoir in northwestern suburbs of Beijing, Luanping county in north China's Hebei province plays a key role in securing water sources of the capital city of China.

In order to stop continuous decreasing of water level at the Miyuan reservoir, the major supply of drinking water of Beijing, the Ministry of Water Conservancy and the municipal government of Beijing have jointly set up an eco-farm zone encompassing Luanping county and other areas of water sources of the city.

The government has also drafted a plan to guarantee sustainable development of water resources of the capital city in the beginning the 21 century.

Luanping county began to experiment with ecologically friendly farms in March, 2000. With technical, financial and policy support from the government, experts and enterprises, the county developed nine hectares of herbal farms and seven hectares of date tree orchards.

By adopting spray irrigation in the farms and orchards, local farmers managed to use 50 percent less water.

The county is planning to develop more than 266 hectares of herbal farms and plant 10, 000 date trees next year. Meanwhile, it will cultivate about 133 hectares of vegetables that are free from any synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

The water economy and economic returns of these herbal farms and orchards have encouraged more and more local farmers to change their conventional farming styles. Traditional crops such as corn and rice are losing dominance in local farming.

For example, a farmer household can earn more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) every year by planting isatis roots, a Chinese herbal grass.

Wu Jisong, an official from the Ministry of Water Conservancy`, said that eco-farms have played a key role in improving the living standards of the local people and, at the same time, protecting water resources of the capital city.

He said that changing the old farming styles is the key to resolve the conflict between preservation of water sources and lifting poverty for local farmers.

The local government of Luanping county is planning to encourage local farmers to plant more Chinese herbal medicine, date trees and vegetables next year.

(Beijing-2008 11/08/2000)