The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs recently released the list of the 8th batch of China’s Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. Four systems from Anhui Province have made the list: the Keemun Black Tea Cultural System, the Hanshan Wetland Rice Cultivation Cultural System, the Wanzhi Polder Agricultural System, and the Nanqiao Chuju Chrysanthemum Cultivation System.

Centered on the craftsmanship of Keemun black tea, the Keemun Black Tea Cultural System features a mountainous agricultural landscape of “forests – tea gardens – villages – workshops – ponds and watercourses”. It is an integrated “nature-economy-society-culture” agricultural system shaped by millennia of inheritance and a century of innovation.

The Hanshan Wetland Rice Cultivation Cultural System is a composite agricultural heritage developed by generations of farmers through polder construction, rice farming, wetland utilisation and water regulation. Centered on the Dayutan Wetland Polder Rice Cultivation System as its living carrier, it embodies ecological wisdom of interdependence and co-evolution among rice paddies, wetlands, water networks and human settlements.

The Wanzhi Polder Agricultural System was developed by local ancestors to adapt to the low-lying waterlogged terrain in the Jiangnan region. It follows the model of “outer embankments for polders, inner canals for water diversion, integrated land-water interaction, and mixed planting and breeding”. Supported by turtle-back shaped polders and a grid-like water network structured by ten vertical and ten horizontal canals, it forms a harmonious ecosystem linking farmland, water conservancy and villages.

The Nanqiao Chuju Chrysanthemum Cultivation System is a distinctive agricultural heritage forged by ancient farmers in Chuzhou over thousands of years to adapt to the unique natural conditions of the hilly Jianghuai Watershed. It constitutes an integrated agricultural system combining traditional cultivation, intangible cultural heritage processing, germplasm conservation, and agriculture-culture-tourism integration.

To date, Anhui is home to 12 China’s Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. Besides the four newly inscribed this round, the others are the Shouxian Quepi (Anfengtang) and Irrigation District Agricultural System, the Xiuning Mountain Spring Fish Farming System, the Huangshan Taiping Houkui Tea Cultural System, the Tongling White Ginger Cultivation System, the Taihu Mountain Composite Agricultural System, the Yi’an Fengdan Peony Cultivation System, the Qingyang Jiuhua Sealwort Cultivation System, and the Shexian Terraced Tea Garden Agricultural System.

Source: Anhui Daily