The Jiangsu Nanjing National Agricultural High-tech Industry Demonstration Zone, the only national agricultural high-tech industries demonstration zone in the Yangtze River Delta, is a science and technology innovation hub for the sector and a driver of new quality productive forces.

It has established an entire agricultural technology transfer system, facilitating the application and dissemination of innovative agro-technologies.

Joining resources for key tasks

The zone owes its success to pooling resources to accomplish major tasks. It provides integrated, one-stop services to transition agricultural innovations from laboratories to fields swiftly.

Cultivating "two berries" — blueberries and blackberries — is a specific example.

Take blueberry as an example. The zone houses the country's most comprehensive blueberry germplasm resource nursery, preserving 120,000 valuable germplasm samples and developing 99 blueberry germplasm varieties. This was made possible through collaborative research by seven universities and institutions.

To keep the berries fresh, the zone connected local company Nanjing Tianguo Agricultural Technology Co. with universities and institutes. Together, they developed a technology that can extend post-harvest preservation of berries to seven days. The goal now is to make it 15 to 20 days.

In 2024, the "two berries" yielded 8,600 tons of fresh fruit and generated 160 million RMB in sales and 420 million RMB in processed product value in the zone.

Helping enterprises grow big

This success story would not have been possible without policy support.

The zone supports enterprises by building an environment where startups can sprout, small businesses soar, and leading companies surge. This can be attributed to its effective applications of suitable policies and resource support at each stage.

Jiangsu Holly Tree Garden Co. in the zone boasts the nation's largest collection of wintergreen plant germplasm resources and is the largest wintergreen plant production base in Jiangsu province. It is also a research platform.

Inside the company, people can see employees and farmers growing seedlings from cuttings. Students from Nanjing Forestry University were also there, conducting research experiments. Hao Mingzhuo, a professor from the university, said he has been leading student teams to do research in the zone since 2019. This year, the team won the Forestry Science and Technology Award from the Jiangsu Society of Forestry.

"We innovate traditional cultivation models, apply advanced technologies, and achieve breakthroughs in factory seedling cultivation of wintergreen and amaryllis," Hao said.

The zone has nurtured 39 high-tech enterprises, 54 large-scale industrial enterprises, and 21 specialized and sophisticated enterprises making new and unique products. In 2024, over 100 enterprises in the zone were recognized as science and technology-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises.