"Potato King" competition held to celebrate farmers' festival
The first "Potato King" competition was recently held to celebrate the first Chinese Farmers' Festival as well as the harvest in Namling County of Shigatse City, southwest China's Tibet.
People from each village came to the competition with their own potatoes, and each household selects their largest potato to weigh and register, so as to find whose potato is much heavier.
Finally, Lhapa Tsering from the Dechen Village of Ema Township won the first place with his 1.225 kilogram-weight-potato.
"Potato King" winner Lhapa Tsering has planted 20 mu (1.3 hectares) of potatoes this year, harvesting 3,000 kilograms of potatoes per mu (0.067 hectares).
He said, "Now, under the guidance of professional technical personnel, the harvest gets better year by year, and the annual income can reach more than 100,000 yuan (14,560 US dollars)."
It is understood that as of 2017, the potato cultivation area in Shigatse reached 148,800 mu (9,900 hectares), with the total production amounting to 269,400 tons, both of which accounts for more than 60% of those of the whole Tibet.
The "Ema Potato" of Nanmulin County has successfully obtained the agricultural product geographical indication of China, and the potato industry has become a new benchmark and new business card of Shigatse.