Baby potatoes from Xiji County in northwest China are making their way to farmers’ fields across the country’s main potato-producing region as the planting season for potatoes draws near.

The county, which is sometimes known as China’s “potato land”, recently experienced a bumper crop of potatoes, in part due to the success of the soilless farming techniques developed by a nearby center for potato cultivation.

The center’s general manager, He Jiandong, has been hard at work encouraging local farmers to grow baby potatoes.

“The baby potatoes we cultivate here are free from any diseases or poisonous substances found in soil. This is because they are initially grown in a clean indoor environment. The best seedlings are selected and placed on shelves, their roots are hung in boxes, and they are sprayed with water to allow them to grow fast,” He mentioned, cited by Xinhua.

The county’s farmers grow quality potatoes over a total area of 666.67 hectares thanks to the 60m baby potatoes that He’s cultivation center and two other comparable baby potato producers in Xiji produce each year.

“By adopting the new technology, we have raised the potato productivity rate by 30%, while reducing the production costs of farmers by 40% and cutting the soil pollution rate to below 2%,” Jiandong declared for the above-mentioned source.

The baby potatoes, which are walnut-sized and light in weight and are sold in a variety of places, particularly to those with similar natural conditions to Xiji, are simple to transport.

“Farmers can simply bury them in the soil and wait for them to grow, and urban households can also plant them in pots,” He concluded.