Two Chinese fruit-growing areas have been added to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) heritage program that aims to preserve traditional farming techniques, website Chinadaily.com.cn reported.

The new entrants give China a total of eight sites under the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) initiative, which aims to nurture and adapt age-old systems to ensure food security and well-being, while also conserving genetic resources with related traditional knowledge.

Wannian Traditional Rice Culture is another of China's sites on the list. Photo: GIAHS, Flickr Creative Commons.

The first site is for the Kuaijishan Ancient Chinese Torreya in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province. More than 80% of Torreya production is from this area, with the tree used for the production of nuts, medicine, logs, oil, ornaments, and environmental protection purposes.

The Torreya community has more than 2,000 years of history, making these trees and practices a "living fossil" of ancient grafting and artificial selection techniques, according to GIAHS,

"The age of the oldest existing Chinese Torreya tree, already tested by experiments, is 1431 years, which might be the oldest living artificial grafted specimen in China," GIAHS said on its website.

"In addition, the Kuaijishan Ancient Chinese Torreya Community is a harmonious system that was created by the people of Shaoxing a long time ago that prevents soil erosion while providing diverse ‘high value’ economic products from the trees."

The second site is the Xuanhua Traditional Vineyards System, incorporating several villages in the northern Hebei province with a tradition dating back 1,300 years with funnel-shaped designed trellises that conserve soil and water while protecting grapes from frosts and strong winds.

The systems produce a fruit commonly known as "milk grapes", which the GIAHS describes as having the features of "thin skin, thick pulp, and moderate sweetness.

"Xuanhua milk grapes are called [sic] ‘treasure of the fruits’ and enjoys [sic] a high reputation both at home and abroad. The traditional cultivation of milk grapes is also a unique tourism attraction in [sic] Xuanhua District," the GIAHS description said.

The group said this "precious traditional courtyard-style vineyard and its culture" were endangered by encroaching urbanization with numbers declining every year.

"To discover such traditional agriculture heritages will help China and the whole world promote sustainable development in the future," Chinese Vice Minister of Agricluture Niu Dun was quoted as saying by Chinadaily.com.cn.

GIAHS has a range of sites across the world including the saffron heritage site Pampore in India, Chiloe Agriculture in Chile and Andean Agriculture in Peru. The potential site list also includes the Estahbanat Rainfield Fig System in Iran and the Lemon Gardens of southern Italy's Sorrentino-Amalfitana peninsula.

www.freshfruitportal.com