Processing tomatoes in Manas, Xinjiang are achieving a bumper harvest. Mechanized harvesting is more efficient.

The processing tomatoes in Manas, Xinjiang, are enjoying a bumper harvest. Mechanized harvesting is more efficient.

Cui Ning: I'm currently in Lanzhouwan Town, Manas County. This is the area with the largest tomato planting area in the local region, with nearly 10,000 mu of continuous planting area. Almost every vine is like this, laden with fruits, fully covered with tomatoes. The average yield per mu can reach about 8.5 to 9 tons. On the spot, there are large tomato harvesters at work. The tomatoes being harvested here are not the common fresh tomatoes we usually see, but processing tomatoes used for making tomato paste. The familiar tomato paste we know is produced from them.

During the harvesting process, the harvesting machine collects the entire plant including the branches and fruits. In the front of this vehicle, there is a separation device that separates the fruits from the branches. It also uses a fan to blow the branches away. On this vehicle, apart from the separation device, there is also a dual-color sorter that can identify unripe green tomatoes and ripe red tomatoes. After identification, it leaves the red tomatoes and "pops" the green tomatoes out. We can test it with a green tomato. You can see that when it identifies the green tomato, the popper will rise and push the green tomato out. It is very sensitive. In front of it, there is a display that shows the color sorting ratio, soil content, and the number of branches during the harvesting process in real time.

Currently in this area, the mechanical harvesting rate of processed tomatoes has reached 100%. Each machine can harvest 70 to 90 acres of land per day, with extremely high efficiency. During the entire process, very little manual labor is required. The vines blown down by the fans are actually a kind of feed that cattle and sheep love very much. During our interviews over the past few days, we also saw that in almost every harvested tomato field, there would be large groups of sheep feasting on them. In autumn, farmers will turn the remaining vines and sheep manure back into the soil as fertilizer, allowing it to fully return to nature.

These harvested tomatoes will also be transported to the nearby processing plant as quickly as possible. Due to the long sunshine duration and large temperature differences in Xinjiang, the quality of these tomatoes is also very good. The lycopene content in tomato sauce produced here can reach approximately 85 milligrams per kilogram.

Now, the entire Changji Prefecture where Manas County is located has seen the tomato planting area exceed 200,000 mu this year, with an estimated output of 1.9 million tons. It can be said that the tomato industry has become a major driving force for local rural revitalization.