The lucrative tea industry is a pillar sector of Songyang county's agriculture. [Photo/Songyang county publicity department]

Songyang county – administered by Lishui city in East China's Zhejiang province – recently established a tea garden carbon sink research center, to explore the ecological value of this form of agriculture.

A news conference on realizing the value of a tea garden carbon sink was held in Songyang on March 27. Zhang Zhe, deputy head of the county, said it was actively exploring a mechanism for ecological value conversion, cultivating the tea sector as a pillar industry of agriculture and expanding new ways for tea farmers to increase their incomes.

A tea garden carbon sink mainly involves the tea trees absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. It also involves a significant improvement in soil quality, by employing low-carbon production modes such as the use of organic green manure and returning waste tea branches to the field in the process of tea garden planting and management.

As early as 2018, Songyang cooperated with the Tea Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to establish the world's first tea carbon neutral experimental base.

Last year, the county signed a cooperation framework agreement with the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on low-carbon tea garden construction and a carbon sink value realization mechanism.

The newly established tea garden carbon sink research center is another example of the cooperation between Songyang and the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Moving forwards, plans are for the two sides to deepen their joint efforts in low-carbon tea garden construction, tea garden carbon sink value realization, talent construction and other areas.

It's expected this will provide further impetus for the green development of Songyang's tea industry.