?Fujian saw trade with Taiwan, in agricultural goods, go above $1.2 billion, in 2013, for a year-on-year growth of 12 percent, a provincial rural agricultural conference heard recently, as news.fznews.com.cn explained, on Wednesday.

Fujian approved 48 Taiwan-backed agricultural projects last year, worth $120 million in all, and singled out 10 counties as demonstration sites for Fujian-Taiwan agricultural cooperation, with at least 100 improved varieties and 130 new techniques from Taiwan. It also established platforms for agricultural cooperation between the two.

Zhang Lixian, the head of the province’s Agriculture Dep’t, said they will continue work on a Taiwan Farmer Innovation Park that will play a bigger role in introducing more techniques, plant varieties, and management models, with more than 10 key projects costing above 500 million yuan in all, expected to be finished this year.

Fujian has always been a leader in cross-Straits agricultural, and other, cooperation, and was the first area to come up with local regulations promoting cross-Straits cooperation in agriculture. It has six national Taiwan Farmer Innovation Parks on the mainland out of a total? of 29, with the number ranking top across the country.

Eidted by Zhao Qian and Roger Bradshaw