Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released the list for the 8thbatch of China nationally important agricultural heritage systems(China-NIAHS).Atotal of 88 traditional agricultural systems were included,four of which comefrom Shandong province, namely:Heze Peony Cultivation System, Feicheng Buddha Peach Cultivation System, Jiaozhou Chinese Cabbage Cultivation System and Pingyin Rose Cultivation System.

The selected agricultural heritage systems come from four cities — Heze, Tai’an, Qingdao and Jinan — and cover diverse agricultural categories including flowers, fruit trees and vegetables. These systems not only preserve distinctive local traditional cultivation techniques, but also bear farming culture and rural memories deeply rooted in the local communities.

​The 8thbatch ofChina-NIAHSwas selected through procedures including application at city and country levels, provincial recommendation, review and public notification, formulation of three-year action plan for inheritance and development, and comprehensive assessment.Rather than a single agricultural product or brand, aChina-NIAHSsite is traditional agricultural system that has taken shape over a long period and been inherited to this day, featuring multiple values including ecological, cultural and economic values.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs requires that every China-NIAHS locality should earnestly fulfil protection responsibilities and implement the three-year action plan for inheritance and development, to ensure the dynamically stable scale of major heritage distribution areas, the living inheritance of heritage functions, and the integrity of traditional agricultural landscapes within core protection zones.Meanwhile, local authorities should strengthen training for China-NIAHS inheritors, improve mechanisms linking heritage protection with farmers’interests, and promote the integration of protection and inheritance of farming culture with rural revitalization.