Wuxue Double-Low Rapeseed

Wuxue Double-Low Rapeseed

Wuxue Double-Low Rapeseed is a product certified with a Geographical Indication for Agricultural Products.

　　Wuxue City, formerly known as Guangji County (Guangji County Annals, p. 34), is located on the northern bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the southern foothills of the Dabie Mountains. The area has a long history of rapeseed cultivation, with written records dating back to the Qing Dynasty (Qing·Guangji County Annals, p. 38). In 1979, the county’s rapeseed production reached 8,500 tons, ranking first among all counties in the province (Guangji County Annals, p. 30). Starting in 1988, double-low rapeseed varieties such as “Huashuang No. 2” and “Huashuang No. 3” were gradually promoted (Wuxue City Annals, pp. 142, 156). By the 1990s, the planting area of double-low rapeseed in Wuxue continued to expand, and the city was designated by the state as a development demonstration zone for double-low rapeseed in the Yangtze River Basin (Wuxue City Annals, p. 142). In 1995, the planted area reached 260,000 mu, with an average yield of 191.2 kg per mu and a total output of 44,961 tons (Wuxue City Annals, p. 149). In 1997, it ranked first in Hubei Province in rapeseed production evaluation. On January 19, 1998, the then Premier of the State Council visited Wuxue and inspected the 10,000-mu high-quality double-low rapeseed demonstration base in Dajin Flatland, Dajin Town. He highly commended the efforts of the Wuxue Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government in vigorously developing the double-low rapeseed industry and promoting rural economic development (Wuxue City Annals, p. 7). In April 2003, Wuxue City was awarded the title of “China’s Major Double-Low Rapeseed Producing City” by the National High-Quality Agricultural Products Service Center. In 2006, Wuxue’s double-low rapeseed was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture as a national standardized production base for green food raw material—double-low rapeseed, establishing a 163,000-mu standardized production demonstration base. In 2012, it was designated by Hubei Province as a model county for the full-scale promotion of standardized green food double-low rapeseed production, with 360,000 mu of standardized production area, accounting for over 80% of the city’s arable land. In 2009, it was named a “Major Rapeseed County” by the Hubei Provincial Government and honored as the “Hometown of Rapeseed in China.”

　　Double-low rapeseed refers to rapeseed varieties with erucic acid content below 3% in the oil and glucosinolate content below 30 μmol/g in the cake. The main fatty acids in rapeseed oil include oleic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, and erucic acid. Double-low rapeseed contains up to 60% oleic acid, hence it is known as “the healthiest oil.”

　　Geographical Scope

　　The production area includes 12 double-low rapeseed cultivation regions in Wuxue City: Meichuan Town, Yuchuan Town, Dajin Town, 0 Temple Town, Siwang Town, Shifosi Town, Huaqiao Town, Longping Town, Wuxue Administrative Office, Kanjiang Administrative Office, Tianzhen Administrative Office, and Wanzhanghu Administrative Office. Wuxue City, formerly known as Guangji County, is located between 29°50′–30°13′ N latitude and 115°22′–115°49′ E longitude. It lies on the northern bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the southern foothills of the Dabie Mountains, on the eastern edge of eastern Hubei. It borders Huangmei County to the east, Qichun County to the northwest, faces Yangxin County across the river to the southwest, and is separated from Jiujiang and Ruichang in Jiangxi Province by the Yangtze River to the south. Strategically located at the junction of Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi, it has historically been a key hub known as the “thoroughfare of seven counties across three provinces.” As early as the Ming Dynasty, it became an important riverside town. By the early Qing Dynasty, it developed into a bustling commercial port, was designated as a foreign vessel anchorage under the Yantai Treaty, included in Sun Yat-sen’s development plans in The International Development of China, and by the mid-Republic of China period, it had become one of Hubei Province’s “seven major commercial ports,” often referred to as the “First Gateway to Chu” and the “Gateway to Eastern Hubei.” Today, with rapid modernization, Wuxue is within the Wuhan 8+1 City Development Circle, situated within the tourism loop of Huangshan, Tianzhu Mountain, and Lushan, and located in the transitional economic development zone of China that bridges the east and west. It is also a key city along the central section of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway. The city covers an area of 1,200.35 square kilometers, accounting for 0.65% of Hubei Province’s total area. The terrain slopes from north to south, with the northern part consisting of the Dabie Mountain foothills, the central area featuring undulating hills and crisscrossing lakes and rivers, and the southern region forming a strip of Yangtze River alluvial plain. The perennial planting area of double-low rapeseed remains above 430,000 mu, with an annual output exceeding 75,000 tons.