Wuyuan Wheat

Wuyuan Wheat

Wuyuan wheat is a product with a geographical indication.

　　Wuyuan wheat is a specialty of Wuyuan County in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia. Wuyuan County is located in the Hetao Plain, part of the world-renowned "800-li Hetao Granary," boasting a history of 2,400 years and profound cultural heritage. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was renamed from Jiuyuan Commandery to Wuyuan Commandery, and the county was officially established in 1912, where it remains to this day. Wuyuan was historically home to events such as Meng Tian building the Great Wall to the north, Wei Qing fighting the Xiongnu, and famous poetic lines like Li Bai’s “Far off Wuyuan Pass, northern snow scatters among border flowers” and Zhang Jingzhong’s “Delayed return to Wuyuan, in February the willows show no silk.” In modern history, Wang Tongchun, a local gentry known as the “river god among men,” dug canals and managed water systems, reclaiming land and pioneering large-scale agricultural development in the Hetao region, turning Wuyuan into a place with fertile land, pleasant climate, crisscrossing irrigation channels, and reliable harvests — the “Jiangnan beyond the Great Wall.” In contemporary history, General Feng Yuxiang pledged his troops in Wuyuan, and General Fu Zuoyi resisted the Japanese in battle here, further enhancing the county's fame. According to the *Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Crop Chronicles: Agricultural Chronicles*, wheat cultivation existed in our region as early as the Neolithic Age. In 1940, the Western Sui Agricultural Improvement Institute introduced a batch of wheat seeds from Sichuan and tested them in various banners and counties of the Bayannur League. That year, the average yield was 750 kg per hectare. By 1949, wheat fields in the Hetao Irrigation District accounted for 90% of the region’s total wheat sown area. By the mid-1970s, wheat yields had significantly increased to 6,067 kg per hectare. Wuyuan County is one of the national commodity grain bases and also an important production site for green agricultural and livestock products for both the state and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In 1983, the People’s Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region decided to systematically and step-by-step develop 15 banners and counties, including Wuyuan County, into stable and high-yield commodity grain bases. The wheat planting area in Wuyuan County reached up to 600,000 mu at its peak, but has since decreased somewhat due to lower comparative benefits. In 2013, the wheat planting area was 247,000 mu. The main wheat variety currently grown in Wuyuan is Yongliang No. 4, which was successfully cultivated in 1984 by Qiu Zhixin, a sent-down educated youth from Tianjin working at the Yongning County Seed Farm in Ningxia. This variety has been planted in our county for nearly 30 years. Owing to the area's abundant light energy, long sunshine hours, large diurnal temperature variations, low but concentrated rainfall, and the dominant soil type being irrigated sedimentary soil with a loamy surface layer that is highly workable and rich in potassium, the wheat produced here features full grains, high test weight, high protein content, and high gluten value. The resulting flour is versatile, producing dumplings and noodles with good color, translucency, and superior eating quality — they are chewy, smooth, and have excellent elasticity and stickiness.

　　Region: Inner Mongolia

　　Applicant: Wuyuan County Agricultural Technology Extension Center

　　Year of designation: 2014

　　Geographical Scope

　　Wuyuan County is located in the western part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in Bayannur City. It borders the Yellow River to the south, the Yin Mountains to the north, and neighbors Wulate Front Banner to the east and Linhe District to the west. It lies in the heart of the Hetao Plain, featuring flat terrain with a land slope of only 1/8,000. National Highway 110, the Beijing–Baotou–Lanzhou Expressway, and the Baotou–Lanzhou Railway all run through the county. The geographical coordinates of the Wuyuan wheat geographical indication protection area are: longitude 107°35′70″ to 108°37′50″, latitude 40°46′30″ to 41°16′45″. It stretches approximately 62.5 km from east to west and about 40 km from north to south. The county administers 9 towns, 117 administrative villages, and 774 communities, with a total population of 303,000, including 52,978 households. Of these, 210,000 are agricultural residents, with 100,000 laborers. The total arable land area is 2.3 million mu. The wheat production area in the county covers 16,467 hectares, yielding 86,450 tons.

　　Product Quality Characteristics

　　External Sensory Characteristics: The main wheat variety grown in Wuyuan is Yongliang No. 4, a distinctive variety of the Hetao Irrigation District. These wheat grains are full, with high test weight, high protein content, and high gluten value. The flour produced is highly versatile, yielding dumplings and noodles with good color, translucency, and notable glassy appearance. These foods offer excellent eating quality — they are chewy, smooth, and have good elasticity and stickiness. The wheat is also highly nutritious, making it very popular with consumers. Internal Quality Characteristics: Wuyuan wheat tastes good and is rich in nutrition. Testing shows that its protein content is 14–18.0g/100g, gluten content is 27–33%, energy is 1,489–1,536 KJ/100g, and carbohydrates are 68.4–70.2g/100g. Its protein content and wet gluten content are respectively 1.4% and 3.3% higher than the national average. Safety Requirements: The production environment strictly complies with the standards of the *Pollution-Free Vegetable Production Environment Conditions* (NY5010—2001).