China's breadbasket province realizes highly mechanized farming

HARBIN, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- As China's breadbasket province of Heilongjiang is poised for another bumper harvest, the province's mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvest has reached 98 percent, according to the provincial department of agriculture and rural affairs.

Heilongjiang has remained China's top grain producer for 12 consecutive years. Its grain growing area has kept stable at over 218 million mu (14.5 million hectares) this year.

The provincial department said the province's comprehensive mechanization rate of farming is about 25 percentage points higher than the national average, ranking first in the country.

Before the autumn harvest, the provincial authority mobilized to overhaul more than 2 million tractors, harvesters, and other harvesting machines and provided training for 124,000 person times.

At present, except for some winter corn plots, the harvesting has been completed across the province, according to the provincial department of agriculture and rural affairs, adding that data on this year's grain outputs are not yet available.

With the advancement of agricultural science and technology, Heilongjiang's comprehensive grain production capacity has continuously improved, with its total grain output increasing from 74.16 billion kg in 2016 to 78.7 billion kg in 2021.