China sees bountiful autumn harvests

A combine harvester works in a soybean field in Nenjiang, a county-level city administered by Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo/Zhu Hairui)

As the ninth Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival approaches, farmers across China are bringing in bountiful harvests of crops ranging from rice and soybeans to sugarcane and apples.

In recent years, China has adopted an all-encompassing approach to agriculture and food, ensuring stable and safe supplies of grain and major agricultural products. Per capita grain availability now exceeds 500 kilograms — well above the internationally recognized food security threshold of 400 kilograms — while the sugar self-sufficiency rate tops 70 percent.

National-level seed bases can now guarantee over 80 percent of the country's seed supply, while drones and self-propelled equipment are used in hilly areas and orchards where mechanized farming was once difficult.

In Shanjian village in Yingshang county, Fuyang city, east China's Anhui Province, the rice is ripening. Cai Junjun, head of the Yuanfeng agricultural cooperative, said its 2,000 mu (about 133 hectares) of rice will be harvested in about 10 days, with yields expected to top 700 kilograms per mu.

Cai Junjun checks the growth of rice in Yingshang county, Fuyang city, east China's Anhui Province. (Photo/Li Peng)

With government subsidies, the cooperative bought four rice transplanters and built a seedling nursery. It has also switched to two-line hybrid rice, a variety that produces bigger grain heads and more stems per plant. "In the past, we mainly pursued yield. Now we focus on both yield and quality," Cai said.

This year, all the cooperative's rice was grown under fully biodegradable mulch film — a thin covering laid over the soil that retains water, curbs weeds and warms the ground, cutting herbicide use and improving rice quality.

Yingshang county, a major grain-producing area in northern Anhui, grows about 700,000 mu of rice every year.

"With the harvest just around the corner, we are guiding farmers to promote grain filling, boost grain weight and control pests in a timely manner to ensure a bumper harvest," said Hu Guanlin, head of the county's agricultural technology extension center.

In Changfu town, Nenjiang, a county-level city administered by Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, combine harvesters are at work in soybean fields.

Shang Jiying, a large-scale grower in the town's Donggang village, used to plant nothing but corn on his 500-plus mu of land — until continuous cropping sapped the black soil's fertility and price swings left him uneasy.

In 2022, agricultural technicians encouraged him to try crop rotation, starting with soybeans. He planted 30 mu, harvested nearly 225 kilograms per mu, and — with subsidies for soybean growers — came out ahead of what corn had earned him.

Now he splits his land evenly between the two crops to secure edible oil supplies while improving the soil.

Nenjiang city's soybean planting area exceeds 7 million mu, with output expected to top 850 million kilograms. Heilongjiang Province accounts for over 40 percent of China's soybean output.

In Fusui county, Chongzuo city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, sugarcane is approaching harvest, its sugar content nearing its peak. Mo Huixin, a large-scale sugarcane grower, plans to recruit 80 to 100 workers from southwest China's Yunnan and Guizhou provinces for the three-month harvest.

Photo shows Mo Huixin (R) and a technician who operates a plant protection drone in a sugarcane field for spraying in Fusui county, Chongzuo city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Tang Jing)

Plots once plowed by oxen have been consolidated into larger fields, planted with high-sugar, high-yield varieties and worked by GPS-guided tractors. Drones now spray pesticides and fertilizer. A drip irrigation system that delivers water and fertilizer together can be operated with one tap on a smartphone, saving 200 yuan (about $30) per mu. "Work that once took dozens of people can now be handled by four," Mo said.

Mo has leased 1,500 mu from villagers in Bapen Township. "Villagers can both collect rent for the transferred land and work in the fields for wages," he said, adding that sugarcane generates an income of about 1,000 yuan per mu.

Fusui is a major sugarcane-growing county, and it has built its economy around the crop: in the 2025/2026 crushing season, the county's sugarcane growers earned 570 million yuan more than the year before.

Guangxi as a whole has led the country in sugarcane planting area for 35 consecutive seasons. Growers' total income across the region rose 24.7 percent last season to a record high.

In Nangou village, Ansai district, Yan'an city, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, red Qincui apples are ripening. Zhao Yongdong, 70, picks apples before dawn, while his son Zhao Shengsheng sells them online, having gained 300,000 followers through short videos and livestreams.

Zhao Yongdong (1st L) and Zhao Shengsheng (2nd L) show apples in their family orchard in Nangou village, Ansai district, Yan'an city, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Photo/Hao Liping)

The village lies in a hilly, gully-strewn loess region where terraces once lost water, soil and fertilizer in heavy rain. Since 2015, it has merged narrow terraces into wider ones, built water storage facilities and drip irrigation lines, and constructed 18 kilometers of orchard roads. It now has 2,100 mu of apple orchards on the mountainsides and 1,060 mu of dwarf high-density demonstration orchards. That has made it one of the city's leading villages in adopting new varieties and technologies.

In 2025, the village's per capita disposable income reached 24,500 yuan, and its collective economic income hit 690,000 yuan.

Yan'an's apple orchards cover 3.321 million mu, with output expected to exceed 5 million tonnes this year and the combined output value of the entire apple industry chain expected to reach 62 billion yuan.