BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- With another bumper harvest in China in sight despite natural disasters and other challenges, President Xi Jinping has called for unwavering efforts to ensure grain security, boost agriculture and benefit farmers.
As the seventh Chinese farmers' harvest festival was celebrated on Sunday, Xi noted that China had increased its summer grain output and ensured steady production of early rice and is expecting another bumper grain harvest throughout the year.
This favorable situation will provide strong support for consolidating and strengthening the country's economic recovery and improvement as well as for promoting high-quality development, according to Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Apart from extending festive greetings, Xi urged Party committees and governments at all levels to step up efforts to ensure grain security and encourage farmers to take actions to transform the rural revitalization blueprint into reality.
HOLDING ON "RICE BOWL" FIRMLY
Over the past decade and more, grain security and rural revitalization have remained high on the agenda of the top leader of China.
Xi has frequently visited the countryside during inspection tours. He talked with local people in the fields, greenhouses and orchards, inquiring in detail about rural and agricultural work, ranging from crop yields to the income of farmers.
When visiting a village in Hunan Province in March, Xi set foot on croplands to inspect spring farming and its preparation work.
He said that China, with a population of over 1.4 billion, must ensure its grain security through its own efforts. He stressed increasing grain production and quality, and enabling farmers to become rich by growing crops.
In November last year, he visited a village in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, where severe summer flooding had dealt a heavy blow to wheat and vegetable production.
The president urged efforts to restore the damaged farmlands and agricultural facilities and ramp up support for supplies of agricultural resources, so that a bumper harvest would be secured.
Through concerted efforts, China's grain output rose to a record high of 695.41 million tonnes in 2023, marking the ninth consecutive year for the country to register a grain harvest of over 650 million tonnes. The country had developed over 1 billion mu (about 66.7 million hectares) of high-standard farmlands as of the end of 2023.
RURAL REVITALIZATION IN FULL SWING
Xi has repeatedly stressed promoting comprehensive rural revitalization and accelerating the pace of agricultural and rural modernization.
To advance Chinese modernization, it is imperative to promote comprehensive rural revitalization, he said.
On his inspection tour in Gansu Province earlier this month, Xi went to an apple production base in the city of Tianshui to get first-hand information about planting, technology and management of the base.
"The key to rural revitalization is industrial revitalization," said Xi, calling for strengthened efforts to protect and optimize the cultivation of the apple variety Hua'niu and apply new marketing models so that the specialty industry will be expanded, and more people will increase their income.
Xi's remarks resonated with local farmers. Wu Shuangquan, a member of an apple planting cooperative in Tianshui, said they grow more than 330 hectares of Hua'niu apples this year, and the sweet and juicy fruits are now ready to hit the market.
"General Secretary Xi stressed that every effort must be made to enhance the economic benefits of agriculture, increase farmers' incomes, inject greater vitality into the countryside and bring tangible benefits to farmers. We are all motivated to work even harder," Wu said.
Speaking on multiple occasions, Xi has also underlined the necessity of properly developing specialty industries. He mentioned some cases of success, including the black fungus industry in a village in the Qinling Mountain area in northwest China, and the daylily base in Shanxi Province.
Thriving local specialty industries as well as new industries and new forms of business in rural areas have indeed bolstered China's rural revitalization. In the first half of this year, the per capita disposable income of rural residents reached 11,272 yuan (about 1,598 U.S. dollars), an increase of 6.6 percent in real terms. The growth rate was 2.1 percentage points higher than that of urban residents.
Actions to deepen farmers' pocket are continuing. During an ongoing pro-sales campaign that was launched before the farmers' harvest festival and will last until the end of November, e-commerce platforms and businesses help farmers sell agricultural products such as soybeans, milk and beef via livestreaming, and have rolled out other preferential measures. ■