With the Autumn Equinox just days away, regions across the country are entering the harvest season. Golden fields, fragrant fruits, and a bustling scene of agricultural work define the landscape. How is this year's harvest shaping up in our commercial grain production bases? Have the newly developed smart farming machines proven their worth on the ground? What fresh progress has been made in building beautiful villages and boosting county economies? Recently, our "Vitality China Research Tour" reporting team visited Heilongjiang, Henan, and Hubei provinces to witness the rural dynamism firsthand.

During this golden autumn, the vast black soil of Heilongjiang Province is welcoming its busiest harvest period. As the nation's leading grain-producing province, Heilongjiang has made planting more and better grain its primary mission, acting as a steadfast "ballast stone" for national food security. In 2025, the province's total grain output exceeded 164 billion catties, ranking first nationwide for the 16th consecutive year—meaning one in every nine bowls of rice in the country comes from Heilongjiang. By the end of 2025, the province had built over 125 million mu of high-standard farmland.

Cong Li, Vice Governor of Heilongjiang Province, emphasized that safeguarding national food security is a political responsibility the province firmly upholds. A responsibility system has been established in grain production, with layers of accountability set at the provincial, city, and county levels. Thirteen provincial-level science and technology support teams are guiding work in their designated areas, while more than 26,000 agricultural officials and technical personnel have been deployed to the front lines, providing hands-on guidance in the fields. The province is advancing the integrated efficiency of "good farmland, good seeds, good machinery, good methods, and good systems."

This year, the over one million mu of rice at Qixing Farm under Beidahuang Group is thriving, with rice ears and stalks appearing sturdier than in previous years. To adapt to these changes and reduce harvest losses, technicians are working diligently to modify combines. Farm staff explained that the rice planted here is cold-region rice suited to the local climate. To overcome the challenges of increasing yields in cold regions, they have continuously optimized seed selection and upgraded every stage of cultivation, management, harvesting, and processing. In recent years, the farm has adopted varieties better suited to current new technologies and agronomic practices, and this year, innovations were introduced in sowing methods.

Zhang Huagui, head of agricultural production at Qixing Farm, noted that the focus in sowing is on improving precision through techniques like assembly-line and print-precision sowing. Higher precision reduces seed usage, while layered fertilization enhances fertilizer efficiency. With the widespread adoption of intelligent farming machinery, the field has more rice ears, and they are larger—the crop is in a high-yield state.

Beyond growing grain well, selling it well is equally important. Heilongjiang has created a provincial premium agricultural brand called "Black Soil Premium Products" to elevate the standardization, regulation, and service level of industry development. What journey does a grain of rice undertake? Take Wuchang rice, for example: consumers can scan a QR code on the packaging to access production batch details, planting procedures, processing steps, and testing reports on their phones. This quality and safety traceability system is a basic threshold for joining the "Black Soil Premium Products" brand.

Vice Governor Cong Li highlighted that Heilongjiang is one of the world's three major black soil belts, blessed with fertile land, quality water resources, and a cool climate. By leveraging its green and organic ecological advantages, the province is focusing on building the "Black Soil Premium Products" brand, establishing strict standards and a comprehensive traceability system. Over 4,000 production entities have joined the tracing platform, covering more than 60 million mu of traceable management area. Currently, Heilongjiang's agricultural science and technology contribution rate exceeds 70%. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the province aims to build the national "granary" while making precise efforts to develop modern large-scale agriculture.

Vice Governor Cong Li stated that the fundamental solution for agriculture lies in technology. The province is positioning smart agriculture as its main track, implementing an "AI + Agriculture" initiative, and pushing forward with upstream processing, chain extension, and value addition. Heilongjiang will vigorously develop high-value-added, deep-processing industries, focusing on value-added strategies like "grain-head food-tail," "livestock-head meat-tail," and "agriculture-head industry-tail" to extend toward the mid-to-high end of the industrial and value chains.

Agricultural machinery is critical support for national food security. As more high-standard farmland is established, the equipment working in the fields must be updated to meet new demands. At China YTO Group Corporation, reporters saw a newly launched tractor designed for hilly and mountainous areas. Unlike conventional tractors with smaller front wheels and larger rear wheels, this model features four equal-sized wheels, providing better traction and obstacle-crossing capability on slopes. The engine is positioned at the front to prevent nose-diving uphill and slipping downhill.

In recent years, Henan has leveraged its advantages as a major province for agricultural machinery manufacturing and application, supporting leading enterprises to spearhead research and development of high-end intelligent machinery and equipment suitable for hilly regions. The province is accelerating the construction of a national agricultural machinery innovation center. Li Zhuo, Vice Governor of Henan Province, explained that advanced agricultural machinery manufacturing has been integrated into the province's 28 key industrial chains, with a specialized working group mechanism led by provincial chain chiefs and multi-subject collaboration. Leading enterprises like YTO are playing a guiding role, driving the integrated development of small and medium-sized enterprises, speeding up the filling of gaps in core components, and solving a number of "bottleneck" technical challenges—shouldering the heavy responsibility of national food security with strong shoulders.

On one hand, Henan is continuously strengthening agricultural machinery in hilly areas, injecting momentum into food security and rural industry development. On the other hand, it is advancing new mechanisms and models for building beautiful and harmonious villages, exploring a rural revitalization path with Central Plains characteristics. In Dazhaoying Village, Xinxiang County, gourds are the villagers' key to wealth. By combining gourd cultivation with pyrography and carving techniques, the village has launched cultural and creative products, developed research and study tourism, and established teaching practice bases with university art departments, attracting numerous visitors. The humble gourd has transformed from an ordinary agricultural product into an art piece, serving as a core IP that builds a vital industry chain for rural revitalization.

Since the start of this year, Henan has implemented the "Thousand Village Leadership" empowerment initiative, aiming to enhance village operational capabilities and create models for rural revitalization. Vice Governor Li Zhuo noted that Henan is deepening mechanisms for area-based advancement, cluster development, and pilot zone leadership, exploring a categorized and orderly regional rural revitalization model with Henan characteristics. Six county-wide and 29 regional pilot zones for livable, workable, and beautiful village construction have been established, forming a work pattern with provincial coordination and city-county linkage. This has significantly improved rural infrastructure completeness, public service accessibility, and living environment comfort across the province. Currently, all administrative villages and natural villages with 20 or more households in Henan have paved roads, with rural logistics service coverage and 5G connectivity in administrative villages both reaching 100%. By 2030, Henan plans to build over 1,000 leading villages for beautiful village construction with sound operational systems, sustained development momentum, and strong demonstration effects.

Vice Governor Li Zhuo outlined next steps: Henan will benchmark against the goal of basically equipping rural areas with modern living conditions, continuing to promote coordinated urban-rural planning, shared facility construction, beautiful environments, shared services, and integrated industry-village development, building a solid "hard support" for high-quality and balanced rural construction. At the same time, the province will adhere to the "Five Basics and Four Modernizations" approach, advancing party-building-led grassroots governance, deeply implementing rural civilization construction projects, and ensuring Central Plains villages retain their nostalgia while gaining a new look.

In mid-to-late September, autumn grain harvests are underway in Sui County, Hubei Province. The golden rice paddies are not only a harvest scene for farmers but also the starting point for the county's full-chain specialty industry. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, Hubei has cultivated competitive county-level leading industries based on local resource endowments and industrial foundations, developing county economies tailored to local conditions. County economies now account for over 58% of the province's GDP, with four new "100-billion-yuan counties" added: Xiantao, Qianjiang, Yidu, and Daye. As a major national grain-producing county, Sui County has broken through precisely by relying on specialty agricultural industries.

Li Donghui, Vice Governor of Hubei Province, stated that in recent years, Hubei has leveraged its agricultural resource advantages, proactively responding to the public's shift from "eating enough" to "eating well." The province has shifted the starting point of modern agricultural development from the fields to the dining table, developing specialty agricultural industry chains with a "one county, one policy, one industry" approach—producing and supplying exactly what consumers need. The province's top ten agricultural key industry chains have exceeded one trillion yuan in scale, with "local specialty products" becoming foundational industries supporting county economic development.

A single grain of rice bears witness to the transformation of Hubei's county industries. In Tangxian Town, Sui County, the first batch of autumn rice this year will be delivered to rice processing mills, where it will become polished rice destined for dining tables—but that's not the grain's final destination. At an economic development zone 30 kilometers away, rice bran extracted from polished rice can be refined into rice bran oil, and the soapstock produced can yield oryzanol for pharmaceuticals, truly utilizing a grain of rice to its fullest. From "one grain" to "one rice grain, one drop of oil, one pill," Sui County is revitalizing agricultural resources with a clustered, full-chain development approach, converting traditional agricultural advantages into a stable and controllable county economic growth pole.

Hubei is also home to many other top-tier local specialties: Three Gorges mandarins, Qianjiang crayfish, Wuling Mountain premium teas, western Hubei shiitake mushrooms, and poultry eggs have all become national-level advantageous specialty industry clusters. The comprehensive output value of ten key agricultural chains, including rice, rapeseed oil, tea, and citrus, exceeds one trillion yuan. For the "land of fish and rice" in the new era, these industries supporting high-quality county economic development all rely on technological support.

Vice Governor Li Donghui emphasized that Hubei is fully leveraging its strengths in science, education, and talent, focusing on key areas such as biological breeding and agricultural microbiology, and strengthening basic research and original innovation. Breakthroughs like "rice-derived hemoglobin" and high-protein corn are continuously emerging. A collaborative innovation system has been built featuring major agricultural scientific instruments, national key laboratories, universities and research institutes, and leading agricultural enterprises. By deeply integrating the agricultural innovation chain into the agricultural industry chain, more Hubei-produced scientific research results are taking root in the fields.

As the Autumn Equinox approaches, the national main venue event for China's ninth Farmers' Harvest Festival will be held in Zaoyang, Hubei, on that day. Preparations are currently in full swing. Vice Governor Li Donghui noted that 13 key activities have been planned, including harvest celebration gatherings, agricultural science and technology achievement exhibitions, and specialty agricultural product harvest markets. These initiatives aim to help Jingchu premium products reach rural and national markets, comprehensively showcasing new agricultural achievements and new prospects for rural revitalization, while boosting morale and confidence for a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Implementing the rural revitalization strategy is the overarching approach to addressing work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in the new era. Unnoticed, the village of our memories is taking on a brand-new appearance: high-tech is now used in grain and vegetable farming, beautiful villages have become new hotspots for cultural tourism consumption, "Village Galas" and "Village BA" basketball games have become viral sensations, and county economies are developing with high quality. The vast countryside is bursting with endless vitality. By steadily advancing comprehensive rural revitalization, we can better unleash potential, sustain the source of rural energy, and ensure that villagers' lives continue to improve day by day.