On September 11, a press conference under the "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan" series was held by the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Bureau of Lingshi County. Officials outlined the county's recent progress in modernizing its agricultural sector by leveraging the "Thousand Villages Demonstration" initiative. The county has aligned its efforts with the provincial strategy promoting specialized and high-quality agricultural products, building on its three nationally recognized geographical indication products—Lingshi walnuts, Lingshi chaste tree honey, and Lingshi sour jujube kernels. The approach strengthens specialty crop cultivation and animal husbandry, extends processing chains, and fosters the development of distinctive townships and villages, thereby enhancing the efficiency and quality of specialty modern agriculture. This strategy consolidates the industrial foundation for comprehensive rural revitalization and charts a distinctive path for high-quality agricultural and rural development.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Lingshi County leveraged its mountainous and hilly terrain to implement place-based and category-specific policies. Local governments were guided to identify their core industries, continuously reinforcing the foundation for specialty agriculture. The county solidified the leading role of its geographical indication products by stabilizing walnut cultivation, establishing a national standardized green food (walnut) raw material production base in 2024. It expanded standardized sour jujube farming to build an authentic medicinal material base and capitalized on one million mu of premium nectar sources to strengthen its position as the core production area in North China. Simultaneously, the county developed dairy farming, Yulu Xiang pear, selenium-rich coarse grains, and other specialty industries, progressively forming an industrial layout characterizing each township with a main business and each village with a signature product.

Adhering to the bottom line of farmland protection and food security, the county advanced high-standard farmland construction and implemented organic dry-farming projects in the western mountainous region. The total number of certified pollution-free, green, organic, and geographical indication agricultural products reached 40, establishing a solid foundation for Lingshi's specialty and high-quality offerings. The county vigorously fostered new business entities, promoting the "leading enterprise + cooperative + base + farmer" model to transition agricultural products from primary sales to value-added processing. Revenue from agricultural product processing sales surged from 452 million yuan in 2020 to 824 million yuan, an increase of 82 percent, effectively ensuring sustained and stable income growth for farmers.

Building upon this industrial strength, the county prioritized the cultivation of distinctive townships and villages as a key element of peaceful and beautiful rural development. Adhering to principles of industrial uniqueness, distinctive landscapes, cultural heritage, and effective governance, the county created stratified and categorized rural models in conjunction with the "Ten Townships, Hundred Villages" demonstration initiative. Forward-looking planning guided the classification of townships into types including industrial specialty, agriculture-culture-tourism integration, ecological wellness, and ancient village intangible heritage. Key demonstration areas were developed in Jingsheng, Nanguan, and Cuifeng towns, with pilot projects such as the "Lotus Encounter" lotus-fish symbiosis in Xixu and the ancient village homestay tourism in Suxi, achieving impressive results at key points, cohesive development along corridors, and overall regional improvement. The county integrated agricultural product brands with township and village IPs, utilizing the three geographical indications and expanding e-commerce and supermarket channels to raise the profile of these distinctive areas.

Looking toward the new 15th Five-Year Plan phase, the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Bureau will continue to build on the county's resource advantages, persistently strengthening industries and precisely developing townships and villages. The focus remains on enhancing geographical indication brands, extending industrial chains, and creating exemplary models to forge a path of high-quality, eco-friendly, industrially prosperous, and affluent mountain agriculture. To strengthen specialty industrial chains, the county will stabilize the cultivation scale of 150,000 mu of walnuts and 15,000 mu of medicinal herbs, and address cold-chain logistics gaps. By 2030, the target is to achieve 50 agricultural leading enterprises at or above the county level and surpass 1.2 billion yuan in agricultural product processing sales revenue. Brand and standard leadership will be enhanced by strengthening the "Jinling Zhizhou" county public brand and expanding the total number of certifications. The goal is to exceed 50 high-quality agricultural brands by 2030. To activate rural internal momentum, the county will promote closely-knit benefit-sharing mechanisms, integrating 10,000 smallholder households into the industrial chain, and achieving 1,000 standardized cooperatives and over 200 high-quality family farms by 2030. Agricultural, cultural, and tourism integration will be vigorously promoted through the creation of five leisure tourism agricultural demonstration bases, upgrading rural e-towns, preserving pristine rural landscapes, and highlighting Lingshi's unique characteristics in beautiful rural construction.

For the development of the three geographical indication industries, the county will focus on standardized production, extension of the entire industrial chain, brand marketing, and farmer linkage mechanisms to convert resource advantages into income growth for residents. In cultivating distinctive townships and villages, the "Ten Townships, Hundred Villages" demonstration initiative will serve as the primary vehicle, strengthening planning guidance, building rural demonstration corridors, and revitalizing local cultural resources. Industrial development and improvement of living environments will proceed in tandem to achieve individual excellence and collective harmony. Going forward, the county's Agricultural and Rural Affairs Bureau will anchor its goals on rural revitalization, continuously expanding and strengthening specialty modern agriculture, and thoughtfully cultivating distinctive townships and villages to make agriculture more robust, rural areas more beautiful, and farmers more prosperous.