Shanxi village gets economic boost from modern farming development

陈小将

Farmers harvest rice in Dong'an Village of Matian township, Zuoyuan county in Shanxi province. [Photo by Zhao Weidong/For chinadaily.com.cn]
In the patches of rice paddies in Dong'an Village of Matian township, Zuoyuan county in Shanxi province, farmers are busy working on their farmland and looking forward to another golden harvest.

Located in the Taihang Mountain region, the village benefits from abundant water resources and a mild climate. It has 20 hectares of arable land, two thirds of which have been planted with rice this year.

In recent years, Matian has developed rice cultivation, constructing a complete industry chain that encompasses plowing, planting, harvesting, storage, processing, transportation and sales.

This has helped to lift impoverished residents out of poverty and ensured stable employment. Rice has become a prominent and advantageous industry for the locals as agricultural efficiency and incomes have improved.

After a series of investigations and studies in 2019, Dong'an introduced high-quality rice seeds and acquired advanced techniques.

A 3.33-hectare demonstration field was dedicated for planting organic rice using mechanical planting, which brought farmers a bumper harvest in 2019.

By 2023, the demonstration field's scale expanded to 13.3 hectares with centralized mechanized operations, reducing manpower and labor burdens, and improving the efficiency and quality of seedling cultivation.

Dong'an Village's success has inspired neighboring villages to follow suit.

This year, the town's organic rice planting area reached 33.3 hectares, forming a pattern of industrialization and showing strong development momentum.

In 2022, the town's rice yield reached 9,750 kilograms per hectare, with an income of 39,000 yuan ($5,340) per hectare.

In the future, the town will take advantage of the integration of agriculture and tourism to develop a rice sightseeing park, which will provide a picturesque landscape for artists and students of fine arts to create paintings.

In addition, efforts will be made to explore and innovate the complete industry chain of rice cultivation, processing, and sales, and to continually improve the incomes of farmers, agricultural productivity and efficiency, and all-round rural development, facilitating high-quality agricultural development.