Editor’s note: During the golden autumn season, the bustling scene of autumn harvest can be seen in the vast countryside of Bazhong, Sichuan province.

According to statistics, this year, Bazhong has cultivated 1.42 million mu (94,600 hectare) of small spring crops, an increase of 0.5% compared to last year, with a total output of 408,000 tons, an increase of 3.9% compared to last year.

According to industry dispatch, the city has cultivated 3.82 million mu of large spring crops, an increase of 0.6% compared to last year, with an expected output of 1.59 million tons, an increase of 4.1% compared to last year, presenting a promising harvest.

Efforts made to build a higher-level granary

The core area of the modern grain and oil agriculture park in the southern part of Bazhou District is Guanping village of Dingshan town. The entire park covers 20 administrative villages, including Dingshan town and Fengxi town, with a focus on developing high-quality grain and oil.

Rice harvesting in Guanping village, Dingshan town, Bazhou district. [Photo/spotlightbazhong.com]

The modern grain and oil agriculture park in the southern part of Bazhou district has established an information platform, with dozens of electronic devices monitoring the local climate, pests, and diseases in real-time, 24 hours a day.

"For example, in soil monitoring, we can clearly analyze soil temperature, soil humidity, soil salinity, and more. Similarly, pest monitoring is meticulous, with the platform providing clear monitoring of the quantity and proportion of insects, such as longhorn beetles, armyworms, rice stem borers, and green leafhoppers," said Zhao Pingchang, the secretary of Party general branch in Guanping village of Dingshan town.

Technological support has greatly promoted agricultural modernization, facilitating high-quality agricultural development.

So far, 23 modern grain and oil parks have been cultivated and constructed as key areas in Bazhong. With a focus on ensuring stable grain and oil production, these parks have achieved a development trend in which provincial-level parks take the lead, city-level parks make breakthroughs, and county-level parks follow suit. They have become an important foundation for ensuring food security.

It is estimated that the total grain output in Bazhong will reach over 1.97 million tons by 2025.

Through technological innovation, not only has there been an increase in grain production, but also in the efficiency of harvesting.

"A combine harvester can harvest around 60 mu (4 hectares) of rice in a day, while also completing such procedures as cutting, threshing, and crushing the rice straw in one go. It not only enhances efficiency but also effectively reduces losses from manual harvest," explained Yu Donghai, the director of the agricultural machinery promotion station in Pingchang county.

These small and medium-sized machines have lower fuel consumption and are flexible, making them highly practical in mountainous areas. Currently, the county has mobilized over 280 harvesters, harvesting rice across more than 10,000 mu of land, with the rice harvest expected to be completed by the end of September.

As a typical city with a large number of migrant workers, Bazhong has maintained a stable population of over one million migrant workers, mostly young and middle-aged laborers. This has led to a labor shortage in rural areas. To solve this problem, Bazhong has introduced and promoted agricultural machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas while simultaneously cultivating and expanding social service organizations for agricultural mechanization.

Currently, the city has a total of 128,000 sets of grain and oil production machinery, including over 2,300 tractors and combine harvesters. The total agricultural machinery power now exceeds 1.99 million kilowatts, and the comprehensive mechanization level of plowing, sowing, and harvesting of major crops has reached 64.5%. The social service area of agricultural machinery has also surpassed 650,000 mu.

This year's autumn harvest saw an investment of over 4,700 sets of various harvesting machinery across all counties of Bazhong, ensuring the harvest of grain.