In 2024, North China's Shanxi province witnessed continuous upgrades in top-notch agriculture, further modernization of agriculture, and new advancements in creating livable, business-friendly, and beautiful rural areas.

The province has promoted industrial clustering and developed the deep processing of agricultural products, fostering the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries and the fusion of agriculture with culture and tourism.

The province has seen the addition of six new national-level and 133 provincial-level leading agricultural enterprises, established a new advantageous mutton sheep industry cluster, and developed two modern agricultural industrial parks and five agricultural industry towns.

Meanwhile, it has intensified its efforts to coordinate funding and continue rural environmental improvements. In 2024, it completed construction tasks for 360 boutique demonstration villages, and 2,680 upgraded villages throughout the province.

Moreover, Shanxi has focused on overcoming bottlenecks in specialty industries, targeting 27 key research tasks in five major areas, including foundational technology, core seed sources, and specialty agricultural product processing.

The province has gathered over 1,000 scientific and technological talents and more than 100 provincial and ministerial-level innovation platforms, with the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress in Shanxi surpassing 63 percent, infusing strong momentum into the high-quality development of agriculture and rural areas.

In 2024, Shanxi has also expanded income channels, promoting the sustained growth of farmers' incomes. In the first three quarters of 2024, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in the province reached 13,159 yuan ($1,802.75), a real growth of 6.4 percent.