Wheat harvesting by combine harvesters in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. [Photo/VCG]

China unveiled its "No. 1 central document" for 2023 on February 13, 2023, outlining nine tasks for comprehensively promoting rural vitalization this year. As the first policy statement released by China's central authorities each year, the document is seen as an indicator of policy priorities.

This year's document called for enhanced efforts to "stabilize production and ensure the supply of grain and important agricultural products." In the context of a complicated and turbulent economic landscape, the grain harvest will boost prices, expectations, confidence and macroeconomic growth, with great significance for better coordinating epidemic control and socioeconomic development. 

An income comparable to social average profit for farmers is the keynote in formulating the food policy and the secret to maintaining a stable and safe grain supply.

Grain harvest year after year 

Since 2004, China has scored successive grain harvests, with its grain output surpassing 650 million tonnes in the last eight years. 

In 2022, China's overall mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvest exceeded 72%, 15 percentage points higher than in 2012. In particular, the overall mechanization rate of cultivation and harvest of major grain crops surpassed 80%, with that for wheat, corn and rice topping 97%, 90% and 85%, respectively. Agricultural mechanization has added a solid boost for the high yield and bumper harvest, initiated profound changes in modes of agricultural production, organization and management, and largely freed grain growers from intensive agrarian labor. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the average number of workers per hectare for grain production dropped by 36.9 from 101.85 in 2011 to 64.95 in 2021.