Premier Li Qiang Urges Comprehensive Push to Secure Autumn Grain Harvest

Chinese Premier Li Qiang conducted an inspection tour in the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin from August 24 to 26, calling for targeted measures to secure a bountiful autumn grain harvest and bolster national food security. Visiting major state farms, research parks, water conservancy projects, and processing facilities, Li underscored that autumn crops constitute the bulk of annual grain output. He directed officials to intensify field management, stabilize agricultural input supplies, accelerate agritech and machinery development, protect fertile black soil, and support deep agro-processing across the industrial chain.

Autumn grain accounts for the dominant share of China's total annual harvest, making seasonal yields critical for national food self-sufficiency and macroeconomic price stability. Li Qiang's focused tour in the northeastern grain belt signals Beijing's heightened emphasis on consolidating agricultural resilience following the summer harvest, combining immediate harvest-securing measures with long-term technological and structural modernization.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang called for all-out efforts to ensure a bumper autumn grain harvest and continuously enhance comprehensive agricultural production capacity during an inspection tour of Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces from August 24 to 26, according to state media reports. Li stressed the need to adhere to modern large-scale agriculture as the primary direction, balancing output, ecological protection, and farmer income growth to ensure stable national supplies of grain and essential agricultural goods. In Jiamusi, Heilongjiang, Li visited the Qixing Farm under Beidahuang Group to inspect soybean, corn, and paddy rice crops. Noting that autumn grain represents the bulk of annual national grain output and is currently in a crucial yield-formation stage, Li urged authorities to strengthen field management, stabilize the supply and pricing of agricultural inputs, and reinforce policy support to secure the seasonal and full-year harvest. Turning to agricultural innovation, the premier visited the Jiansanjiang National Agricultural Science and Technology Park and the Rice Research Institute of the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Li highlighted that technological breakthroughs remain vital for expanding output, urging researchers to advance seed breeding, conduct cross-disciplinary research, develop high-end agricultural machinery, and accelerate the application of artificial intelligence and smart farming. He also called for engineering, agronomic, and biological measures to conserve and utilize northeastern black soil effectively. Li also inspected the construction site of a major water conservancy project in Heilongjiang aimed at boosting grain production capacity, emphasizing the need to build modern irrigation districts capable of withstanding droughts and floods to ensure stable, high yields. In Songyuan, Jilin, Li visited the Dezhi Agricultural Specialized Cooperative to examine moderate-scale farming operations, advocating for improved socialized service systems to link smallholder farmers with modern agricultural systems. At Jilin Xuxin Oil Co., Ltd., he inspected corn oil production lines, encouraging deep processing of agricultural products to extend industrial value chains, expand local employment, and enforce strict food safety oversight from farmland to dining tables.