Anhui races against rains to harvest nearly 90% of autumn grain

(ECNS) — Eastern China’s Anhui province had harvested about 3.8 million hectares (about 9.4 million acres) of autumn grain as of Saturday, nearly 90% of the total harvest area.

Nearly 2 million sets of farm machinery have been deployed for autumn harvesting, plowing and sowing. In grain-producing areas along the Yangtze River, mechanical harvesting of 0.0667 hectares (about one-sixth of an acre) of rice takes only five minutes.

Continuous rainfall from late September to early October delayed field work and natural grain drying. The province activated 2,590 drying sites and formed more than 700 emergency service teams. On Sunday, more than 10,000 grain dryers processed more than 300,000 metric tons of grain.

Competitions focused on reducing grain loss during mechanical rice and corn harvesting were held. Field demonstrations of subsidized premium farm equipment were arranged to improve quality.

One of China’s major grain-producing provinces, Anhui produced 41.93 million metric tons of grain in 2025, maintaining annual output above 40 million metric tons for nine straight years. Autumn grain makes up roughly 60% of its total grain yield.

(By Helen Mo & intern Xu Wenda)