Harvest festival helps boost farmers' pride

The newly created harvest festival, which unfolds on Sunday, will help boost Chinese farmers' pride in their craft by honoring some 700 million people engaged in the agricultural sector, grassroots officials said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office on Thursday.

With the most farmers in the world, China has had an annual grain output of more than 600 million metric tons for five consecutive years, according to the central government.

But the agricultural sector and the vast rural areas have long been connected with backwardness and poverty. Most of the country's 30 million impoverished people are scattered across such regions. China has pledged to eliminate poverty domestically by the end of 2020.