Village in Shandong prepares for bumper corn harvest

It's September and harvest time has come for the corn in Bakou village, Datianji town – located in Chengwu county, administered by Heze city in East China's Shandong province.

This year, the village has an area of around 150,000 mu (10,000 hectares) given over to growing corn. Thanks to favorable weather and well-built farming infrastructure, the corn is growing exceptionally well compared with previous years.

Chengwu county's agricultural machinery department has prepared for the autumn harvest season by deploying more than 10,000 units of agricultural machinery, including 2,000 corn combine harvesters and 1,500 rotary tillers. These machines are expected to help farmers complete their harvesting efficiently.

The department has established 12 expert service teams to improve the support for farmers. The teams will visit cooperatives and households to evaluate conditions and perform maintenance and repairs on the machinery.

The department has also set up a service hotline and implemented a 24/7 duty system to offer consultations and aid to machine operators.

The hardworking local farmers are determined to achieve higher corn yields this year. One of them, Wang Rudong, said he planted 10 mu (0.67 hectare) of corn this year. Having been planted after the garlic crop, the corn matured earlier than expected and benefited from abundant rainfall this year, resulting in relatively higher yields.

Wang added that he planned to sell the corn at a fair price of 1.4 yuan ($0.19) per kilogram, generating an estimated income of 1,500-1,600 yuan per mu. (Edited by Zhou Yunlai)