Harvest festival spotlights transformation of Hubei village

At a smart orchard in Dongjiao village, Zaoyang, Hubei province, premium yellow peaches can sell for as much as 20 yuan ($2.98) each, while sensors, drip irrigation and farm machinery help growers manage the trees.

A short distance away, old village houses have been turned into cafes, restaurants and craft workshops, and livestreaming rooms help sell local produce online.

The changes help explain why Dongjiao, a village of 810 people, was chosen to host the national main event of this year's Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival on Sept 23.

The village has developed a mix of grain farming, peach orchards, aquaculture and rural tourism after decades of efforts to make productive use of land that was once dry and difficult to farm.

Today, Dongjiao has more than 1,200 mu (80 hectares) of high-quality rice fields, nearly 1,000 mu of peach orchards and extensive aquaculture ponds. Its per capita disposable income reached 30,123 yuan in 2025, while collective village income rose to 330,000 yuan.

Peaches have become one of the main sources of income.

The village produced about 1,500 metric tons of yellow peaches in 2025, generating output worth 12 million yuan, according to local authority. Standardized production links the village collective, cooperatives and farming households, while cold storage, e-commerce and tourism are extending the season in which the crop creates value.

At a demonstration orchard run by a local cooperative, growers use integrated water-and-fertilizer systems, digital monitoring and greener pest-control methods to improve fruit quality. The orchard also tests new peach varieties and rootstocks developed with agricultural research institutes.

Liu Bin, a supervisor of the cooperative, said peach cultivation now extends across 12 townships and 19 villages, involving more than 1,600 farming households.

The cooperative's network covers more than 20,000 mu, with annual output value reaching about 150 million yuan.

Across Zaoyang, peach orchards cover about 350,000 mu and produce roughly 550,000 tons a year. The sector employs more than 120,000 people, making peaches one of the city's largest specialty agricultural industries.

But Dongjiao is also trying to capture value after visitors leave the orchard.

The village now has 12 homestays and 15 restaurants, along with fruit-picking, fishing and farming-experience programs. Residents have converted idle houses into cafes, bakeries and cultural workshops as more visitors arrive from nearby urban areas.

Village Party chief Hu Aiguo said the aim is to turn agricultural production into a broader rural economy.

The approach is often summarized locally as encouraging visitors to "stay one night, eat three meals and take two bags" of local products home — linking tourism spending with farming and household businesses.

Dongjiao's transformation also rests on a longer tradition of village management. For more than 50 years, collective accounts have been publicly recorded, with 43 ledgers documenting expenses down to a few cents. The practice has continued even as financial records moved online.

For Dongjiao, hosting the harvest festival offers a national stage. Villagers hope the visitors, sales channels and new businesses brought by the festival will continue to take root in the local economy long after the celebrations are over.