China celebrates farmers' harvest festival amid record harvests

As autumn arrives, rice fields in northeast China turn into vast seas of gold, corn cobs glow amber under the sun across the North China Plain, and orchards on the Loess Plateau in northwest China are dotted with red apples.

The harvest speaks quietly, yet vividly, of a year of hard work and the rewards reaped by millions of farmers across the country.

A festival for farmers The autumnal equinox this year marks the ninth Chinese farmers' harvest festival, a national festival established in 2018 and held each year around the same date to honor China's farmers and celebrate the harvest.

China is home to hundreds of millions of farmers, whose work helps put grain on people's tables and vegetables, fruits and other agricultural products into daily life.

The harvest festival is, above all, a tribute to their labor.

It gives wider recognition to the contribution of farmers and marks their place on the nation's calendar.

China's agricultural report card Behind the annual celebrations is the steady progress of China's agricultural sector.

China's grain output reached 714.88 million tonnes in 2025, remaining above the 700-million-tonne mark for the second consecutive year.

Summer grain output this year reached a record 150.75 million tonnes, or 301.49 billion jin, exceeding 300 billion jin for the first time.

Early rice output has remained above 56 billion jin for six consecutive years.

Meanwhile, the per capita disposable income of rural residents rose 5.5% in real terms in the first half of this year to 12,699 yuan (around $1,893).

China's annual grain output of more than 700 million tonnes translates into per capita grain availability of over 500 kilograms, well above the internationally recognized food-security benchmark of 400 kilograms.

The record summer grain harvest also provided a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), underscoring the country's continued capacity to secure grain supplies while improving agricultural production.

Celebrating harvests across the country This year's festival features a nationwide main event in Xiangyang, central China's Hubei Province, along with 46 other major activities covering agricultural science and technology, legal services, medical care, sports and culture and other areas, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.