BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese farmers celebrate the sixth harvest festival on Saturday, local signature farm produce industry is thriving, adding a splash of color to the country's panorama of rural revitalization.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made in-person efforts to urge the effective fostering of signature farm produce, with a view to creating local job opportunities and increasing the incomes of rural residents.
On his trip to south China's Guangdong Province in April this year, Xi visited a lychee orchard in a village and talked with technicians there. He learnt about their incomes and the sales channels for lychees, as well as the challenges facing the business.
Xi called for the enhancing of technologies used in lychee cultivation, preservation and processing, so as to boost the sector.
"Developing local characteristic industries is an important way to achieve rural revitalization. We should do a good job to boost the local specialty industry and promote rural revitalization across the board by invigorating industries," he told local cadres.
One year earlier, when inspecting south China's Hainan Province, he learnt that local people had created a better life by developing the tea industry, taking advantage of the unique natural conditions there.
Xi emphasized the importance of integrating ecological resources with the growth of industries, and urged efforts to "continue to expand and improve industries including organic farm produce, rural tourism and leisure agriculture."
For over a decade, Xi has always had high expectations of the production and popularization of local signature products, such as peonies, tea oil, strawberries, potatoes, apples and grapes, to name a few.
On many occasions, while visiting the countryside, he would carefully investigate the output of local specialties and farmers' incomes, talking with local people in greenhouses, on field ridges, among the fruit trees and in front of farmhouses.
Speaking at multiple important conferences around the country, he has also stressed the necessity of properly developing these industries.
In 2020, at the annual central rural work conference, he emphasized the importance of accelerating the development of rural industries. He mentioned some typical examples, including the success of the black fungus industry in a village in the Qinling Mountain area of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, as well as the daylily base in north China's Shanxi Province.
At the annual central rural work conference held in December 2022, Xi noted, "The development of industries is the most important point on the agenda of rural revitalization, and supportive policies must be implemented to the letter in this regard. Particular attention should be paid to local specialties." ■
