TAIYUAN, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Located on the Loess Plateau, north China's Shanxi Province has been constantly battling with droughts. This year, the province has set a target of developing 100,000 mu (6,667 hectares) of organic dry-farming demonstration areas for promoting water-saving techniques.
Shanxi has eyed developing the organic dry-farming mode to improve its grain yields.
The grain-producing area in Shanxi reached 47.4 million mu last year, with the yearly output registering 14.78 billion kg, and the average per-mu yield amounting to 311.75 kg. All the figures achieved record highs, according to the provincial government work report released in January.
By 2023, Shanxi had built 300,000 mu of organic dry-farming bases and 14 scientific research bases, and promoted 51 dry-farming techniques.
The province's 58 previously impoverished counties, which all shook off poverty as of 2020, have developed dry-farming demonstration bases to promote farming techniques such as rainwater farming, soil composting and water-saving farming.
The provincial government vowed to speed up efforts to upgrade and expand agricultural fields with water-saving facilities in large and medium-sized irrigated areas, and increase or restore 600,000 mu of irrigated land in the year 2024. ■
