Lishu county is seen as a shining example of black soil protection. [Photo provided to gojilin.gov.cn]

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 12th Jilin Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China recently proposed the development of modern large-scale agriculture – making it the priority among the "four major clusters" to be cultivated.

As a result, Northeast China's Jilin will vigorously promote new technologies and models to steadily increase grain production.

It will implement the vitalization of the seed industry and leverage the role of two national germplasm resource repositories – and two provincial germplasm resource protection and utilization centers – so as to explore and create more superior breeding genes.

In addition, efforts will be made to enhance grain yields per unit area, aiming to increase grain production by 5 billion kilograms by 2027.

Plans are for the development of smart agriculture to be vigorously pursued, with the accelerated construction of demonstration bases and "digital villages."

The establishment of a provincial agricultural and rural big data center is expected to pave the way for the exploration and expansion of digital functionalities – boosting the levels of digital agricultural applications.

The integration of research, development, manufacturing and promotion of agricultural machinery is seen accelerating through to pilot projects.

It's expected that the development and application of high-end intelligent agricultural machinery will be advanced simultaneously. By next year, the comprehensive mechanization level of major crops is projected to reach 94.5 percent.

The construction of advantageous specialty industry clusters such as "Changbai Mountain Ginseng" and "Changbai Mountain Black Fungus" is earmarked to be vigorously pursued. The aim is for a total output value of over 80 billion yuan ($11 billion) for the ginseng industry and over 23 billion yuan for the black fungus industry by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).