Plant crops in spring, and enjoy a good harvest in autumn. Normally, each September, rural China is covered with crops, such as sorghum or paddy rice.

In 2022, the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, issued a notice of launching a women's campaign focusing on grain production and food conservation. The campaign stresses the significance of food security; as such, it spurs women to contribute their strength to the promotion of grain production and food conservation.

Training has been provided to women farmers, and more support has been provided to grain-production bases, where women make up much of the workforce. Food conservation knowledge and techniques have been promoted widely among women.

Women scientific and technological workers and skilled women farmers have been encouraged to teach good and efficient grain-production practices. Sales of good-quality agricultural products have been promoted among demonstration rural entrepreneurship bases nationwide.

Women's federations, across the country, have organized various activities to foster women's participation in, and their contributions to, grain production and harvesting, food conservation, and rural revitalization. Under the blue sky, dotted with floating clouds, people celebrate the harvest — year after year.

Harnessing Women's Strength

Answering the call to participate in the women's campaign focusing on grain production and food conservation, women's federations have encouraged women, from all segments of society, to contribute their strength in grain production and food conservation.

Science, Technology a Good Drive

Qi Li is an expert with a spring-ploughing service group in Northeast China's Jilin Province. She often communicates with farmers — via WeChat, phone calls and/or video chats — and she answers their questions about grain production. During the spring-ploughing season, earlier this year, Jilin Women's Federation helped the women scientific and technological workers' association, in the province, form an expert-service group. Experts, like Qi, have since helped farmers solve various problems they have encountered in their agricultural production. 

Henan Province is key to grain production in Central China. Huang Jihong is director of an important laboratory, based in Henan, which focuses on biological processing and the nutritional function research of wheat. Huang and her colleagues have worked for years on the development of key techniques related to wheat processing. 

Peng Shuiping is a member of the board of a paddy-rice-plantation cooperative in Xiangtan County, in Central China's Hunan Province. Peng and her fellow villagers are determined to grow good-quality paddy rice, and to help maintain the reputation of rice produced in Hunan. "I want to make my contribution to safeguarding the food security of our country," Peng says. 

"As the temperature rises, paddy rice will grow faster. It is important to keep rice sheds well ventilated. We need to expose the rice to cold air, from bottom to top, to ensure the rice seedlings will adapt to the change in temperature, step by step." That advice was provided by Zhou Zhishu, an expert working with the agriculture and rural affairs committee of Nanchuan District, in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. 

Since the women's campaign (focusing on grain production and food conservation) was launched, women scientific and technological workers, and women farmers, across the country, have been called on to use science and technology to boost agricultural production. 

Yunnan Women's Federation has called on women and families, in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, to participate in agricultural production and processing. The federation has also called on rural cooperatives, composed mainly of women farmers, to develop green (environmentally friendly) agriculture. In addition, the federation has urged women scientific and technological workers to put their research to use; for example, to develop good-quality seedlings and other green agricultural products. 

Hubei Women's Federation, in Central China, has called on rural women to attend training and learn techniques that will help them increase grain production. Women scientific and technological workers have also been called on to give farmers technical guidance and support, so the farmers will achieve high-quality development in grain planting, seedling research and farmland protection. 

Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, both in Northeast China, have encouraged model women farmers and women scientific and technological workers to share their good practices in grain production and food conservation. 

Jiangxi Women's Federation, in East China, has worked with the province's agriculture and rural affairs bureau to select 20 outstanding women in grain production, and that has attracted more women and families to participate in agricultural production. 

Enabling Atmosphere

"We have contracted land, on which we should grow crops. Women in Shuanglong are skilled. Women can surely hold up 'half the sky' in grain production," says Jiang Weiguo, first Party secretary of Shuanglong, a village in Zunyi, a city in Southwest China's Guizhou Province. Jiang was dispatched to the village by Zunyi Women's Federation. The women's federation of Shuanglong Village has united and guided women, so the women and their families better play their roles in maintaining food security of the country, Jiang adds. 

To create an atmosphere that enables promotion of the importance of food conservation, Shandong Women's Federation and Anhui Women's Federation, both in East China, have produced and/or screened videos that advocate a green lifestyle, such as promoting the importance of cherishing food and eliminating waste. 

Guangxi Women's Federation, in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, encourages women to promote a thrifty lifestyle that emphasizes food conservation. 

Shaanxi Women's Federation, in Northwest China, has called on March 8th Red-Banner Holders, Women Pacesetters for Achievements and Most Beautiful Families to take the lead in food conservation. Women have been encouraged to play their roles in family education, by teaching their children the significance of saving food. 

The women's federations of Hebei, Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, and of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, have also called on women to raise awareness of food conservation, and to contribute their wisdom and strength in the advancement of the high-quality development of grain production.

Children Enjoy Happy Harvest

China National Children's Center, in collaboration with relevant government departments, in 2020 launched a themed activity to guide children and teenagers, nationwide, to experience the joy of harvesting grain.

To date, the activity has been organized three times (once every year). It will be held for the fourth time in late September. Children and teenagers are encouraged to participate in forums on harvesting, the collection of calligraphies, drawings and paintings, the shooting of videos about harvests, tea culture or family catering workshops, art performances and celebrations of the annual harvest festival. This initiative has helped children and teenagers develop an interest in farm work.

Photos Supplied by Interviewees and VCG

(Women of China English Monthly September 2023 issue)