On September 19, the Tea Plantation Mechanized Equipment Demonstration Meeting of Southwest China was held in Yidu County. It is acknowledged that mechanization has been achieved in production of over 8, 000 acres of tea plantation in Yichang, as has led to increase of the average income up to 48,600 yuan per acre.

　　The area of tea plantation in the whole city has been developed to 111,692 acres in total, and the output has reached 45,600 metric tons. Nearly 400,000 tea farmers and workers of processing and distribution are engaged in the tea industry. By the beginning of this year, 37, 900 mini cultivation machines and 20,100 sets of pruning and picking machines have been employed in production of tea plantation in Yichang, the volume of which ranks the first in Hubei Province and that attributes to entire mechanization in 8, 236 acres and partial mechanization in 57,658 acres of tea plantation. The municipal agricultural machinery technology promotion department has compiled and published Technical Regulation for Mechanized Production of Tea Plantation which was approved and released by Hubei Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision. It means the beginning of production of tea plantation machines with standards and effective instructions for full mechanization of tea plantation, which actually has resulted in further technical integration and innovation as well as popularization of productive mechanization and technical standardization of tea production in the whole city.

　　Since 2000, with improvement in technological mechanization, the income of the tea farmers has increased to 30,350~36,420 yuan per acre, and the highest even reaches 48,600 yuan, much higher than 12,140 yuan per acre in the past.