(Reporter: Lei Pengcheng) Yichang first Chinese Farmers Harvest Festival and the 6th Hubei Yichang Citrus Festival were held in Yiling District on September 21. Domestic and foreign merchants, e-commerce representatives, representatives of farmers gathered in Guanzhuang Village to celebrate the harvest in this golden autumn. Zhou Ji, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, announced the opening ceremony. Zhang Jiasheng, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and mayor, delivered a speech.

　　City leaders Liu Jianxin, Shang Kui, Liu Hongfu, Ma Hongyan, and the municipal government secretary Jiang Zhengxiong attended the opening ceremony. Liu Hongfu presided over the opening ceremony.

　　At the event, Zhou Ji and Zhang Jiasheng visited the agricultural achievement exhibition and the exhibition of high-quality agricultural products in the 40th anniversary of the city's reform and opening up. On the stand, citrus, tea, kiwi, rice, vegetables and other agricultural products from all over the city show the people’s unique endowments in using of nature resources. They have made achievements in agricultural development through self-reliance and arduous struggle in respecting, complying with and protecting nature, and they are enjoying the happiness of harvest brought by their one year hard work. Zhou Ji and Zhang Jiasheng stopped from time to time to have in-depth exchanges with the farmers, entrepreneurs, and representatives of the public, to hear about the situation, thumbing up the quality agricultural products.

　　Zhou Ji encouraged farmers to stick to pursue the new path of ecological priority, green development, make a full use of agricultural science and technology, and take measures to address agricultural pollution. The supply-side structural reform of agriculture should be made as the major task by integrating ecological awareness into agricultural production, brand publicity, packaging design and other aspects, further improving product quality and increasing quality supply. Brand awareness and market awareness should be strengthened to improve and expand featured brands, increase product added value, impelling local featured agricultural products to play a greater role in increasing farmers’ income.

　　On behalf of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal government, Zhang Jiasheng extended festive greetings to the city's 2.74 million farmers, and expressed sincere thanks to the workers engaged in the work of agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents and friends from all walks of life who have long supported the development of Yichang. With the approval of the Party Central Committee of the CPC and the official reply of the state council, he said, the annual autumn equinox of the lunar calendar has been set up as the "Chinese Farmers Harvest Festival" since this year, which fully reflects the great importance attached by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core to the work of "agriculture, rural areas and rural residents" and their deep concern for farmers. Departments at all levels should further strengthen the understanding of the top priority of "agriculture, rural areas and rural residents", and focus on the "five revitalization" in rural industry, talent, culture, ecology, and organization, so as to truly make agriculture a surging industry, make farmers an attractive career, and make rural areas a happy home. It is hoped that the farmers will take the opportunity of this Festival to update their concepts, seize chances, integrate into the market, and achieve yearly harvest for better life.

　　Wang Jiaxin, a farmer representative, said that looking back on my journey, I deeply realized that only by following the pace of the Party and going along with the trend can we get rich. You can't achieve what you have achieved today unless you live up to a single goal and work hard. Let us continue to work hand in hand to harvest year after year.

　　At the opening ceremony, the “100 Best Farmers” in Yichang were rewarded respectively as “Top Ten Grain Cultivation Experts”, “Top Ten Tea CultivationExperts”, “Top Ten Citrus Cultivation Experts” and “Top Ten Vegetable Cultivation Experts”, "Top Ten Livestock and Poultry Breeders", "Top Ten Agricultural Machinery Operators", "Top Ten Rural Biogas Service Experts", "Top Ten Aquaculture Experts", "Top Ten Agricultural Brokers" and "Top Ten New Professional Farmers".

　　With the theme of “Celebrating the Harvest, Increasing the Income" as the theme, the Harvest Festival consists of three chapters: Fragrant Citrus Groves, Joyful Citrus City, and World-Renowned Citrus. And it allows customers at home and abroad to enjoy the beautiful citrus countryside scenery and negotiate economic and trade cooperation there, at the same time, displays and promotes the integration of the citrus industry and agricultural tourism through the investigation of citrus production and marketing, online and offline sales promotion, high-quality agricultural products display, citrus groves visit, citrus tasting, “running” citrus activities and citrus international buyers conference.

　　Relevant departments of the municipal government, responsible comrades in the districts of each county, "100 Best Farmers", representatives of rural sages and cultural celebrities, representatives of citrus sales merchants, and other representatives of farmers' masses attended the opening ceremony.