“Shared joy of Farmers’ Harvest, common dream to revitalize villages”. On September 21, Yichang 2019 Farmers’ Harvest Festival opened in Zhijiang. More than 1,300 people, including Yichang “Top 100 Farmers”, rural sages, cultural celebrities and representatives of farmers, gathered at the Huagu Square of Dongfangnianhua’s in Anfu Temple Town to celebrate the harvest. Zhou Ji, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, declared the opening of the ceremony, at which Zhang jiasheng, mayor and vice secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, delivered a speech.

　　 Other municipal leaders attending the ceremony are Shang Kui, Liu Hongfu and Tan Yeming. Xie Rong made an exchange speech at the ceremony as the representative of the farmers who won the title of Yichang “Top 100 Farmers”.

　　On the spot, the farmer representatives from the counties and cities of Yichang displayed their harvest through various characteristic farm products such as citrus, tea, kiwi, rice, honey and sand pears to share the joy of the fruit of their hard work over the past year. Zhou Ji had in-depth talks with them and made careful inquiry about their product sales and quality assurance. He pointed out that a good brand lies in its reliable quality, and it’s vital to make persistent efforts to improve product quality and increase the supply of green and high-quality agricultural products to further meet market demands; full play should be given to our comparative advantages to intensify the construction of agricultural brands and build century-old stores; to meet the different demands of international and domestic markets, more targeted agricultural products should be provided to increase market share; we should put the development of agricultural science and technology in a more prominent position to speed up the agricultural modernization; and we should also do well in the deep processing of agricultural products, continuously improve their added value so that the industry can develop better while ensuring the sustainable growth of wealth of the farmers. Zhang Jia-sheng said in his speech that the quality of an all-round well-off society and the socialist modernization are determined by the development of agriculture, the landscape of the countryside and the wealth of farmers. At present, poverty eradication has entered the crucial point of a decisive battle, and rural revitalization is at the key point of an all-round opening; we should take this harvest festival as an opportunity to continuously pass on the value orientation of emphasizing agriculture, and to constantly create a strong atmosphere for a strong agriculture and the welfare of farmers. In the end he expressed his hope that the farmers in the city will further emancipate their minds and renew their ideas, work hard and skillfully together with the people of the city to achieve a high-quality development of Yichang’s “agriculture, countryside and farmers”.

　　At the opening ceremony, Yichang 2019 “Top 100 Farmers” were commended; Zhijiang released promotion videos of agricultural products with brands of “Zhijiang navel orange” and “Zhijiang agate rice”; and according to the released results of an e-commerce marketing competition of the “Zhizi Flavors” agricultural products at the ceremony, Yichang Juyuan E-Commerce Co., Ltd., Zhijiang Haoge Trading Co., Ltd. and Zhijiang Jiayiguo E-Commerce Co., Ltd. ranked top three. After the opening ceremony, a cultural and artistic performance with the theme of “Celebrating Harvest” and a series of activities including farm work experiencing and competitions, fun contests and agricultural products tasting were also held to attract public participation in the celebration.

　　It’s learned that the theme of the festival “Shared joy of Farmers’ Harvest, common dream to revitalize villages” is meant to extensively gather powerful forces of loving and supporting agriculture through various activities that are popular with the masses, such as promoting, comparing, celebrating and displaying as well as painting the bumper harvests. In addition to the activities at Zhijiang’s main venue, the counties and cities of Yidu, Zigui, Changyang, Yiling and Dangyang respectively carried out relevant activities at the sub-venues to share the joy of harvest.

　　The participants of the activities also included relevant cadres from the units directly under the municipal government and from the counties, cities and districts, representatives of “leaders in rural revitalization”, heads of agricultural tourism companies, composers of cultural and artistic works exhibitions, and other farmer representatives. (Reporter: Lei Pengcheng and Huang Yanqiao)