Heilongjiang sees bountiful harvest

In 2022, Heilongjiang saw a grain harvest of 77.63 million metric tons, accounting for 11.3 percent of the whole nation total, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

With a pristine ecology and one of the world's largest black soil zones, Heilongjiang leads the country in the amount of land devoted to planting rice, corn and soybeans, and also has the nation's highest annual yield.

In 2022, the province saw its 19th consecutive bumper year, and ranked first in the country in annual grain output for the 13th consecutive year.

The sown area in the province this year reached 14.68 million hectares, 131,933 hectares more than last year and accounting 12.4 percent of the country.

"Over 4.57 million hectares have been used to plant soybeans, some 667,000 hectares more than last year," Wang Zhaoxian, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said at a previous news conference.