A few taps on a smartphone, and the wheat is sold.

This summer, Wang Xiugang, a farmer in Xiajin County of Dezhou City, east China's Shandong Province, no longer had to spend hours waiting in line at a grain collection station. Through a mobile app, he could book a delivery time, check the prices, track quality inspection results and complete the entire selling process – from weighing to payment – in about 30 minutes.

The shift from queuing in person to selling grain at one's fingertips offers a glimpse into China's steadily advancing agricultural modernization.

For Chinese President Xi Jinping, agriculture, rural areas and farmers have long remained a top priority in governance. During an inspection tour in Dezhou on Wednesday, Xi stressed that agricultural and rural modernization is vital to China's broader modernization drive and called for concrete measures to strengthen the sector.

Securing the nation's rice bowl

"Ensuring a stable supply of grain and other important agricultural products is the top priority of agricultural production," Xi said while visiting farmland in Dezhou.

His remarks carry particular significance in a city often described as one of China's key grain baskets. Although it occupies just over 10,000 square kilometers, Dezhou contributes more than one kilogram out of every 100 kilograms of grain produced nationwide.

In recent years, Dezhou has become a testing ground for boosting agricultural productivity. Launched in 2021 by Dezhou City to advance national food security, the "Dunbanliang" initiative is a high-yield agricultural program that aims to produce over 1.5 metric tonnes of grain per Chinese mu (approximately 0.0667 hectares). Two years later, Dezhou built the country's first one-million-mu "Dunbanliang" demonstration zone.

The gains have been driven by high-standard farmland, upgraded irrigation systems, improved seed varieties and integrated water-and-fertilizer technologies. By 2025, farmland meeting the "Dunbanliang" benchmark had expanded to 1.58 million mu in Dezhou.

The effort is part of a broader national push. More than 90% of China's summer grain harvest has been completed this year, with another bumper harvest largely secured.

Turning harvests into better lives

Yet producing more grain is only part of the story.

For many farmers, challenges begin after the harvest. Limited drying space, storage losses and fluctuating market prices can all eat into earnings.

In Wucheng County, also in Dezhou, local authorities have introduced a "grain bank" model to address these concerns. Farmers can store grain, have it professionally dried and choose when to sell, helping reduce losses and improve returns.

The initiative underscores a broader vision behind China's drive for agricultural and rural modernization. The goal is not merely to boost agricultural output, but to advance rural revitalization and ensure farmers reap the fruits of modernization.

That goal was evident during Xi's tour.

At the home of villager Yu Xinhu in Xiyujia Village, Xi sat down with the family and asked about their daily lives, their jobs and income, the health of elderly family members, and the children's education. The questions highlighted a key measure of rural development: whether farmers are seeing tangible improvements in their lives.

In Xiyujia Village, those improvements are becoming increasingly visible. Through integrated development of e-commerce, tourism and cultural industries, it has helped more than 3,000 nearby residents share development opportunities. A livestreaming center generates about one million yuan in annual collective village income, while educational tourism programs attract more than 20,000 visitors each year.

As Xi told villagers before leaving, the ultimate goal of modernization is to meet people's aspirations for a better life. The ultimate success of a bumper harvest lies not only in the grain it produces, but in the prosperity and opportunities it brings to those who grow it.