Summary:
China’s 2025 autumn harvest nears completion while winter planting accelerates nationwide. Supported by policy funding, digital farming, and new forestry standards, the sector shows strong resilience. Smart agriculture, green transition, and high-standard farmland construction are reshaping production efficiency and sustainability across the country.
1. Harvest Completion and Winter Crop Planning: Data Reveals Sector Resilience
As of October 30, 2025, autumn grain harvest progress nationwide had exceeded 85%. In major northeastern provinces, soybean and rice harvesting was completed 3–5 days earlier than last year, and Heilongjiang finished most corn fields except a few frozen plots. Western and southwestern regions both reached over 80% completion, showing the overall pattern of stable acreage, higher yields, and improved quality.
In Henan, although mountain and hilly areas in the west suffered drought-related yield losses, the main eastern and northern production zones maintained output stability thanks to high-standard farmland and irrigation infrastructure.
Winter crop deployment is accelerating: Nationwide winter wheat sowing has reached 15% completion. Anhui plans to plant 28.96 million hectares (≈ 43.44 million mu) of wheat and has already completed 5.62% of that area. Rapeseed sowing progress is 88.4%. Shandong has used emergency funds to complete 20 million hectares of straw return and deep tillage to prepare for winter wheat planting. Meteorological forecasts show that by early November, the proportion of winter-wheat regions with suitable soil moisture will reach 50.06%, a record high for the season.
2. Market Dynamics: Price Fluctuations and Forestry Standard Upgrades
The autumn grain procurement market exhibits a “policy support + market activity” pattern. On October 22, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration launched a production-sales linkage mechanism to encourage multi-party purchasing, while policy stockpiling effectively stabilized corn and rice prices.
The Agricultural Wholesale Price Index (200 Index) reached 125.02 on November 1. Vegetable and fruit prices rose significantly: average wholesale price of 28 vegetables was USD 0.79 per kg, up 16.1% from early October. Edible oil prices also climbed, averaging USD 1,890 per tonne, a 3.2% month-on-month increase.
In forestry, standardization is advancing. Effective November 1, three national forestry standards—Bougainvillea, Lycoris plants, and Camellia—came into force. The Lycoris Standard, led by the Shanghai Forestry Research Center and 10 partner institutions, standardizes bulb propagation and cut-flower production, marking a shift from experience-based cultivation to standardized production.
At the same time, the Guangxi International Forest Products Expo drew 1,100 exhibitors and over 600,000 potted plants, translating “flower traffic” into “consumption growth.”
3. Industrial Pain Points and Technological Breakthroughs: Smart Agriculture Reshapes Production
Structural challenges remain significant: in the Qinba mountain region, prolonged drought has cut yields by more than 50%, and wild boar damage continues to rise. Aging rural labor forces have kept mechanization in facility agriculture below 40%, and smallholder farmers lack digital skills.
To address these issues, leading enterprises and research institutions are advancing technological solutions:
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FJDynamics launched its AT2 Max autonomous driving system, which upgrades 30-year-old tractors into smart machines capable of centimeter-level precision operation in desert areas of Northwest China.
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Fubon Technology and Shanxi Qinzhou Huang Millet Group created a smart agriculture demo field using a “water-fertilizer-pesticide coupled + digital management” solution, achieving 336.34 kg per mu (≈ 5,045 kg/ha) yield—18.1% higher than control fields and reducing labor costs by 12%.
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Shanxi Linfen applied an innovative model of “insurance capital + spray-and-protect,” boosting wheat yield to historic highs and pioneering a new “pre-disaster intervention” insurance approach.
4. Policy Support: Central Finance Injects Billions to Strengthen Agriculture
China’s 2025 central fiscal policies continue to expand support for agriculture, with nine subsidy programs covering the entire value chain:
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Farmland fertility protection subsidies are distributed via “one-card” systems; plots abandoned for over a year lose next-year eligibility.
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Agricultural machinery purchase subsidies prioritize high-end equipment such as intelligent rice transplanters and large combine harvesters, with a maximum per-unit subsidy of USD 70,000.
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Soybean-corn strip intercropping subsidies increased by 15% from last year, expanding planting area in Northeast and Huang-Huai-Hai regions to over 8 million hectares (≈ 120 million mu).
Agricultural insurance premium subsidies now cover the full production cost of the three main grain crops nationwide, and soybean insurance pilots have expanded to all provinces.
5. Future Outlook: Green Transition and Industrial Chain Extension
Under the green development agenda, the under-forest economy and ecological restoration emerge as new growth drivers.
In Yinghu Town, Ankang City, Shaanxi, Xiangshuigou Village intercropped Bletilla striata with 300 mu (≈ 20 ha) of Chinese datsura forest, creating a “forest + medicine” model that balances ecological and economic benefits.
COFCO Group advanced a desert greening project in Inner Mongolia, developing an organic industry chain under a “greening – cultivation – processing” integrated model.
With the wider adoption of smart agriculture technologies, by the end of 2025 China’s agricultural IoT coverage is expected to reach 35%, and drone plant-protection area will exceed 67 million hectares (1 billion mu).
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs plans to complete 6.67 million hectares (100 million mu) of high-standard farmland and establish 100 smart-agriculture demonstration counties by 2026, providing a solid foundation for national food security.
Data Sources: National Bureau of Statistics; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; General Administration of Customs; CCM
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