Over the past five years, agricultural development in Harbin -- capital city of China's northernmost Heilongjiang province -- has gone from strength to strength, with the sector playing a key role in helping to stabilize overall economic and social development and ensuring national food security.
 
Harbin's grain output has now achieved bumper harvests for 18 consecutive years and its total output is said to rank first among sub-provincial cities in the country.
 
The city and the region's importance to the country's agricultural sector are epitomized by the saying:  "One out of every nine bowls of rice in China comes from Heilongjiang and one-fifth of Heilongjiang's rice is produced in Harbin".
 
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Harbin's annual grain output was stable at an average of more than 12 billion kilograms and output reached a record 12.70 billion kg in 2021.
 
Moreover, the city's agricultural product processing is understood to have achieved rapid development to serve the agriculture industry.
 
By the end of 2021, Harbin had 522 agricultural product processing enterprises and the processing and conversion rate of major agricultural products in the city had reached 65 percent, with the city's GDP hitting 121.5 billion yuan ($18.23 billion) last year.
 
From 2017 to 2021, Harbin produced a total of 6.37 million metric tons of meat, eggs and milk.