From stable grain production to enriching farmers through fruits and vegetables, smart agriculture is helping specialty crops achieve bountiful harvests.

In Guanxian County, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, corn has entered its peak harvest period, with various combines racing across the fields. This year, the local area has promoted the consolidation of small plots into large fields through a unified trusteeship model, achieving contiguous and scaled operations that reduce costs, increase efficiency, and raise farmers' incomes. In Dongkaihetou Village, Yanzhuang Subdistrict, Guanxian County, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, three combine harvesters are operating in designated zones, simultaneously performing ear picking, threshing, and straw crushing and returning to the field. The more than 10 mu of corn fields belonging to farmer Jiang Yunbiao are part of the land uniformly entrusted by the village to a company, so he does not need to worry about anything from plowing to planting, management, and harvesting. This year, 800 mu of land in the village were uniformly handed over by the village collective to a company for trusteeship, adopting a model of "guaranteed base income plus surplus dividends," with the enterprise providing integrated services for plowing, planting, management, harvesting, and sales. Farmers' incomes have increased considerably compared to scattered farming or outsourcing operations. This year, Guanxian County's corn planting area reached 924,800 mu, of which more than 200,000 mu adopted the unified trusteeship model, integrating fragmented farmland through scaled and standardized management to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and raise farmers' incomes. It is reported that the county's corn harvesting operations will be completed in early October.

In Keping County, Xinjiang, 148,900 mu of cotton have gradually entered the centralized harvest period, and fully mechanized harvesting work is being carried out in an orderly manner. In the cotton fields of Keping County, Xinjiang, white and plump cotton bolls dot the landscape, and intelligent cotton pickers shuttle back and forth, completing picking, gathering, and baling in an integrated manner, creating a bustling scene of bountiful harvest. In recent years, Keping County has continued to optimize its cotton planting model and promote scientific planting techniques, achieving 100% mechanized cotton harvesting, greatly reducing planting costs, and effectively helping cotton farmers maintain stable production and increase incomes. According to statistics, this year Keping County's cotton planting area is 148,900 mu, and harvesting is expected to be fully completed in early November.

In Kailu County, Inner Mongolia, 100,000 mu of Leymus chinensis are undergoing second-cutting harvest, with busy scenes in the fields. Leymus chinensis is known as the "king of grasses," serving as both high-quality forage and a means of ecological restoration, while also driving local farmers to increase incomes. In the large-scale Leymus chinensis planting base in Kailu County, multiple forage harvesters move back and forth, efficiently completing integrated harvesting and baling. On-site measurements show that this artificially planted Leymus chinensis, improved through superior seed breeding, achieved a dry grass yield of 300 kilograms per mu in this second cutting. The Leymus chinensis in Kailu County is a superior variety developed by a technical team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, featuring cold resistance, drought tolerance, and salt-alkali tolerance. The first cutting is generally taken in July, and the second cutting in mid-to-late September. This year, the second cutting is expected to be completed before October 10. Leveraging the advantages of superior seeds, the local area has also built a Leymus chinensis pellet processing plant. After maturation treatment, the forage is made into pellet feed, which is easier to store and absorb, greatly reducing forage loss from the original 30% and significantly increasing product added value. Today, Kailu County has gathered dozens of Leymus chinensis-related enterprises, forming a complete industrial chain from superior seed breeding, large-scale planting, and deep processing to livestock farming, achieving a win-win situation of ecological governance and enriching the people.

In Dazu, Chongqing, more than 5,000 mu of bergamot are in the centralized picking period. Through a model of "land transfer plus base employment," local villagers are able to increase their incomes at their doorsteps. At the bergamot planting base in Tianhe Village, Jinshan Town, Dazu District, bergamot fruits hang all over the branches across the hillsides, with a faint fragrance filling the air. Villagers carry bamboo baskets and shuttle through the groves, busy picking ripe fresh fruits. Local villagers transfer their land to contractors while also working at the base and participating in management, earning both land transfer income and wages from working near their homes. Bergamot is named for the finger-like split at the top of the fruit. Its roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits can all be used as medicine, making it a specialty agricultural product that serves both medicinal and culinary purposes. Freshly picked fruits are quickly transported to processing workshops. Some are cleaned, sliced, and dried into dried bergamot slices for supply to the medicinal materials market; some are processed into extended products such as bergamot flower tea; and a batch of fresh fruits with excellent appearance are carefully packaged and sent to all parts of the country as ornamental products. At present, Dazu District has a bergamot planting area of 5,000 mu, with an output value of approximately 25 million yuan.