Henan’s Wheat Harvest Moves into Full Swing with Over 37 Per Cent of Crops Collected

Xinhua News Agency releases agricultural progress updates based on statistics issued by Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. By 17:00 on 1 June, farm crews across Henan had finished harvesting 31.772 million mu of winter wheat, equivalent to 37.3 per cent of the province’s total wheat cultivation footprint, which stands steadily above 85 million mu on an annual basis as a core grain production base in China’s central plains. 

On the same single day, a total of 106,000 combine harvesters rolled into field operations to gather 9.871 million mu of mature grain, marking another sharp acceleration of the annual summer harvesting campaign locally.

Known widely as China’s Central Granary, Henan accounts for roughly one quarter of the country’s overall wheat output, with annual planting scales remaining consistent after years of stable cropping planning from agricultural regulators. 

Provincial agricultural authorities finalised pre-harvest preparations well ahead of the cropping season, carrying out full maintenance on more than 2.2 million sets of farming machinery and setting up nearly 400 dedicated service stations to facilitate cross-region machinery transfers throughout the three-month summer farming cycle dubbed the Sanxia campaign. 

Official pre-season scheduling had lined up over 215,000 combine harvesters for full-cycle deployment, including imported units coordinated from adjacent provincial regions to fill temporary equipment gaps amid concentrated ripening peaks.

Digitalised farm management platforms serve as operational backbone for ongoing field coordination, enabling real-time tracking of harvester distribution, working efficiency and regional harvest pace across counties and prefectures. Local authorities enforce strict standards to cap mechanical harvesting grain loss below one per cent, rolling out regular operator training and field skill contests to refine harvesting precision and minimise crop wastage during collection. 

Supporting infrastructure including thousands of grain drying facilities has been put into standby operation to process freshly harvested grain promptly and avoid quality deterioration under shifting weather conditions.

Harvest progresses northwards across Henan following natural ripening timelines, with southern prefectures wrapping up bulk collection while northern farmland steps into concentrated harvesting phases in the coming weeks. 

Regional agricultural management teams keep adjusting daily machinery allocation dynamically according to real-time crop maturity and meteorological forecasts, optimising working routes to lift daily harvesting volumes steadily for the remaining harvest window.