Spring farming aided by modern technologies pick up pace across China

Spring farming, aided by modern agricultural technologies, is picking up pace across China.

In Yulin City, located in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rice seedlings are waiting to be transplanted. To expedite the planting process, local farmers have adopted modern and efficient agricultural machines to boost productivity.

"Currently, there are over 9,000 mu (about 600 hectares) of well-grown rice seedlings, with around 10,000 mu (about 666.67 hectares) of orders yet to be cultivated. The entire process of seedling cultivation is expected to run until the end of March, and the transplanting of rice seedlings will likely be completed around mid-April," said Zheng Zhiwen, head of an agricultural company.

This year, Yulin plans to transplant over 1.72 million mu (about 114,600 hectares) of early-season rice. As of now, it has deployed over 120,000 sets of agricultural machinery to support early rice production. They have already completed planting on over 54,000 hectares of early-season rice, and are expected to finish all early rice transplanting by early April.

Elsewhere, Xiapu County of east China's Fujian Province is accelerating seedling cultivation operations through automatic seeding machine and smart workshops.

"From seedling cultivation and transplanting to drone-assisted crop protection and harvesting, we have basically achieved full mechanization throughout the entire process," said Sun Chaozhi, head of a seedling cultivation center.

Local farmers are employing rotary tillers enhanced with the homegrown Beidou navigation system to plow the soil in preparations for transplanting.

In north China's Guangping County, Hebei Province, local farmers are benefiting from the Yellow River water diversion project, making full use of this resource to irrigate and nourish their wheat fields.

In Xiantao City, located in central China's Hubei Province, the local power department has dispatched electricians to the fields to carry out thorough inspections of irrigation facilities, ensuring readiness for spring plowing by swiftly detecting and mitigating potential risks.

The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Monday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, dropped 0.09 percent to 97.705 at 15:00 (2000 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1792 dollars from 1.1780 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound lost to 1.3490 dollars from 1.3491 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 154.62 Japanese yen, lower than 155.02 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.7744 Swiss francs from 0.7754 Swiss francs, and it was up to 1.3696 Canadian dollars from 1.3686 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar advanced to 9.0647 Swedish kronor from 9.0540 Swedish kronor.