Recent media reports on spring planting in China’s Raohe County have drawn attention to the challenges faced by Chinese farmers as the cost of growing grain rises and agricultural production sags due to the aging of the country’s population.
Raohe County, in China’s Heilongjiang Province, was once recognized as China’s foremost grain-producing county. In 1993, it was designated as China’s soybean production capital. Thirty years later, Raohe’s grain output is down, and it is losing an increasing number of farmers to more lucrative work elsewhere.
