Four major changes have taken place in China's agricultural pattern and production mode.

"the lake is ripe and the world is full", "transporting grain from the south to the north" and "facing the loess and back to the sky".... These traditional impressions of grain production are now undergoing earth-shaking changes.

First, the grain-producing areas are rapidly moving northward.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is a traditional grain production area, which is known as "the lake is ripe and the world is full of feet". Today, although the five provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei and Anhui) are still among the 13 major grain producing areas in China, their contribution to national grain production has decreased significantly due to the obvious reduction of their rice planting area.

On the contrary, the northeast region, which used to be the "barren land" outside the customs in the past, has now become the main grain producing area. At present, the output of autumn grain in the four northeastern provinces (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia) accounts for almost 1/3 of the country's total. "Beidacang" Heilongjiang has been the top producer of grain in China for four consecutive years since 2011, accounting for the top 1/10 of the country's total annual grain output.

This has also led to the transformation of the pattern of "transporting grain from the south to the north" to "transporting grain from the north to the south" for thousands of years. According to historical records, more than 9000 water vessels transported grain from south to north in the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal of the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty collected as many as 4 million stones of grain transported from the south every year. Today, in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Anhui, Jiangxi and other five grain transfer provinces (regions), the northeast region accounts for three.

Second, the grain-producing areas are highly concentrated.

Data show that at present, there are 13 major grain-producing provinces and regions in China, accounting for 75 percent of the country's total output, and the northeast has become one of the areas with the highest output. Over the past decade, the country's grain production has increased by 350 billion jin, and the four northeastern provinces (regions) have contributed 40 percent. There are more than 1 billion jin of grain producing counties in the country, accounting for more than half of the country's output. There are 33 major cities (prefectures) producing more than 10 billion jin of grain, accounting for 43% of the country's total output. The concentration of grain producing areas has increased significantly.

Third, the level of mechanized farming has been greatly improved.

The traditional agricultural scene of "cattle ploughing and horse ploughing" and "whip harmony" and farmers'"facing the loess and facing the sky" have undergone fundamental changes, and China's grain production has shifted from manpower and animal power to a new historical stage dominated by mechanization.

Data show that the comprehensive mechanization level of crop cultivation and harvest in China has exceeded 60%, nearly 30 percentage points higher than that of 10 years ago, of which the comprehensive mechanization rates of rice, wheat and corn have all exceeded 75%. The whole process of wheat production in China has basically been mechanized, and the level of rice planting and harvesting has increased from 6% and 27% a decade ago to 38% and 81% respectively, and the harvest level of corn machinery has increased from 2% to 55%.

Fourth, the capacity of grain yield per unit area has been continuously improved.

While the grain sown area has declined over the years, China's grain output has still maintained a bumper harvest year after year, which is due to the continuous improvement of grain yield per unit area. Taking rice, which accounts for more than 1/3 of the output of the three major grain crops in China, for example, the yield of rice per mu in China has experienced two leaps since 1949, one is the dwarfing of rice in the late 1950s, and the other is the popularization and application of hybrid rice after the mid-1970s. Both leaps have increased the national rice yield per mu by nearly 100 jin. China established a super rice program in 1996. At present, the yield per mu of rice is breaking through to 1000 kg.