A staff checks newly harvested wheat at a storehouse of a grain and oil company in Qitai County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

URUMQI, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region grabbed the top spot in the country in terms of grain yield per unit area in 2024, according to data from the regional agriculture and rural affairs bureau.

Xinjiang's average grain yield per mu this year soared to 524.8 kg, or 7,872 kg per hectare, 130 kg higher than the national average and the highest per-mu grain yield among the country's provincial-level regions.

"Xinjiang's leap to the top in the country in grain yield per mu marks a new breakthrough in the region's efforts to enhance grain production," said Li Jing, deputy director of the bureau, on Wednesday.

According to Li, this year, over 98 percent of Xinjiang's grain crops like wheat and corn were grown from high-quality seeds, and the mechanization rates for farming and harvesting reached 99.5 percent and 95.5 percent, respectively.

Efforts to achieve the result include adopting advanced cultivation techniques to optimize planting density and moisture levels, applying water and fertilizers precisely, and minimizing losses during machine harvesting.

"These measures have yielded remarkable results," Li said, noting that a new national record was set in Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, where the per-mu corn yield surpassed one tonne in a trial project covering 1 million mu of land.

In 2024, Xinjiang's grain output reached 23.3 million tonnes, an increase of 2.11 million tonnes from the previous year, contributing to 19 percent of the country's total grain output growth.

China's 2024 grain output hit a record high of 706.5 million tonnes, an increase of 1.6 percent from last year. This year also marks the first time that the country registered a grain harvest of over 700 million tonnes.