Busy winter potato planting in Yilong Town, Shiping County, Yunnan

On the eve of the winter solstice, the villagers' committees of Doudiwan, Gaojiawan and Xiaoshui in Yilong Town by Yilong Lake in Shiping County seized the farming season to rush-plant winter potatoes.

In recent days, the weather at Yilong Lake has been clear and sunny, making it an advantageous time to sow winter potatoes. Farming households in the villagers' committees of Doudiwan, Gaojiawan and Dashui by the shores of Yilong Lake went all out to seize the favorable opportunity and turned out in full force to rush-plant overwintering potatoes. When this writer arrived at the shores of Yilong Lake, the vast expanse of over a thousand mu of flat, neatly arranged farmland presented a scene of bustling activity. On the field tractor roads were parked three-wheeled motorcycles carrying potato seed, chemical fertilizer and pesticide, along with small agricultural trucks and hand tractors of various models. In the fields, some farming households were busy rushing to harvest late-autumn sword beans, winter cabbage and green vegetables to free up the land in time for planting potatoes; some were plowing with machines or harrowing with oxen in their own contracted fields, preparing ridges and digging planting holes, selecting seed and sowing; and some were covering the potato-planted plots with film to guard against waterlogging and drought.