As a major agricultural province in East China, Shandong takes regional integrated coordination as its core approach to organize the development of modern agriculture, digital technologies and urban-rural integration, painting a vibrant picture of rural vitalization.

Over the past five years, villages across the province have witnessed all-round transformation featuring upgraded industries, greener ecosystems and improved people's well-being. The income ratio between urban and rural residents has narrowed to 2.12; the coverage rate of large-scale rural water supply has risen to 97 percent; and 267,000 kilometers of rural highways span the countryside and connect thousands of households.

Standing at the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), Shandong has set its sights on building itself into a strong agricultural province, continuously upgrading its regional integrated development model, and utilizing the "Qilu model", a self-developed approach to rural vitalization.

Thriving industries underpin rural vitalization, while food security constitutes the foundation of Shandong's development. As a major grain-producing province, with only 6 percent of the country's arable land and 1 percent of its freshwater resources, Shandong yields 8 percent of China's grain, 10 percent of its meat, eggs and milk, 11 percent of its vegetables and 13 percent of its aquatic products.

Resource integration

At present, relying on regional overall planning, the province is fostering a coordinated development pattern of "one signature industry per county, one distinctive product per village". By enabling developed villages to drive underdeveloped ones and integrating cross-regional resources, Shandong is opening up channels to boost value creation across the entire industry chain.

In Daicun village in Lanling county, Linyi city, a new pastoral town has been built together with 11 neighboring villages. Local farmers gain multiple streams of income from various integrated agricultural, cultural and tourism projects. The orchid industrial park, for instance, offers more than 500 local jobs, with annual earnings of orchid growers reaching 200,000 to 300,000 yuan ($29,437 to $44,155).

Recalling past developments, Wang Chuanxi, Party secretary of Daicun village, shared his thoughts. Previously, adjacent villages rushed to develop identical planting and breeding businesses, yet most operations remained at the primary production stage, lacking scale and recognizable brands. The strength of regional integration lies in its capacity to make deep-processing projects, industry clusters and complete industry chains feasible on a broader scale — developments that a single village cannot deliver on its own.

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan, Shandong officials said the government will align closely with national plans and thoroughly implement the grain output upgrading initiative. It will develop contiguous high-standard farmland, water conservancy facilities and agricultural machinery supporting systems to stabilize the supply of grain, oil crops and soybeans.

Additionally, the province will refine modern warehousing and emergency supply reserve systems to reinforce national food security. It will also advance in-depth integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, continuously extend industry chains, raise the added value of agricultural products, and support the transformation of agriculture into a large-scale modern industry.

Digital service platforms

Digital technologies equip traditional farming with modern momentum, and smart agriculture has become a standout calling card showcasing Shandong's new quality productive forces. Since 2021, leveraging contiguous regional planning, Shandong has pushed digital technologies to reach every corner of rural areas, shifting farming from experience-based cultivation to precise data-driven management.

Inside an intelligent glass greenhouse in Changyi, Weifang city, fully automatic water and fertilizer supply, temperature control and ventilation systems enable unattended management. The three-dimensional soilless cultivation model drastically boosts land utilization and production efficiency, doubling farming yields compared with traditional methods.

Local large-scale grain growers said that digital agricultural technologies have reduced large-scale grain farming's reliance on weather conditions, cutting labor time, increasing efficiency and stabilizing output and income.

In 2021, Dezhou city launched its Dunbanliang initiative, and its five-year targets were accomplished within three years. The core zones in the region record an average yield of 23,694 kilograms per hectare.

Behind the success of the program lies the integration of five key elements: fertile farmland, superior seed varieties, scientific cultivation techniques, advanced agricultural machinery and sound institutional mechanisms.

At present in Dezhou, a total of 570,800 hectares of high-standard farmland accounts for 90 percent of its permanent farmland, with reliable irrigation for droughts and drainage for floods. Integrated water and fertilizer systems and unified prevention and control of crop diseases and pests have been widely rolled out, cutting water and fertilizer consumption by roughly 30 percent. Beidou navigation harvesters, drone plant protection equipment and intelligent grain drying machines are all in full operation. Data have become a new agricultural input, while artificial intelligence serves as a new farming tool.

More crucially, solid institutional safeguards are in place: China's first local regulation dedicated to boosting grain production has been enacted; Party secretaries at city, county, township and village levels are all required to take charge of grain production.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan, Shandong officials said the province will continue to focus on sectors driving new quality productive forces including biological breeding, intelligent agricultural machinery and digital improvement of saline-alkali land. It will strengthen two national-level science and innovation platforms: the Weifang National Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Agriculture Opening Up and Development and the Agricultural High-tech Industrial Demonstration Area of the Yellow River Delta of Shandong Province, and steadily raise the contribution of agricultural scientific and technological research.

Improved livelihoods

The ultimate goal of rural vitalization is to deliver a better life for farmers. Moujiahe village in Huiqu town, Weifang city, along with several surrounding mountain villages, long suffered from poor transport and limited access to clean water. In the view of Li Xuehai, Party secretary of Moujiahe village, authorities must prioritize solving the most pressing needs of local residents first.

New intervillage and mountain-circling roads have been built to improve villagers' travel conditions; multiple small reservoirs and water storage tanks have been constructed alongside 16 newly drilled wells to resolve domestic water supply and farm irrigation demands for more than 3,000 nearby villagers; new transformers have been installed to upgrade power supply services.

Beyond upgrades to infrastructure, rural residents also hold expectations for better public services: convenient medical care close to home, quality schooling for children and comfortable eldercare for seniors. A practice in Yiyuan county, Zibo city, selected as a national typical case of rural public services, is highly representative.

In recent years, responding to difficulties facing seniors such as inconvenient dining and lack of daily care, local authorities have built and operated 230 "Yiyuanhong" comprehensive livelihood complexes and 168 meal service stations across the county.

These facilities provide meal assistance, bathing support, medical consultation and daily shopping services, covering all 446 villages with eldercare services and delivering quality eldercare to 85,000 rural seniors.

Across the whole province, all cities and counties are deploying medical, cultural and other service facilities based on rural population distribution. Village clinics now cover every administrative village, and eldercare service centers cover all townships.