Modern technologies and machines have been applied in rice planting in Qutang town, Hai'an. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

Qutang town in Hai'an – a county-level city administered by Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province – and Shigang town in Tongzhou district in the city recently won a provincial recognition for the high-quality rice they plant, local media reported on Jan 4.

Located at the west gate of Nantong, Qutang town in Hai'an has a rice planting history of over 6,000 years. With an area under cultivation of 5,620 hectares, the town is mainly engaged in growing rice.

In 2020, the rice planting area was about 5,166 ha, accounting for 92 percent of the total cultivated area. The rice planting area of high-quality varieties took up 90 percent of the total in 2020 and 91 percent in 2021.

At present, there are 164 households in the town that each has a planting area of some 3 ha. Three rice processing companies within the town's jurisdiction area have launched independent brands and have sold their products to major cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou.

There is also one brand recognized as organic rice and two brands named national pollution-free rice.