Jiangmen, a major agricultural production base in South China's Guangdong province, will focus on boosting its agricultural production to help lift farmers out of poverty.

Priorities will be given to developing characteristic agricultural industry chains and building more agricultural brands to promote the city's rural economy, as well as its construction of a beautiful countryside.

Wang Changqing, deputy mayor of Jiangmen, detailed the city's efforts at a ceremony to celebrate the third Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival and the opening ceremony of the seventh Jiangmen Agricultural Expo on Sept 22.

The seventh Jiangmen Agricultural Expo opens in Jiangmen on Sept 22. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The biennial Jiangmen Agricultural Expo that is taking place in the city until Sept 26 has become an important platform to demonstrate the city's agricultural development, enhance cultural exchanges, as well as expand agricultural trade.

Around 200 agricultural enterprises from Jiangmen are displaying more than 1,000 kinds of agricultural products, including cereals and oils, livestock and poultry, vegetables, fruits, health food, as well as leisure food to seek cooperation with potential partners and expand sales.

Wang said the city would continue to introduce more preferential policies to strengthen the agriculture industry and benefit farmers, making agriculture a promising industry and farming an attractive occupation, while also making the villages in Jiangmen attractive to live and work in.

According to Wang, Jiangmen, which is located in the western part of the Pearl River Delta region, is a major city and an important grain production base in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The city, which represents one-sixth of the total land area in the Greater Bay Area, produces one-third of the area's grain, one-fourth of its aquatic products, one-fifth of its meat, and one-eighth of its vegetables, Wang added.

Jiangmen's total output value of its agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery industries reached 21.16 billion yuan ($3 billion) from January to June, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 percent, higher than the average level of Guangdong province.