Staff members of relevant departments visit distributors and farmers in Baishan city, Jilin province. [Photo/Baishan Release]

Authorities in Baishan city, Northeast China's Jilin province are putting measures in place to ensure that the current COVID-19 outbreak does not negatively affect the planting season – a crucial time of year for the agricultural industry, according to local media reports.

Jilin is one of the biggest corn producers in China and nearly 5 percent of the country's grain planting area is in the province, according to official data. The peak time for corn cultivation in northeastern Chinese provinces like Jilin usually falls in early May.

Every year in mid-April, it is the golden season for planting corn and soybeans in Northeast China.

Agricultural materials await to be utilized for spring plowing in Baishan city. [Photo/Baishan Release]

Farmers in Baishan have actively stocked seeds and fertilizers, overhauled agricultural machinery and tools, and made adequate preparations to ensure that spring ploughing can be carried out smoothly.

In response to the tight spring plowing time and the rising prices of agricultural materials, staff members visited the distribution points of agricultural materials and farmers to learn more about the storage of agricultural materials, the sales of seeds and fertilizers, and the price fluctuations, as well as help solve related problems.

In order to facilitate the transportation of agricultural materials by the distributors during the epidemic prevention period, the Baishan municipal agriculture and rural affairs bureau actively coordinated with the traffic control departments to issue transportation passes for the distributors.

Baishan city plans to invest 428 million yuan ($67.15 million) in spring ploughing and production, and currently, 407 million yuan has been raised. A small amount of materials and funding gaps are being actively raised. It is expected that all of them will be in place in the near future, which will fully meet the needs of agricultural materials for spring ploughing.

Farmers are busy spring ploughing in Baishan city, Jilin province. [Photo/Baishan Release]