“I believe that we will have a bumper harvest in the coming year with this irrigation canal,” said Hu Chenglin, a villager of Heyu Village in Shunfeng Town, Linwu County, Chenzhou.

Towns and villages of Linwu County, making full use of winter slack season, have expanded the capacity of their reservoirs and repaired irrigation canals, thus increasing irrigation areas of farmland and laying a solid foundation for agricultural production.

Liangzhai is a village of Wushui Town with flat and fertile farmland. There was a small reservoir with an area of over 10 mu (about 0.67 hectares) that stored irrigation water for the village. However, the small reservoir stored so little water that half of the village’s farmland was abandoned because of water shortage.

In December 2021, cadres of the town and the village raised a total of 40,000 yuan from villagers and superior departments to expand capacity of the small reservoir in the hope of an abundant supply of irrigation water.

Wang Fei, Party secretary of Liangzhai Village, introduced that the village boasts irrigation canals of near 2,000 meters with 100 mu (about 6.7 hectares) of paddy fields on both sides. Moreover, the village also re-cultivated farmland of over 50 mu (about 3.3 hectares) and repaired damaged canals, which could be used for flood drainage and irrigation.

The capacity of the small reservoir now has been expanded from 30,000 cubic meters to 50,000 cubic meters, benefiting more than 100 households and irrigating over 100 mu of farmland.

A villager named Chen Si said that the water irrigation problem has been solved so that the once abandoned farmland is restored for production, which brings practical benefits to all villagers.

Heyu Village of Shunfeng Town, abounding with taro, was troubled by irrigation because of obstructed canals. Cadres raised funds at the end of 2021 for the construction of a canal over 400 meters that could irrigate more than 1,000 mu (about 66.7 hectares) of farmland along it.

Linwu County invested 39.36 million yuan in 2021 to repair 71 irrigation canals and 29 drainage canals, and expand the capacity of 5 reservoirs in 30 villages of 9 towns with a total irrigation area of over 25,400 mu (about 1693.3 hectares), benefiting more than 11,800 households.