Heilongjiang province is spearheading efforts to advance modern agriculture, aiming to bolster China's food security as a key economic stabilizer, top provincial officials said on Friday.

Heilongjiang, located in one of the world's most fertile agricultural regions, boasts 17.2 million hectares of arable land, ranking first nationwide. The province's commitment to diverse and quality grain production through the implementation of major production enhancement plans has led to significant achievements.

"The province's grain production reached about 77.88 million metric tons last year, accounting for 11.2 percent of the national total, and ranking first in terms of total output, commercial output and outbound volume in the country," Liang Huiling, governor of Heilongjiang, said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing on Friday.

Liang announced goals to further elevate the province's grain production capacity. "By 2026, we aim to increase our comprehensive grain production capacity to 90 million tons," she said. This initiative will involve maintaining grain cultivation acreage and significantly boosting yield per unit area through a combination of policy support, project implementation and agronomic practices.

A crucial aspect of Heilongjiang's strategy is the conservation and improvement of its highly fertile black soil. "We prioritize developing black soil into high-standard farmland," said Liang.

The province is also turning to biotechnology and digital technology to improve the management and utilization of its black soil.

"Strict measures will be taken against unauthorized occupation and destruction of arable land to achieve the sustainable use of black soil," she said.

Heilongjiang, a leader in harnessing agricultural science and technology to enhance productivity and sustainability, will double down on its natural and technological advantages. "We will carry out vigorous implementation of the revitalization of the seed industry and establish national soybean breeding bases and japonica rice seed production bases," said Liang.

The province is leveraging its position as a leading global animal husbandry belt to develop modern animal husbandry, aiming to become the largest national production base for high-end infant formula, and a strategic guarantee base for meat, eggs and dairy products.

Heilongjiang has over 6.3 million hectares of green organic food certification acreage. Vice-Governor Xu Xiangguo highlighted the province's success in building a series of characteristic agricultural brands in recent years, now recognized as green labels for local agricultural products.

"So far, there have been 221 stores in 63 cities in the country selling famous Heilongjiang-produced agricultural products," said Xu.

"We are dedicated to promoting the high-quality development of the agricultural processing industry," he said.