Villagers load highland barley onto a tractor in Waba Village of Ra'og Town of Qamdo City, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, Sept. 4, 2023. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

The grain output of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region is expected to reach about 1.09 million tonnes in 2023, an increase of 15,600 tonnes over the previous year, according to the regional agriculture and rural affairs department.

The grain sown areas in the region reached about 2.92 million mu (about 195,000 hectares), which is 30,000 mu more than that of 2022.

In 2023, the planting area of improved varieties of highland barley, a long-established Tibetan grain, rose to 2.09 million mu, and the coverage rate of the improved varieties of highland barley in the region reached 93 percent.

A total of 50 million yuan (about 7.04 million U.S. dollars) of subsidy funds for organic fertilizer have been allocated to the region and 414,400 mu of high-standard farmland was newly built or upgraded in 2023.