Farmers in Gaoqing county, Shandong province, harvest winter wheat on Sunday. [Photo by Wang Kejun/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Villages along a section of the Yellow River in Shandong province have started to harvest winter wheat by machine.

In the Xiaoli subdistrict of Jinan, Shandong, more than 466 hectares of land in the Yellow River flood plain was reclaimed and sowed with wheat last year. Mechanical harvesters have started to collect the grain.

It is the first year the land has been used to produce wheat.

At Muli town in Gaoqing county, farmers are using mechanical harvesters to harvest wheat on more than 1,653 hectares of farmland that was reclaimed from river plain areas.

In Qingcheng town of Gaoqing, the harvest is basically completed.

"The grain is expected to be sold at a good price," said Zhang Minggang, Party secretary of Andong village of Qingcheng town.

The wheat harvest is in full swing across China. More than 16.9 million hectares of winter wheat in China had been harvested as of Monday, accounting for 80 percent of the total growing area, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Farmers prepare to harvest wheat in Gaoqing county, Shandong province, on Sunday. [Photo by Wang Kejun/For chinadaily.com.cn]