A fragrant rice themed festival opens in Yongxi township, Tiantai county, Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province on Sept 23. [Photo/taizhou.com.cn]

A fragrant rice themed festival opened in Yongxi township, Tiantai county, Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province on Sept 23.

The festival, which is in its eleventh edition this year, aims to raise the brand awareness of Yongxi Fragrant Rice and comes as part of a series of activities in Taizhou to celebrate the fourth National Farmers' Harvest Festival.

Official statistics show that the fragrant rice fields in Yongxi township span over 3,700 mu (246.6 hectares), with more than 1,000 farmers involved.

Chen Dagui, Party chief of Beishan village, which is administered by Yongxi, has been engaged in fragrant rice plantation for over 10 years.

Chen, who also runs an agricultural cooperative, revealed that his cooperative sells 125,000 kilograms of fragrant rice annually, with the price increasing from 4 yuan ($0.6) per kilogram to an average of 12 yuan per kilogram in recent years thanks to the increased brand awareness.

The annual income generated by planting fragrant rice for each household in Beishan village has increased to 80,000 yuan.

The rising income, as a result, has attracted a growing number of migrant workers from the village to return to their hometown. Among them is Wang Biao.

Wang returned to the village in June and contracted 80 mu of wasteland in the village to grow fragrant rice, generating an annual output of more than 30,000 kilograms.

"I can earn much more by growing fragrant rice than working outside now," Wang said.