Seedlings are cultivated in greenhouses in advance at the start of spring. [Photo/Lishui Daily]

With temperatures rising in the wake of the Spring Festival, farmers in the city of Lishui - located in East China's Zhejiang province - have started farming preparations with the hope of reaping a bumper harvest in the year of Rabbit, local media reported.

At a farm in Dachen village in the city's Liandu district, farmhands are plowing and applying fertilizer these days. Owner Chen Yaohua said that this year he plans to plant more than 100 mu (6.7 hectares) of fresh sweet corn, much more than he did last year.

In order to ensure the timely planting of the crop, he started to cultivate the seedlings in advance in his greenhouse so that they could be transplanted in the fields in a few days, Chen said.

At an orange and pomelo plantation base in Huangtan village in Qingyuan county, experts are guiding farmers to better protect their sweet orange pomelo seedlings these days.

"We need to trim the fruit trees, remove the redundant branches, prevent excessive branches from consuming the nutrition of the trees and keep the trees in good condition and physical strength," said Chen Xufei, an orange and pomelo grower in the village.

Farmhands get busy trimming fruit trees. [Photo/Lishui Daily]

In Jingning She autonomous county, government officials have been calling on farmers to do preparatory work for the spring farming, including checking infrastructure like irrigation ditches, weeding fields, cleaning ditches and cultivating seedlings.

At a plum farm in Jingning, workers were busy trimming the fruit trees. "We are also going to plant peanuts, potatoes and other crops to boost our income," said Wu Yueqing, the farm's owner.