Since 1978, rural industry has developed rapidly in Wenteng. Most men work in village and township enterprises, while women have become the driving force in agriculture, which has increasingly diversified. Maize used to be for household consumption. However, with the economic prosperity, maize is now mainly used as pig feed. Hence, the household main income is from hog raising.
Surplus maize is sold in the market for pig feed as well.
It now covers more than 90 per cent of the maize area. This is due to the efforts of a group of women. The separation methods used by the women include spatial separation across fields, temporal isolation, and seed selection. They use mass selection, and claim that their skills have been passed on for generations, as they have also used similar techniques for the maintenance of maize landraces in the past. Unfortunately, Zhichen farmers have not been able to access these seeds since Zhichen is too far away from Wenteng.