Autumn and winter planting deployment accelerated, winter idleness turns into winter busyness nationwide
As the “Cold Dew” solar term arrives, autumn and winter planting production across the country has unfolded fully from north to south. Autumn and winter planting is the first battle of the following year's grain and oil production, and the foundation for next year's grain harvest. According to the latest news from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, this year's autumn and winter planting production will strive to keep the winter wheat area stable at more than 330 million mu, raise the proportion of high-quality specialty wheat by 2 percentage points over the previous year, and keep the winter rapeseed area stable at more than 100 million mu.
Overcome adverse factors and challenges, grasp autumn and winter planting firmly
“It rained for several days in a row; once it clears up tomorrow, we can go into the fields and plant wheat.” After two consecutive years of bumper harvests, Chen Wuchen, a large grain grower in Shilipu Village, Shaodian Town, Shangcai County, Henan Province, is full of confidence. Just as the autumn harvest ended, the 200-mu family farm had already stockpiled 5,000 jin of high-quality wheat seed and 10 tonnes of chemical fertilizer. Everything was ready, and finally a autumn rain came that replenished the soil moisture for winter sowing.
Since the beginning of this year, China's agricultural and rural development has maintained a good momentum of steady progress, with bumper harvests of summer grain and early rice. More than half of the autumn grain has been harvested, and the trend of increased production is obvious. Grain production is expected to achieve “16 consecutive bumper harvests.” Doing a good job in autumn and winter agricultural production and laying a solid foundation for next year's summer grain and oil harvest is of great significance for responding to various risks and challenges.
Zhang Taolin, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that this year's autumn and winter planting production has multiple favorable conditions. The state continues to implement the minimum purchase price policy for wheat, opinions on promoting oilseed production and increasing supply are about to be issued, and some major producing provinces have introduced policies to support high-quality wheat and rapeseed production. In the Huang-Huai-Hai wheat region, surface soil moisture and subsoil moisture are relatively sufficient. The supply of agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers is sufficient and prices are favorable.
At the same time, autumn and winter planting production also faces some challenges. The meteorological department predicts that from October to November, precipitation in China will show a “more in the north and less in the south” pattern. In particular, meteorological drought in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River may further develop, which will affect timely sowing and normal emergence of wheat and rapeseed. Because some areas of the Huang-Huai region suffered drought earlier, the growth process of corn was delayed and the harvest period was postponed. In the southern rice region, expanding the planting of high-quality rice with a longer growth period also squeezed the planting time of subsequent crops such as wheat and rapeseed.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs requires that agricultural and rural departments at all levels take developing production and ensuring the effective supply of grain and important agricultural products as their primary task, further understand the importance and urgency of doing a good job in autumn and winter planting production, and strive to grasp autumn and winter planting work firmly.
Make production greener, optimize the structure
In Li County, a traditional major rapeseed planting county in Changde City, Hunan Province, in recent years local enthusiasm for rapeseed planting has continued to rise due to factors such as growing market attention to the nutritional value of rapeseed oil and the development of rapeseed flower sea tourism.
Hou Zuping, deputy director of the Li County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, said that this year the vast majority of local growers chose new varieties represented by the Fengyou series, which are not only healthier but also have a higher oil yield and are more suitable for mechanized harvesting.
Stabilizing production capacity, improving quality, optimizing structure, and transforming methods have become prominent features of this year's autumn and winter planting. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs made it clear that autumn and winter planting should deeply advance the structural reform of the agricultural supply side.
To stabilize production capacity, area is the foundation. Winter wheat and winter rapeseed, as the two largest crops in autumn and winter planting, can make full use of the light and temperature resources of autumn, winter, and spring, and basically do not compete with other crops for land. In particular, the southern region has tens of millions of mu of winter fallow fields. Developing winter rapeseed planting there can not only increase oil sources and protein feed but also nourish the soil. All localities should conscientiously implement policies such as the minimum purchase price for wheat and rewards for major grain (oil) producing counties, and guide farmers to expand the planting of summer-harvested grain and oil crops. This year the state included the expansion of rapeseed planting using winter fallow fields in the Yangtze River Basin into the pilot scope of cultivated land rotation and fallow. All localities should encourage farmers to develop more winter fallow fields for rapeseed planting.
To improve quality, the focus is on improving tillage and sowing quality and the rate of technology adoption. All localities should give full play to the main force of agricultural machinery and vigorously promote technical models such as straw return, deep loosening and land preparation, precision sowing, and post-sowing compaction. For areas with sources of stripe rust bacteria and areas with severe Fusarium head blight, disease-resistant varieties should be selected, and techniques such as seed coating and chemical seed dressing should be implemented.
Making production greener and optimizing layout are more prominent in autumn and winter planting. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs requires vigorous promotion of cost-saving and efficiency-increasing technical models such as integrated water and fertilizer, sprinkler and drip irrigation, precise fertilization, green prevention and control, wide-width precision sowing, and three-dimensional uniform sowing. For wheat, the focus should be on high-quality strong-gluten and weak-gluten varieties; for rapeseed, the focus should be on developing low-erucic acid and low-glucosinolate “double-low” varieties, as well as new high-yield, high-oil, high-oleic “triple-high” varieties. In areas along the Yangtze and Huai Rivers with severe Fusarium head blight, appropriately reduce susceptible wheat and switch to varieties with strong resistance or crops such as rapeseed; in the North China groundwater funnel area, measures such as seasonal fallow, developing forage grass, and green manure should be implemented.
Winter idleness turns into winter busyness, increasing production and promoting income growth
Zhang Taolin said that agricultural and rural departments at all levels should, while doing a good job in autumn and winter planting, strengthen overall coordination and advance various key tasks.
Do a good job in autumn grain harvesting. The north is harvesting on a large scale, and the southern rice region is also about to begin reaping. All localities should reasonably arrange harvest progress, properly allocate suitable machinery, organize cross-regional machine harvesting, and achieve timely harvesting and storage of every grain. At the same time, do a good job in autumn land preparation and autumn film mulching. In the Northeast and Northwest regions, pre-winter farming time is tight, so planning should be done early and measures such as straw return, mechanical deep loosening, and mechanical film mulching should be implemented to lay a foundation for next year's spring sowing.
Advance winter agricultural development. All localities should fully tap the potential of winter agriculture to increase production and income, do a good job in winter agricultural development, truly turn winter idleness into winter busyness, and promote increased agricultural production and farmers' income. The southern region should focus on developing crops such as winter potatoes, winter corn, and open-field vegetables, while the northern region should vigorously develop facility vegetables and plant economically efficient solanaceous and cucurbit vegetables to enhance the vegetable supply capacity of large and medium-sized cities.
He said that autumn grain is about to come onto the market, and agricultural and rural departments should actively cooperate with relevant departments to do a good job in autumn grain purchasing, strengthen information services, guide diverse entities to actively enter the market and purchase, and protect farmers' interests. New Year's Day and the Spring Festival are approaching. While doing a good job in production, all localities should strengthen market monitoring, do a good job in linking production and sales, and stabilize market supply.