Wheat quality remained stable in 2015, with structural changes intensifying

The reporter learned from the “2015 Wheat Quality Evaluation and Wheat Quality Improvement Seminar” held recently that the quality status of wheat samples submitted for inspection in China in 2015 was generally stable. However, the structure of high-quality wheat has undergone obvious changes: the proportion of samples of strong-gluten and weak-gluten varieties is small, and medium-strong-gluten and medium-gluten wheat have become the main varieties of high-quality wheat meeting the standards.

The meeting released the 2015 wheat sampling inspection quality report, analyzed the annual changes of various types of wheat over the 10 years from 2006 to 2015, discussed the wheat quality status of China's weak-gluten wheat, the Jianghuai wheat region, the Southwest wheat region, the northern Huang-Huai wheat region, and the wheat region along the foothills of the Greater Khingan Mountains, and introduced the quality requirements for current wheat quality in the making of bread, steamed buns, and noodles. The meeting not only conducted a panoramic scan of the 2015 wheat quality status, but also, through a review of the wheat quality status over 10 years, put forward suggestions for the next step of technical measures. Pan Wenbo, deputy director of the Planting Industry Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out at the meeting that in the process of grain “12 consecutive increases,” the Ministry of Agriculture had never relaxed its attention to and support for quality work, and had embarked on a grain development path that gives consideration to both yield and quality. In the process of economic transformation, the situation in which China's wheat yield and quality improve simultaneously is bound to arrive.

⟦NL> Hu Xuexu, assistant researcher at the Cereal Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, delivered the “Report on China's Wheat Quality Status in 2015” on behalf of the organizer. The report placed the 2015 testing data on the chain of testing data from the past 10 years for analysis, and at the same time used U.S. hard red winter wheat as a reference to present China's wheat quality status in a three-dimensional and macroscopic way. In 2015, a total of 772 wheat samples harvested that year were collected from 357 counties in 19 provinces (regions, municipalities), with 242 varieties. Seven major producing provinces, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Hebei, Anhui, and Sichuan, actively participated, each with more than 60 samples. Several major quality indicators tested: test weight, protein content, wet gluten content, dough stability time, and sedimentation index all fell within the relatively narrow fluctuation range formed by the 10 years of testing data, indicating that the overall quality of wheat this year was stable. As usual, the meeting held an on-site expert bread evaluation activity, and the bread scoring results were also stable, with several varieties scoring higher than the control in bread evaluation.

However, behind the stable quality, profound changes have emerged. Among the wheat samples meeting the testing standards, strong-gluten wheat accounted for only 3%, and weak-gluten accounted for 1%. In other words, China's current high-quality wheat varieties are mainly the traditional medium-gluten and medium-strong-gluten varieties. The main reason is that after the change in China's wheat industry policy in 2010, strong-gluten and weak-gluten wheat, as wheat specially used for bread and cake, saw a decline in the enthusiasm of agricultural departments for promotion because their yields were lower than medium-gluten varieties; on the other hand, because high quality did not bring a high price, farmers' enthusiasm for planting declined. After 2010, the proportion of strong-gluten and weak-gluten wheat samples meeting the standards became smaller and smaller. This year there were only 4 weak-gluten wheat samples, from 4 varieties. The sample proportion fell from less than 5% in 2006 to less than 0.5%. Moreover, the protein and wet gluten contents as well as the stability time of weak-gluten varieties all appeared at relatively high levels, making it difficult for most of them to meet the standards.

The 10 years of sampling and testing showed that the sample proportion was positively correlated with the promoted area of various types of wheat varieties, and the promotion proportion of various types of wheat was related to China's wheat quality status. Experts at the meeting suggested that rationally laying out the promoted area of existing high-quality wheat varieties of various types, starting with existing varieties, and appropriately increasing the planting area of high-quality wheat, especially strong-gluten wheat and weak-gluten wheat, is an important part of the next step of grain structure adjustment. At present, the yield and quality of traditional medium-gluten and medium-strong-gluten wheat have generally improved, which provides space for China's wheat production to scientifically divide high-quality wheat production regions starting from regionalization. Over the 10 years, medium-strong-gluten and medium-gluten types increased from 23% to 48%, which is our achievement. But strong-gluten types dropped from 12 to 2%, intensifying China's demand for imports of high-quality wheat. The situation of the shortcoming becoming shorter and shorter cannot continue. Moreover, at present, China's reduction of corn in Northeast China has created conditions for the return of high-quality spring wheat. Strong-gluten wheat in the northern spring wheat region can take advantage of corn's exit to restore the spring wheat planting area, thereby achieving balanced and coordinated development of various types of wheat and pushing wheat production onto a green, ecological, and harmonious path.

The meeting was hosted by the Planting Industry Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and jointly organized by the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Cereal Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Cereal and Products Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture (Harbin), the Cereal Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture (Tai'an), and the Agricultural Product Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture (Zhengzhou). Nearly 100 people attended the meeting, including relevant heads of agricultural administrative management and technology extension departments from the Ministry of Agriculture and major wheat-producing provinces and regions, experts in wheat breeding, cultivation, and food processing from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences as well as relevant provincial and municipal academies of agricultural sciences and agricultural universities, and representatives of a group of wheat trading and processing enterprises such as the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange and COFCO.