After the 200-million-mu subsoiling task is completed, five things need to be done promptly

Not long ago, the Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture released information: as of November 30, 203 million mu of subsoiling and soil preparation had been completed nationwide, exceeding the 200-million-mu agricultural machinery subsoiling and soil preparation task. This is indeed a brilliant report card, gratifying and worthy of congratulations.

Subsoiling operations can effectively break through the plow pan, increase the soil's capacity to store water and conserve moisture and increase crop yields. They are an important way to achieve grain storage in the land and grain storage in technology and to improve agricultural production capacity and efficiency. The state attaches importance to them, agriculture needs them, and farmers welcome them. Next year's agricultural machinery subsoiling task remains arduous. It is necessary to be mentally prepared, plan carefully, start early, and set out again from a new starting point. Right now, five things need to be done promptly:

First, comprehensively summarize experience and lessons. Carry out a timely "look back" and earnestly summarize successful experience and failed lessons to lay a solid foundation for next year's subsoiling work. Look at the gains and losses in work progress. The attitude toward work and the strength of work measures determine the progress of subsoiling operations and the effectiveness of subsoiling work. After this year's agricultural machinery subsoiling and soil preparation tasks were deployed, the vast majority of regions acted actively, broke down task indicators level by level, implemented funds, implemented machinery, implemented plots, and implemented operating entities, promptly dispatched and reported progress, actively promoted subsoiling testers, and strengthened supervision of operation quality. The work was linked step by step and was grasped tightly and practically. There were also a few regions and a few units that passively waited and watched. Once a document was issued and a meeting was held, they thought everything was fine. Funds, machinery, plots, and entities were not implemented, progress was ignored, and they feared trouble and responsibility when implementing operation subsidies. As a result, tasks were not completed ideally. These regions and units should identify the crux of their ineffective work and focus on overcoming it. Look at the success or failure of machinery selection. In carrying out subsoiling operations, selecting suitable, reliable, power-matched, and efficient power machinery and subsoiling machinery is the foundation and prerequisite. It is necessary to see whether the selected machinery suits the local soil conditions and crop types, whether the trouble-free operating time meets basic operational needs, the types of failures and the difficulty of repair, whether spare parts are easy to purchase, whether the subsoiler and tractor are matched, how fast the machinery moves in the field, whether operating costs are high or low, and whether it is economically worthwhile and cost-effective. Look at whether fund acquisition is strong or weak. Operation subsidies are a powerful boost for carrying out agricultural machinery subsoiling work. According to preliminary statistics, this year the area of subsoiling operations with subsidies implemented nationwide reached 79 million mu, accounting for about 39.5% of the total completed task. In some places, in addition to striving for agricultural machinery subsoiling operation subsidy funds, agricultural machinery departments also obtained special working funds for publicity, training, and supervision, providing strong financial guarantees for carrying out agricultural machinery subsoiling.

Second, solidly do comparative monitoring. Comparative monitoring of subsoiled plots and non-subsoiled plots is an important basic task. To do comparative monitoring well, the "four haves" must be achieved: there are people to track the situation. Arrange dedicated personnel to promptly track and record soil moisture, crop growth, and pests, diseases, and weeds in subsoiled plots and control plots. There are people to solve problems. Soil, crops, and the climate environment are a complex system. Subsoiling itself is a drought-resistant, moisture-conserving, stable-yield, and yield-increasing measure, but if used improperly, various problems may also occur. For problems that arise, professional and technical personnel should be promptly assigned to the field to guide solutions. When major difficult problems occur, relevant experts in agricultural machinery, agronomy, seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, meteorology, and other fields should be convened to promptly diagnose and solve them through consultation, ensuring that subsoiled plots always have someone managing them, do not reduce yields, and can increase yields. There are people to collect materials. Arrange dedicated personnel to collect comparative monitoring data, photos, and videos at any time, classify them by category, and file them. Establish relevant rules and regulations for archiving and consulting, ensuring that materials are collected completely and nothing is lost. Results have evidence to rely on. Begin establishing and continuously improving big data for comparative monitoring of subsoiling operations. Strengthen data analysis and utilization, and give full play to the important role of comparative monitoring results in improving operation standards, publicizing and guiding the masses, and striving for funds and policies.

Third, use the agricultural slack season to carry out training. Practice has proved that with the same machinery and plots, different agricultural machinery operators produce greatly different operation results. Strengthening farmer training is crucial to improving the quality of subsoiling operations and ensuring the effectiveness of subsoiling operations. At present, it is the winter and spring agricultural slack season. Farmer training should be actively carried out to lay a mass foundation for the smooth progress of next year's subsoiling. Make subsoiling technology the main training content. Agricultural mechanization schools and agricultural mechanization social training institutions should make subsoiling technology a key training content, explaining mechanical principles, operation techniques, fault diagnosis, and maintenance knowledge in simple terms. Backbone agricultural machinery production enterprises and capable agricultural machinery dealers should actively assume social responsibility, use their own advantages in machinery, personnel, and technology to do a good job in subsoiling technology training, and achieve a win-win situation for social and economic benefits and for enterprises and users. Make cooperative members key training targets. Compared with ordinary agricultural machinery households, agricultural machinery cooperatives have a higher degree of organization, own more machinery, have stronger operational capacity, and have quality guarantees. They are the main bearers of agricultural machinery subsoiling operation tasks. The Ministry of Agriculture has also stressed many times that fiscal support policies for agriculture, such as agricultural machinery operation subsidies, should give priority to pilot arrangements in agricultural machinery cooperatives. Therefore, the focus of agricultural machinery subsoiling training is to train agricultural machinery cooperative members, using limited training resources where they are most needed. Make farmer acceptance an important training standard. At the current stage, the vast majority of land is still operated in a dispersed manner by the broad masses of farmers. Whether farmers accept it determines to a large extent whether subsoiling technology can be promoted widely and smoothly. Training work should consider farmers' psychological, demand, and cultural characteristics, so that they want to listen and like to listen ideologically and can accept it in terms of educational level.

Fourth, carry out publicity on a grand scale. Some farmers do not understand the subsoiling subsidy policy and have doubts about the effectiveness of subsoiling operations. Some grassroots agricultural machinery cadres have no idea how to do subsoiling work well. These are all obstacles to carrying out subsoiling and soil preparation. Ideological problems must be solved by strengthening publicity. Publicize the subsoiling subsidy policy. Which places are pilot areas, what the subsidy standard is, who can apply for subsoiling subsidies, and how to apply. These questions must all be explained completely, in detail, and clearly through publicity, in language that ordinary people can understand. Publicize the effectiveness of subsoiling operations. The process of publicizing the effectiveness of subsoiling operations is also the process of promoting subsoiling technology. Agricultural machinery cadres, especially those responsible for work related to subsoiling and soil preparation, should all serve as good publicists of the effectiveness of subsoiling operations. What benefits does subsoiling have, can it increase yield, by how much, can it conserve moisture, how effective is it, can it improve soil fertility, what do experts say, what is the evidence, and compared with no subsoiling, do the increased operation costs and obtained benefits balance out? It is necessary to guide farmers to calculate on their fingers and go into the fields to take a look, convincing people with reason and winning hearts with benefits. Publicize advanced models of subsoiling. Make good use of radio and television, newspapers and magazines, information networks, and especially agricultural mechanization industry media to deeply explore advanced units and model figures emerging in subsoiling work, actively publicize their practices and results, tell the "subsoiling story" well, and drive forward work across the board.

Fifth, strive for continuity of subsidy policy. In 2011, some provinces and regions concentrated newly added comprehensive agricultural material subsidy funds to support the construction of basic grain capacity, gave priority support to land subsoiling operations, and carried out subsidy work for land subsoiling operations, achieving relatively good results and being welcomed by the broad masses of farmers. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, it was not implemented in 2012, and in 2013 and 2014 pilots were carried out only in a few areas. Some farmers' purchased subsoiling machinery was left idle, and their enthusiasm was dampened. This year, from the central to local Party committees and governments, great importance has been attached to subsoiling and soil preparation. It was written into the government work report, subsidy intensity was increased, and work promotion and supervision inspections were strengthened, rekindling the enthusiasm of farmers to participate in and promote agricultural machinery subsoiling and soil preparation. In order to make further progress, it is suggested that agricultural machinery departments at all levels take the initiative to report to Party committees and governments, actively strive with finance departments, seek to further expand the scope of subsidy pilots, increase subsidy funds, arrange working funds early, strive to maintain policy stability and continuity, and continuously push subsoiling work deeper, making new contributions to realizing national land fertility and ensuring that "China's bowl holds China's grain, and China's grain is produced by China."