Low corn prices will affect breeding direction

This year, the state introduced a new temporary corn purchase and storage policy, and the corn purchase price was reduced by 0.12 yuan/jin compared with last year (a decrease of about 10%), but the actual reaction of markets in various regions was far more dramatic than this. Corn purchase prices and futures prices generally fell by more than 20%, among which the market price in the Huang-Huai-Hai region fell by 25% year on year. This will push agricultural production and resource allocation closer to market levels. Furthermore, the state will reform the subsidy policy for grain production, and at the same time, it will also make progress in agricultural science and technology develop in a more reasonable direction.

Because corn prices fell sharply this year, farmers' incomes will decrease. The state will inevitably change the method of grain production subsidies and separate subsidies from purchase and storage prices. This is an inevitable trend. Only by separating subsidies from purchase prices can money truly be subsidized to farmers who work the land, which benefits those farmers; can prices return to the market, which benefits consumers and processing enterprises; can the market price signal function be restored, better giving play to the market's regulatory role, and promoting effective resource allocation and structural adjustment; and can the government's fiscal burden also be reduced, which benefits the state.

Many farmers may abandon advanced technologies that increase yield but involve higher costs in order to reduce inputs and costs. To lower costs, they will make greater use of advanced but simple cultivation and management techniques, and make greater use of new varieties and more efficient agricultural machinery. This will push enterprises and lead them to request that the national corn industry technology system develop various new products and new technologies that can further reduce production costs.

While lowering grain purchase prices, grain merchants will strictly control quality, for example refusing corn with a mold rate exceeding 2%. This will force more and more farmers to postpone harvest time and promote winter harvest operations (usually directly harvesting grain after snowfall in November), so that corn ears are fully air-dried in the field and the moisture content of the grain at harvest is reduced. This requires corn varieties to remain standing in the field for one to two months after maturity, in order to reduce grain moisture content, mold rate and drying costs. In short, farmers will inevitably adopt a series of "advanced" technologies to reduce costs and increase income. This trend is not very common this year, but within a few years it will appear in the main production areas across the country.

In fact, these technologies are not really advanced, but the previous purchase price subsidy policy realized and maintained high-price purchasing. Farmers did not care about grain moisture content, nor about grain mold rate, and were relatively tolerant of production costs. Now, however, they must haggle over every detail and find every possible way to reduce grain moisture content and mold rate, reduce losses and lower costs, thereby maintaining a relatively high level of returns.

In the main spring corn production areas, the promotion of winter corn harvest will cause a large number of corn varieties to lodge and break in the field. This means that many old varieties of the tall-stalk, large-ear, late-maturing, sparse-planting type, which have high moisture content at harvest, cannot "stand on the stalk" in winter, are prone to lodging, and have a high mold rate, will all be eliminated. The southward movement of the Deymay series varieties actually broke through the way of thinking of scientific and technical personnel and seed management personnel, and reflected farmers' urgent demand for short-stalk, early-maturing, dense-planting-tolerant, lodging-resistant varieties that can be directly harvested for grain.

The promotion of winter harvest technology will have a strong impact on the direction of corn breeding. To sum up, corn breeding must achieve "three reforms" and "three musts."

First, reform the breeding direction. The growth period must be shortened in order to achieve the goals of mechanized direct grain harvesting, lower moisture content, and reduced drying and field operation costs.

Second, improve germplasm. American germplasm must be used to enhance lodging resistance. At the same time, domestic germplasm should be rationally improved, making full use of its adaptability to enhance lodging resistance, rapid dehydration and mold resistance.

Third, reform the technical route of breeding. Field planting density must be increased at key links in breeding, and stress-resistance selection pressure must be applied. Even when using American and European inbred lines to breed second-cycle lines, it is also necessary to increase planting density in early segregating generations and increase selection pressure for other major stresses. In the combination testing stage, screening under relatively high density is also necessary in order to breed low-risk hybrids.

In the Huang-Huai-Hai region, new varieties with short stalks, early maturity and lower grain moisture content at harvest are likewise needed to reduce mechanical harvest losses and lower drying costs. In short, farmers will change planting habits and adopt "new technologies," becoming the driving force that promotes scientific and technological progress.

With the transformation of agricultural production technology, land transfer or new cooperative mechanisms will inevitably be improved, and the transformation of agricultural production and operation methods will be realized, so as to improve agricultural production efficiency. Although this is a slow process, in order to reduce costs and improve benefits, farmers will have no choice but to do so. This will promote the differentiation of the farmer group and the realization of agricultural production modernization.