Banning straw burning cannot succeed without supporting policies
Editor's note: Every harvest season, air pollution caused by burning straw always becomes a focus of attention. How can we comprehensively utilize this valuable biomass resource and avoid simply burning it all and creating a source of smog? Reporters from Economic Daily visited experts and scholars and went into the fields to investigate the policies, industry, technology and other aspects of comprehensive straw utilization, and to explore how to solve this long-standing difficult problem——
It is again the season for the autumn grain harvest. In Dongma Village, Liuqiying Township, Yongqing County, Hebei Province, the villagers no longer worry about how to deal with straw.“Most of the village has clay soil. If the straw is not returned to the field, the soil easily becomes compacted,” many villagers told reporters. In previous years, they also had the need to return straw to the field, but the farm machinery could not keep up. Now, relying on the rotary tillers and straw balers of the two brothers Sun Jinggui and Sun Jingrui in the village, they can return straw to the field or bale it while harvesting grain, saving a great deal of time.
⟦NL> Farm machinery subsidies promote straw return to the field
In Dongma Village, most villagers grow one crop of wheat and one crop of corn, and all wheat straw is crushed and returned to the field on the spot. Mechanical corn harvesting costs 70 yuan per mu, and the corn cobs can be directly harvested to the home while the corn straw is also crushed.“Returning straw to the field can fertilize the soil. We provide the service. When everyone sees the convenience and the benefits, whether it is wheat or corn, most of the village returns it to the field on the spot.” Sun Jinggui said.
Sun Jinggui described to reporters the scene at the first wheat harvest just after the farm machinery was obtained. The harvester worked first, and swaths of wheat were instantly divided into two parts: the grain part was gathered into the granary, and the straw part was crushed and spread flat in the middle of the wheat field. Then, a mid-mounted straw baler picked up and baled the crushed straw, turning the originally scattered straw into solid wheat straw bales. A no-till seeder then sowed the corn seeds. After the whole process was completed, the original wheat field had become a corn field.
Straw is found throughout China's rural areas. Because straw has low density, takes up a large amount of space and is prone to rotting, collection, transportation and storage are relatively difficult. The difficulty and high cost of collecting straw raw materials have become a bottleneck for industrial development. Encouragingly, in recent years the state has included machinery related to straw return to the field and silage in the scope of farm machinery purchase subsidies. Last year, the central government allocated 700 million yuan specifically to subsidize straw energy utilization enterprises in major production areas, requiring each project subsidy not to exceed 10% of the total construction amount, and mainly concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. At present, some regions provide a small amount of subsidy for mechanized return-to-field operations. With the improvement of agricultural mechanization, the proportion of direct crushing and return to the field using stubble-clearing machines after crop harvest is rising rapidly, and straw balers are also beginning to be promoted and applied in some places.
With the improvement of agricultural mechanization, the degree of mechanized comprehensive utilization of crop straw has increased year by year.“At present, Langfang City has nearly 1 million mu of wheat planting area and more than 3.3 million mu of corn planting area, producing a total of 7 million tons of straw. Langfang wheat straw has achieved mechanized chopping, scattering and return to the field. Corn straw has achieved comprehensive utilization: first, direct crushing and return to the field, and second, use as silage feed.” said Liu Jianfang, deputy director of the Langfang City Agriculture Bureau in Hebei Province. At present, Langfang City has more than 3,100 corn harvesters and 130 corn straw feed harvesters. The city's mechanized comprehensive utilization area of corn straw is about 2.584 million mu, accounting for 77.4% of the total planting area.
Socialized services help raise livestock with straw
In addition to returning straw to the field on the spot, another major use of straw is as feed. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture show that since the launch of straw-based livestock raising, national comprehensive agricultural development funds have supported 918 counties in carrying out straw-based livestock raising demonstrations, forming contiguous demonstration belts in major grain-producing areas. The annual total amount of straw used for feed has reached 220 million tons, of which 48% has undergone silage, ammoniation and micro-storage processing, strongly supporting the development of livestock farming in agricultural areas.
Yongqing County is a national-level demonstration county for straw-based cattle raising. According to estimates, one dairy cow generally consumes the dry straw from 5 mu of land each year. When the harvest season arrives, dairy farms in Yongqing County all post notices purchasing straw, and some farmers use their own farm vehicles to take on the work of delivering straw to dairy farms. In 2013, the purchase price of corn straw was 9 fen per jin, and farmers participating in market-based straw purchasing could earn more than 300 yuan net per person per day. Last year, the straw purchase price declined slightly, but farmers could still earn more than 200 yuan per person per day.
Sanying Dairy Farm is a large dairy cattle breeding farm in Yongqing County. Last year it received a special national subsidy of 1 million yuan for straw silage. Yang Jiabiao, the farm manager, said that straw silage requires silage pits and crushing and compacting machinery. The dairy farm invested a total of 2.8 million yuan in silage pits and silage machinery, purchased 3 straw harvesters, and built silage pits with a capacity of 8,000 cubic meters. The dairy farm has 700 dairy cows and consumes 5,000 tons of straw. Whole-plant corn has good results and is a high-quality raw material for feed. Nowadays, all dairy farms pay close attention to the supply of straw raw materials. During this year's autumn harvest, Sanying Dairy Farm purchased whole-plant silage corn from farmers at 300 yuan per ton. Farmers can produce 2.5 tons to 3 tons of whole-plant corn per mu, and everyone is highly motivated.
How can the contradiction between the scale of straw collection and processing and small-scale planting and breeding be resolved? Meng Fanzheng, deputy director of the Yongqing County Animal Husbandry Bureau, believes that the focus of policy support should be to stimulate the vitality of marketization and industrialization. Planting or breeding enterprises should be encouraged to take the lead in organizing straw collection and storage, and the use of straw as feed should be incorporated into their industrial chains. Breeding enterprises and farmers should be encouraged to establish order-based production relationships and promote specialized planting of whole-plant silage corn. Socialized service organizations such as specialized straw collection and storage work teams should be vigorously cultivated to solve the difficulty of collection for farms and households. Feed enterprises should be guided into the field of straw feed production, and commodity straw feed such as wrapped silage, pellet feed and block feed should be vigorously developed.
“Nationwide, in the future we must vigorously promote the intensification of straw collection and processing, standardization of treatment and utilization, and commercialization of market circulation, give full play to the multifunctionality of straw-based livestock raising, and promote increased production of cattle and sheep.” said Yu Kangzhen, vice minister of the Ministry of Agriculture. In terms of regional layout, factors such as resource conditions, breeding foundations and environmental pressure should be comprehensively considered, and areas with abundant straw resources and a good foundation for cattle and sheep breeding should be taken as priority development areas, with key support for developing straw-based livestock raising in farming-pastoral transition zones and areas with serious straw burning. In terms of support targets, efforts should focus on promoting large-scale breeding farms and households to improve straw treatment conditions, and priority should be given to supporting newly built large-scale breeding farms in equipping straw treatment facilities.
Lack of systematic and inclusive policies
At present, China has not issued a systematic policy for comprehensive straw utilization. Most of the policies already issued are project-based and do not exist every year. Wang Jiuchen, deputy director of the Ecological Station of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that current policies mainly focus on comprehensive straw utilization products and provide support to production enterprises. Tax incentive and subsidy policies encouraging comprehensive straw utilization have been issued successively, including special fiscal subsidies for straw energy utilization enterprises that consume straw; income tax reductions and exemptions for the use of straw to produce electricity, heat and wood substitute products; however, there is a lack of corresponding policy measures in weak links such as straw collection, storage and transportation and end-product application, which is not conducive to forming a complete industrial chain. At the same time, straw sources are large in quantity and wide in scope, spread across the country, yet there is a lack of inclusive support policies.
“Straw should be used as a link to organically connect straw collection with ecological planting and breeding, straw energy utilization and straw material utilization, and strengthen the chain of the agricultural circular economy.” Liu Jianfang, deputy director of the Langfang City Agriculture Bureau, suggested increasing the implementation of subsidies for banning straw burning, straw silage, straw biogas bacterial agent fees, straw reactor technology and other aspects; subsidizing comprehensive straw resource utilization enterprises according to the amount of straw utilized, increasing room for raising straw purchase prices, and mobilizing farmers' enthusiasm to sell straw; including machinery for straw return to the field, baling and silage in the scope of farm machinery purchase subsidies, and increasing subsidies for mechanized straw return-to-field operations.
Wang Yanliang, director of the Agricultural Ecological Station of the Ministry of Agriculture, suggested that, following the approach of “policy support, demonstration guidance, agriculture as the main body, industrial development and market operation,” the full utilization of straw through the “five uses” should be advanced according to local conditions. Further support should be given to demonstrations of new technologies such as straw collection machinery return to the field, silage and yellow silage feed utilization, microbial decomposition and solidification, carbonization and gasification, and policy measures should be studied and issued such as allowing electricity for primary processing of straw to enjoy agricultural electricity prices, incorporating collection and storage land into agricultural land management, and providing credit support. The market-based mechanism for straw collection, storage and transportation should be accelerated, collection, storage and transportation costs should be reduced, and the large-scale and industrialized development of comprehensive straw utilization should be promoted.
According to the plan, by 2020 the national comprehensive straw utilization rate should reach the target of more than 85%. In key air pollution areas, the construction of demonstration counties for comprehensive straw utilization should be launched to fundamentally solve the problem of open burning of straw. At present, the state has launched and implemented comprehensive straw utilization projects, focusing on supporting Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other areas in carrying out straw return to the field, livestock raising, straw biogas, straw wood substitution, straw carbonization and other work; it has launched the construction of town-level full-quantity straw utilization demonstration zones in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to accelerate the large-scale and industrialized development of straw utilization.