Integrated soybean green yield-and-efficiency technology achieves results in the Huang-Huai-Hai region
On September 21, at the "Soybean Green Yield-and-Efficiency Technology Model Demonstration Field Meeting," good news came from the demonstration field in Yongqiao District, Suzhou City, Anhui Province: after preliminary yield measurement by experts, the highest soybean yield in the demonstration field reached 247.51 kg per mu, with an average yield of 195.27 kg, 11% higher per mu than ordinary fields, setting a typical example of high soybean yield under large-scale production conditions locally. This is also a new achievement of the "Soybean Green Yield-and-Efficiency Technology Model" project led by the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Soybean is the most important high-protein food crop in China, and the sown area of high-protein quality edible soybean in the Huang-Huai-Hai River basin accounts for about 1/3 of the national total. Anhui is located in the southern part of the Huang-Huai-Hai region and is a concentrated production area for high-protein soybean. Local farmers mostly sow soybean after the winter wheat harvest, but the high wheat stubble left after wheat harvest seriously affects the sowing quality of soybean. For a long time, how to effectively handle wheat straw and ensure soybean sowing quality has been a difficult problem. Against this background, the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, together with relevant research institutions, after years of effort and through large-scale collaboration, successfully developed a set of integrated models for green yield-and-efficiency improvement of soybean in the Huang-Huai-Hai region, which not only solves the problem of straw handling but also creates a new path for increasing soybean yield and income.
According to Han Tianfu, chief scientist of the project and a researcher at the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, this technical model takes the straw-mulch cultivation technology for summer soybean after wheat stubble as the core, integrates 8 key technologies, and has also developed a no-till straw-mulching precision seeder, forming a highly simplified wheat-stubble no-till straw-mulching precision sowing technical system that organically combines agricultural machinery, agronomy, and supporting varieties.
In Yongqiao District, Suzhou City, 1,200 mu of land of the Huaihe Seed Industry Grain Industry Consortium became a project demonstration field this year. General Manager Li Yong told reporters that originally, collecting wheat stubble straw each year cost 25 yuan per mu, and adding the costs of sowing soybean, fertilizing, and spraying pesticides, at least 60 yuan was needed. Now, only one machine is needed to complete multiple operations at once, including straw crushing and mulching, soybean sowing, and pesticide application, at a cost of only 20 yuan. "According to today's yield measurement results, compared with previously planting corn, we can save costs and increase income by at least 183 yuan per mu. The benefits are very good," Li Yong said with emotion. "The integrated technology can be realized with just one machine, saving labor, time, and effort. Next year, we will take more land to plant soybean."
It is worth mentioning that, compared with other technologies, the biggest breakthrough of the integrated model is that it has found a new path for the scientific utilization of straw. "According to technical requirements, planting soybean under wheat straw mulch can store water and preserve soil moisture well; after the soybean harvest, when the next season of wheat is planted, the wheat straw has already decomposed and can become organic fertilizer once turned into the soil. It serves as a 'quilt' for soybean in the current season and as fertilizer for wheat in the next season. With wheat-soybean rotation, straw is truly turned from waste into treasure," explained Wu Cunxiang, an expert of the project team and a researcher at the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Li Jiayang, Vice Minister of Agriculture and President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, also fully affirmed the integrated model for green yield-and-efficiency improvement of soybean. He believes that the construction and promotion of the no-till straw-mulching precision sowing technical model for soybean in the Huang-Huai-Hai region will greatly improve the production level and planting efficiency of soybean in the Huang-Huai-Hai region, increase farmers' enthusiasm for planting soybean, gradually restore the wheat-soybean double-cropping system, and achieve balanced yield increases of grain and soybean, which is of great significance to the sustainable development of China's modern agriculture and soybean industry. He stated that in the future, the soybean green yield-and-efficiency model still needs to continue strengthening technological integration and innovation, form more comprehensive technical models that can be replicated and promoted, and lead the development of the soybean industry.
It is reported that in 2013, the integrated technology for green yield-and-efficiency improvement of soybean had already been tested and demonstrated in Xinxiang, Henan, and other places. Data showed that the actual harvested soybean yield in the Xinxiang demonstration field that year was 311.2 kg per mu, setting a typical example of cost-saving and high-yield summer soybean in the Huang-Huai-Hai region. In the future, this integrated technology will also be applied and promoted on a large scale in the Huang-Huai-Hai region.