Promote intensive seedling cultivation techniques, strengthen green prevention and control of pests and diseases

Currently, various regions across China have successively entered the autumn-winter vegetable production stage, which is one of the most important crop seasons in China's vegetable production and is of great significance for ensuring market supply in autumn, winter and spring and for stabilizing and increasing the income of vegetable farmers. To strengthen autumn-winter vegetable production management, the Ministry of Agriculture recently issued the "Guiding Opinions on National Autumn-Winter Vegetable Production Technology for 2015."

The guiding opinions on autumn-winter vegetable production technology were formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture's vegetable expert steering group based on the climate characteristics of autumn and winter, the occurrence patterns of major pests and diseases, the occurrence of meteorological disasters, and in combination with consumer demand in the winter and spring vegetable market. Corresponding high-yield and high-efficiency measures were proposed respectively for major production links such as variety selection, crop season arrangement, seedling cultivation, cultivation management, and pest and disease prevention and control.

The Ministry of Agriculture's vegetable expert steering group suggested that in terms of variety selection, in addition to choosing vegetable varieties with good marketability, high quality and high yield, and high and multi-resistance with targeted immunity, attention should also be paid to the rational combination of early-, mid-, and late-maturing varieties, and vegetables for long-distance transport should use varieties that are resistant to storage and transport. Light is one of the main limiting factors for high-quality, high-yield, and high-efficiency production of facility vegetables in winter, and light inside the facility should be increased through measures such as cleaning the shed surface, removing excess branches and leaves, and artificial supplemental lighting.

Autumn is a period when pests, diseases, and weeds occur frequently, and agronomic, physical, and biological control techniques should be prioritized for prevention and control. Comprehensive application should be made according to local conditions of distant rotation and paddy-upland rotation, and soil disinfection and remediation techniques should be demonstrated and promoted to prevent and control soil-borne diseases. The use of chicken manure and pig manure with excessive harmful elements is strictly prohibited.

At the turn of summer and autumn, typhoons, rainstorms, high temperatures, and drought make pests and diseases frequent and highly prevalent, while late-autumn frost, winter and spring cold damage, freezing, and rain and snow disasters occur from time to time. Agricultural departments in all regions should actively communicate with meteorological departments, do a good job in forecasting and early warning, and take precautionary measures. The Jiangnan and South China regions should pay attention to defending against waterlogging, high temperatures, and drought, while North China and Northwest China should pay attention to guarding against continuous autumn-winter drought. The northern regions should make preparations to guard against strong winter temperature drops and, when necessary, take emergency supplementary heating measures to strictly prevent freezing damage.