Northeast China's spring planting about to begin, soil moisture better than last year

Our website dispatch  At present, pre-planting preparations in Northeast China are basically complete, and rice sowing is gradually getting underway. According to the Ministry of Agriculture's agricultural situation monitoring and reports from the four provinces and regions, this year all localities arranged spring plowing and pre-planting preparations early, implemented technologies early, maintained stable intentions for grain planting, had ample supplies of agricultural materials, and had soil moisture favorable for spring planting, making the pre-planting situation one of the better ones in recent years.

Grain area stable, planting structure optimized. This year the central government continued to increase support for grain production, and as market grain prices were basically stable, farmers were motivated to grow grain. The intended grain planting area in the four provinces (regions) of Northeast China is expected to be 384 million mu, flat with the previous year. At the same time, all localities further optimized the planting structure, reducing corn and wheat planting in non-advantageous areas according to local conditions and switching to crops such as coarse grains, miscellaneous beans, and silage corn.

Materials implemented early, accelerating the distribution of agricultural inputs in place. All localities increased efforts to raise funds for spring plowing and early adjusted and transported seeds, chemical fertilizers, and other materials needed for spring plowing production. At present, agricultural input supplies are ample and prices are stable, and they have basically been distributed to households. In Heilongjiang, seeds have basically been distributed in place, and materials such as chemical fertilizers, agricultural film, and diesel have been distributed to nearly 90 percent, while rice seedling raising and greenhouse covering and the inspection and repair of agricultural machinery have been fully completed. In Jilin and Liaoning, the progress of agricultural input distribution has exceeded 90 percent.

Soil moisture better than the previous year, favorable for sowing at suitable moisture. From April 1 to 3, some areas of Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang experienced an obvious rainfall process from west to east, and soil moisture was significantly improved. As of now, the area of dry bare land lacking soil moisture in the four provinces and regions of Northeast China is nearly 20 million mu, a decrease of more than 80 million mu from 107 million mu in the same period last year.

Strengthen guidance and services, and advance spring planting in an orderly manner. Agricultural departments in the four provinces and regions organized experts to formulate and issue technical opinions on combating disasters and ensuring spring planting, went deep into the fields, and guided farmers in high-standard spring plowing and pre-planting preparations. Heilongjiang province actively cultivated integrated rice seedling raising, supply, and transplanting service organizations, striving to achieve the goals of early seedling raising, strong seedlings, and early transplanting. At present, rice seed soaking and germination in the central and southern regions has been fully launched, and it is expected that germination and sowing can all be completed by mid-April. Inner Mongolia carried out science and technology service actions such as “ten thousand scientific and technical personnel going to the grassroots”, and has trained 1.7 million farmer person-times and distributed 1.66 million copies of various technical materials.

At present, there are mainly two major problems: the coexistence of local drought and spring waterlogging and great uncertainty in meteorological conditions. The Ministry of Agriculture will strengthen guidance, increase efforts, and organize agricultural departments in the four provinces and regions of Northeast China to implement various measures to combat spring drought and spring waterlogging and ensure spring planting, so as to ensure sowing at the appropriate time and stable area, and lay the foundation for grain production for the whole year. First, vigorously implement the area. Promptly implement various policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers, strengthen policy publicity, optimize the structural layout, reduce corn planting in high-latitude and arid areas according to local conditions, and switch to drought-tolerant crops such as coarse grains, miscellaneous beans, potato crops, and silage corn, striving to keep the grain area stable. Second, vigorously promote science and technology for disaster resistance. In response to the spring drought and spring waterlogging in some areas of Northeast China this year, implement key technologies such as drought-resistant corn “water-sitting sowing”. In the waterlogged areas of the Sanjiang Plain in Heilongjiang, promptly drain accumulated water, prepare land, and disperse soil moisture, give full play to the role of agricultural machinery, and ensure that farming time is not missed and sowing occurs at the appropriate time. Third, vigorously improve sowing quality. Determine the main promoted varieties, guide farmers to select varieties suitable for the time and place, and prevent planting beyond the region. Improve land preparation quality, promote scientific land preparation, standardized land preparation, moisture-preserving land preparation, and large-scale contiguous land preparation. Improve sowing quality, promote technologies such as seed coating, ridge planting of corn, and mechanical precision sowing, improve sowing quality, and strive for full seedling establishment after one sowing. Fourth, vigorously strengthen guidance and services. Organize experts to formulate technical guidance opinions by region and by variety according to meteorological conditions and production realities. Organize grassroots cadres and agricultural technicians to enter villages and households, provide on-site guidance, do a good job in technical training, strengthen science and technology services, implement key technologies, and ensure the smooth progress of spring planting.