Spring plowing in full swing: nationwide spring agricultural production advances in an orderly manner
As of March 30, 68.24 million mu of early rice had been raised as seedlings nationwide, completing 78.4%. Among this, early rice seedling raising in South China has basically finished, with 27.1% already transplanted. According to the Ministry of Agriculture's agricultural situation monitoring, the intended planting area for early rice this year is expected to exceed 87 million mu, an increase of more than 300,000 mu over the previous year, and the overall situation for early rice production is relatively good.
The farmland that had been quiet for a winter has "come to life," with farmers visible everywhere across the fields, and "iron oxen" busy sowing, fertilizing and plowing. Right now, spring plowing production is gradually unfolding from south to north, as farmers aim at market demand and optimize and adjust their planting structure; agriculture-related departments strengthen agricultural technical services and stock up on agricultural materials; dryland water-saving agriculture and the integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy mean that the transformation of agricultural development methods starts with spring plowing. Across the fields of China, a vibrant picture of spring plowing is unfolding.
Good foundation for summer grain seedling conditions
Summer grain is the first season of grain for the whole year, and winter wheat accounts for 90% of summer grain. At present, most winter wheat in the Jianghuai region is at the jointing stage, while winter wheat in the Huang-Huai-Hai region is at the re-greening stage. Liu Jun, a villager from Liuying Village, Liuying Township, Yongnian County, Hebei Province, used a deep-fertilizer applicator for the first time to topdress wheat. He said, "This year the wheat has good soil moisture and strong populations. Deep machine application not only saves labor, but also spreads evenly."
Henan is China's largest summer grain province. Over the past few days, Guo Tiancai, a professor at Henan Agricultural University and wheat expert, has been traveling constantly among the province's major producing counties. The survey results encouraged him: the proportion of first- and second-class seedlings in the province reached 93%, an increase of 4.4 percentage points over the previous year. The agricultural situation monitoring report of the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture shows that, overall, seedling growth across the province is balanced, populations are appropriate, and individual quality is noticeably better than the previous year.
"Dryland wheat is growing better than in an average year. Seedling conditions in the Huaibei and along the Huai River areas of Anhui are noticeably better than in Jianghuai. Most dryland wheat in Jiangsu was sown at the appropriate time, and seedling conditions are better than those of rice-stubble wheat." Zeng Yande, director of the Planting Industry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that current seedling growth is among the better years in recent times. In particular, Henan and Shandong, which together account for more than 40% of the national wheat area, have wheat seedling conditions noticeably better than the previous year.
The Ministry of Agriculture's wheat expert group analyzed that wheat has a long growth period and strong self-regulation ability, so even if it encounters unfavorable factors at one stage, it may still compensate through other stages. In response, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a spring action to prevent disease and control pests and secure a bumper harvest, vigorously promoting green prevention and control, and striving to keep the loss rate from diseases and insect pests in wheat and other summer grain crops within 5%.
Adequate preparation of agricultural materials for spring sowing
This year, cotton areas in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins reduced cotton and expanded grain, South China reduced sugar and expanded grain, the lower Yangtze River region reduced oil crops and expanded wheat, and southern regions developed winter fallow fields to expand potato planting. The national grain planting intention is expected to be stable with a slight increase.
Unlike the rising agricultural materials prices of previous years, this year's good news is that spring plowing agricultural materials are sufficient in quantity and stable in price. According to monitoring from 300 national price survey counties, during the spring plowing period the average market price of domestically produced potassium chloride was 3,103 yuan per ton, down 2.9% year-on-year. Domestic compound fertilizer was down 2.2% year-on-year, and urea was down 8.2% year-on-year. Seed supply for spring plowing is sufficient; this year's demand for hybrid corn seed is expected to be 2.4 billion jin, with a available supply of 4 billion jin. Hybrid rice demand is 490 million jin, with a available supply of 700 million jin.
Spring plowing and spring sowing have progressed relatively smoothly in various places this year, but the meteorological department predicts that China's climate this year will be a year with moderately unfavorable conditions. In spring, spring waterlogging may occur in the eastern part of Northeast China and spring drought in the west, and continuous overcast and rainy weather may occur in the Yangtze River basin, bringing difficulties to spring plowing land preparation and timely sowing.
Li Shirun, deputy inspector of the Heilongjiang Provincial Agricultural Commission, said that at present, more than 15 million mu of farmland in the traditional drought area of western Heilongjiang is affected by drought, and more than 45 million mu of cultivated land in the eastern Sanjiang Plain shows signs of waterlogging, bringing relatively large challenges to spring sowing. In response, the province has newly drilled 5,000 various types of drought-resistance water source wells, added 300 small drought-resistance water source projects, and repaired 20,000 sets of drought-resistance equipment.
Agriculture accelerates the transformation of development methods
Reporters learned during interviews that this year's spring agricultural production has new measures in developing dryland water-saving agriculture and integrating agricultural machinery and agronomy. Many new types of entities attach importance to conserving resources and improving agricultural output efficiency, and the transformation of agricultural production development methods is beginning to emerge.
According to the requirements of the national pilot project for comprehensive management of groundwater overexploitation, Hebei is implementing seasonal fallowing in groundwater overexploitation areas, with plans to reduce winter wheat by 850,000 mu. The Guanzhong region of Shaanxi is a major granary in the northwest dryland agricultural area. The Xianyang Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Shaanxi undertakes research topics for the national wheat industry technology system. Zhang Anjing, vice president of the academy, said that by adopting deep loosening and no-till sowing technology, wheat yields in the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi can increase by more than 10%.
With spring plowing production pressed for time and labor in short supply, agricultural machinery has played the role of the main force. This year, agricultural machinery departments organized machinery personnel in advance to go into villages and households, guiding machinery operators to maintain, debug and overhaul agricultural machinery and tools. Li Weiguo, director of the Agricultural Mechanization Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that this year training for machinery operators must be strengthened, focusing on solving problems such as non-standard operation and substandard work.