Grain subsidy policy needs adjustment and improvement

“In the 'Government Work Report,' Premier Li Keqiang discussed a series of policy measures to safeguard food security, which greatly encouraged and inspired Henan as a major grain-producing province.” Wheat is China's main grain crop, and stabilizing wheat output largely means stabilizing the demand for flour-based staple foods. Zhu Mengzhou, a deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture, believes that to increase wheat output, the state must continuously increase fiscal subsidies to encourage the adoption of advanced technology and sound farming methods in wheat production.

“To effectively intensify the promotion of improved seed varieties, give play to the yield-increasing and quality-improving role of new varieties, and effectively raise wheat production capacity, it is suggested that the state, on the basis of the existing wheat improved-seed subsidy, implement a policy of free unified seed supply as soon as possible.” Zhu Mengzhou said that the national winter wheat planting area is currently around 340 million mu. If free unified seed supply were implemented, with the seed supply calculated at 25 jin per mu and 2 yuan per jin, a total of 17 billion yuan would be needed, which could increase wheat output by 11.9 billion jin. The current national wheat improved-seed subsidy standard is 10 yuan per mu, with annual state fiscal funds of about 3.4 billion yuan. If free unified wheat seed supply were implemented nationwide, the state would need to provide an additional 13.6 billion yuan, equivalent only to the amount of funds needed to build 20 km of urban subway, and it could greatly increase the actual wheat production capacity.

In the Huang-Huai wheat region, deep plowing and land preparation in wheat production is a traditional and effective measure for increasing yields. By improving the soil conditions of water, fertilizer, air and heat, it creates favorable conditions for crop root growth and thereby achieves sustained yield increases. Through research, Zhu Mengzhou found that because rotary tillage machinery operations have been widely used in recent years, and because large areas of corn straw are directly returned to the field, the plow layer has become shallower and the straw cannot be effectively buried. This in turn has led to problems such as uneven wheat emergence, reduced stress resistance of the population, and worsened pests and diseases, which seriously constrain high and stable wheat yields.

Zhu Mengzhou explained that at present in the Huang-Huai region, after the autumn harvest, carrying out deep soil plowing, deeply burying straw, and achieving fine land preparation have become key links for securing a bumper wheat harvest. According to surveys, plots with straw returned to the field that adopt deep plowing and land preparation measures can achieve an average yield increase of about 10% per mu compared with rotary-tilled plots. Henan Province has consistently treated deep plowing and land preparation as an important disaster-avoidance and yield-increasing measure, striving to expand the area, but in the actual promotion process there are constraining factors such as county-level governments having no money to do it, farmers fearing the expense, and agricultural machinery operators being unwilling to do it.

⟦NL> For this reason, Zhu Mengzhou suggested listing deep plowing and land preparation together with deep loosening and land preparation as major yield-increasing technical measures for grain crops, vigorously promoting them, and implementing a subsidy policy for deep plowing and land preparation operations. In actual operation, the area requiring deep plowing operations should be verified according to the suitable deep plowing area in each locality and the autumn straw return area, and the operation subsidy amount should be calculated at 50% of the per-mu cost, with full subsidies gradually achieved according to financial conditions. “Of Henan Province's more than 81 million mu of wheat, nearly 70 million mu is suitable for deep plowing. By 2020, Henan Province plans to build 63.69 million mu of high-standard grain fields, of which the autumn corn sown area is about 52 million mu, requiring 80% of the area each year, namely 42 million mu, to have all straw returned to the field. At present, the cost of deep plowing and land preparation for plots with corn straw returned to the field is about 70 yuan per mu. If half is subsidized per mu, about 1.5 billion yuan in subsidy funds would be needed, which could increase wheat output by more than 3 billion jin annually and save more than 600 million jin of seed.”

At the same time, to further stabilize wheat output, the state began implementing in recent years a subsidy policy for wheat “one spray, three preventions,” effectively preventing late-stage wheat pests and diseases, improving wheat stress resistance, and enhancing overall wheat quality. Zhu Mengzhou also suggested raising the subsidy standard for wheat “one spray, three preventions” to about 15 yuan per mu, accounting for 80% of the total cost, until “one spray, three preventions” operations are carried out free of charge.