Modern agriculture in the high-latitude cold region welcomes a spring of development
In March, Beijing is still chilly with a touch of lingering cold, yet Zhang Enliang, a deputy to the National People's Congress and mayor of Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province, feels a warm breeze on his face: “Spring has come, and I am very pleased to report to farmer friends across the country through Farmers' Daily that Heihe, situated in a high-latitude cold region, has also welcomed the spring of modern agriculture!”
Speaking of the momentum of agricultural development during an interview with reporters at the deputies' residence, Zhang Enliang could not help but beam with delight. He said that Heihe had once won the title of National Advanced City in Grain Production, and last year its grain production achieved a bumper harvest of extraordinary scale, setting a new record high. With no increase in the area of land, the achievement of many consecutive years of grain output growth was thanks to the rapid development of modern agriculture.
Modern agriculture relies entirely on the leadership of science and technology. Zhang Enliang said that in order to accelerate the introduction, promotion and application of agricultural science and technology achievements, Heihe City has built the Heihe “Five Parks and One Site” National Agricultural Science and Technology Park, covering an area of more than 1.5 million mu, including the Sino-Russian Agricultural Science and Technology Cooperation Park, the Sino-Russian Forestry and Specialty Products Science and Technology Industrial Park, the High-Latitude Cold Region Grain and Oil Industrial Park, the Sino-Russian Food Processing and Trade Park, the Health and Biology Industrial Park, and the Pilot Demonstration Site for New Socialist Countryside Construction. What are Heihe's distinctive features? They are “high-latitude cold region, organic black soil, excellent ecology, and Sino-Russian cooperation.” Therefore, emphasis must be placed on developing the high-latitude cold region grain and oil planting and processing industry, the forestry and specialty products breeding and planting industry, the distinctive cold-water fish farming industry, the Sino-Russian food processing and trade industry, and the health and biology industry. Under the demonstration and leadership of the parks, the city's planting structure has been further optimized, and the planted area of high-quality, high-efficiency crops such as corn and potatoes has continued to increase. As the northernmost region in the country to successfully grow rice, the rice grown in Heihe is of good quality and high yield; last year the rice planting area reached 400,000 mu, and experience is currently being summarized to promote northward expansion. In addition, Heihe has also built 50 modern agriculture demonstration parks with a total area of more than 1 million mu, radiating and driving more farmers to devote themselves to modern agriculture.
Zhang Enliang introduced that in the process of developing modern agriculture, intensive land management is crucial. At present, the area under appropriately scaled management in Heihe City accounts for 65% of the total sown area. The city has 1,249 farmers' professional cooperatives of various types, and 21 cooperatives have won the titles of national and provincial demonstration cooperatives and top 100 cooperatives. The 50 demonstration parks just mentioned are entirely operated by new types of agricultural operating entities, with the largest reaching 156,000 mu, applying more than 260 advanced and applicable technologies (times), including wide-ridge dense planting of soybeans, and the application rate of large agricultural machinery, the comprehensive field mechanization rate, the rate of use of improved varieties, and the rate of technology implementation all reaching 100%.
Speaking of this year's agricultural plans, Zhang Enliang was full of confidence: “This year we will implement the high-latitude cold region distinctive agriculture upgrading project, further highlight the advantages of cold-region black soil, build production bases for non-GMO soybeans and other crops, and strive to bring the area of green (organic) food certification to 3 million mu.”