Full efforts to secure winter wheat sown area, laying a solid foundation for next year's summer grain harvest
“Cold Dew” has passed, and autumn harvest and autumn sowing are in full swing. According to the Ministry of Agriculture's crop situation scheduling, as of October 8, winter wheat has completed 12% of the plan, 4.6 percentage points slower than the same period last year. Area is the foundation of yield, quality is the guarantee of per-unit yield, and the key is to accelerate sowing progress, expand the suitable sowing area, and improve sowing quality, so as to ensure full emergence in one sowing and safe overwintering of strong seedlings, and thus gain the initiative for next year's summer grain harvest.
The focus is on securing the area. This is the primary task of autumn and winter planting production. Without stable area, there can be no increase in yield. From the intention survey, this year's winter wheat area is trending stable, but much work remains to translate planting intentions into fields. Policy publicity and information guidance must be strengthened, farmers must be guided to arrange their planting structure well, encouraged to grow more wheat and grow good wheat, and efforts must be made to expand the wheat sowing area. In the Huang-Huai-Hai and middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River regions, cotton fields that have been withdrawn should be used as much as possible to expand wheat planting; in the northwest and southwest regions, the shift from summer crops to autumn crops and from wheat to oilseed crops should be moderately advanced, keeping the wheat area basically stable, and striving to keep this year's winter wheat area stable at more than 338 million mu.
The focus is on sowing quality. This is the key link in autumn and winter planting production. Land preparation quality must be grasped firmly, deep plowing and deep loosening must be vigorously carried out, and where rotary tillage for land preparation and straw return are adopted, compaction must be carried out to prevent the soil from being loosened by rotary tillage, ventilated, and losing moisture, and to improve the soil's water storage and moisture conservation capacity. The sowing gate must be strictly controlled, and the appropriate sowing rate must be determined according to variety characteristics, soil fertility level, and sowing date. Precision and semi-precision sowing techniques should be promoted as much as possible to ensure the basic seedling population and cultivate strong seedlings.
The focus is on pre-winter management. This is an important guarantee for ensuring safe overwintering. Once the seed is in the ground, management must begin. Seedlings must be inspected and replanted in time to ensure full and even stands. Fertilizer and water regulation must be done well to promote early growth and rapid development, promote weak seedlings turning strong, and water for overwintering must be applied well to ensure strong seedlings overwinter safely. Seedling-stage disease and pest prevention and control must be strengthened, farmers must be guided to carry out spraying operations at the right time, field weeds must be eliminated, and spring diseases should be prevented in autumn and spring weeds controlled in autumn.
Autumn and winter sowing has a tight farming season and heavy tasks. At present, autumn sowing has just started, progress is slightly slow, and there is ample room for maneuver. All localities must place doing a good job in autumn and winter sowing production in an important position in agricultural and rural work, strengthen leadership, intensify guidance, link every step closely, not let up on a single move, increase efforts further, strengthen measures further, and complete this year's autumn and winter sowing tasks to a high standard and with high quality, laying the foundation for next year's summer grain harvest.