China's irrigation district upgrades add 21 billion kg to grain production capacity
Li Guoying, Vice Minister of Water Resources, revealed on the 27th at the National Rural Water Conservancy Work Conference held in Bengbu, Anhui, that since 2013, and especially since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, major progress has been made in rural water conservancy work, with a total of 24.5 million mu of newly added and restored irrigated area, 70 million mu of improved irrigated area, and 21 billion kg of newly added grain production capacity.
Li Guoying said that over the past year and more, rural water conservancy work across the country has continued to show a sound development momentum and a strong development trend. First, the pace of irrigation district construction and upgrading has been intensified and implementation accelerated. In the Sanjiang Plain of Northeast China and the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, where soil and water resource conditions are adequate, construction was started on 19 large and medium-sized irrigation districts. For 90 large irrigation districts, 303 medium-sized irrigation districts and 61 large irrigation and drainage pumping stations, renovation and upgrading completed the planned investment. Construction was launched in 800 key counties for small-scale farmland water conservancy, with coordinated supporting canal systems in irrigation districts, to solve the “last kilometer” problem of farmland irrigation.
At the same time, the development of highly efficient water-saving irrigation has gained strong momentum. The Northeast action to save water and increase grain production was accelerated, not only building a number of large-scale highly efficient water-saving irrigation projects, but also working out a set of effective operation and management mechanisms and an integrated technical support system. Actions were launched in the Northwest to save water and increase efficiency and in North China to save water and reduce groundwater extraction, and a plan for water-saving and emission-reduction in the South was studied and implemented. Across the country, 40 million mu of highly efficient water-saving irrigated area was newly added.
The coverage of the “Five Small Water Conservancy” projects (referring to small water cellars, small water ponds, small pumping stations, small ponds and dams, and small canals) was further expanded. A total of 262 key counties for the “Five Small Water Conservancy” projects were arranged in the six provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) of the Southwest, with investment amounts increasing severalfold. In terms of construction scope, it was further expanded toward the drought-prone hilly areas of the central and western regions and contiguous poverty-stricken areas, improving the targeting and effectiveness of project implementation.