Meteorological Services Protect the World's Granary: Precise Forecasts Save Farmers Money
Henan has preliminarily established a wide-coverage, direct-through rural meteorological information service system
Meteorological services protect the “world's granary”
66.776 billion jin! This year, Henan Province's total summer grain output hit a historic high again, continuing to rank first in the country.
In Henan, where drought occurs nine years out of ten, being able to create the miracle of consecutive years of increased production would have been impossible without meteorological services. Wei Mengguan, deputy director of the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture, said that from a relatively high starting point and foundation, every step forward in Henan's agricultural production depends on the power of science and technology, and the role of meteorological services for agriculture is prominent.
Entering August, the wheat harvest has already been gathered into the granaries, corn is jointing and booting, and drought in southern Henan is still continuing. The Henan provincial meteorological department is working closely with the agriculture and water conservancy departments, giving play to the role of the modern agricultural meteorological operational service pilot, delivering precise meteorological services to the fields, and going all out to ensure a bumper autumn grain harvest.
From “relying on the heavens for food” to “managing by watching the heavens”
Wherever high-yield creation activities are carried out, meteorological services follow, and meteorological facilities are built
Henan has long been known as the “world's granary.” It is the country's largest agricultural province and an important core area for grain production. Its output of major agricultural products such as grain, cotton, oil crops and meat all rank among the top in the country.
Henan is also one of the provinces most severely affected by meteorological disasters. In particular, meteorological disasters such as drought, flooding, wind and hail have an especially serious impact on agricultural production.
In 2009, the China Meteorological Administration took the lead in carrying out pilot construction of modern agricultural meteorological operational services in Henan, based on the needs of modern agriculture for meteorological services, oriented toward decision-makers and farmers, and enhancing agricultural meteorological service capabilities. From 2011 to now, 43 counties in Henan Province have been included in the central government finance special pilot construction for “three rural” meteorological services.
Wang Jianguo, director of the Henan Provincial Meteorological Bureau, told reporters that at present the province has formed a three-tier modern agricultural meteorological operational organization system led by the provincial-level agricultural meteorological center, with municipal-level agricultural meteorological centers as the backbone and county-level fixed agricultural meteorological personnel as the foundation. It has formed a five-tier service organization system at the provincial, municipal, county, township and village levels, and has also established an agricultural meteorological service expert alliance, extending agricultural meteorological services and meteorological warning information to townships and villages.
A rural meteorological information service system that emphasizes long-term effectiveness, wide coverage and direct-through connection has been preliminarily established throughout Henan Province. At present, the province has built more than 2,400 rural meteorological information service stations, developed 59,000 meteorological information officers, built more than 2,000 electronic display screens, nearly 23,000 meteorological warning loudspeakers, and 210 meteorological warning information machines. Relying on these information dissemination channels, meteorological services for agriculture that “serve the grassroots and directly reach the three rural sectors” are developing in depth.
As the content of meteorological services becomes more refined and the channels increasingly expand, the situation of grain production “relying on the heavens for food” has quietly changed to “managing by watching the heavens.”
Xun County is a national advanced county in grain production. Hu Zhenfang, a senior agronomist at the county agricultural bureau, praised meteorological services without end: “The county began high-yield creation activities in 2010. Wherever the activities are carried out, meteorological services follow, and meteorological facilities are built. Today, the meteorological and agricultural departments share resources and complement each other's strengths. We can grasp all kinds of meteorological information without leaving our homes.”
In late May this year, during the wheat grain-filling period, wheat in Xun County and other places suffered from consecutive dry hot winds. Because meteorological forecasts gave early warnings, the agricultural department organized medicines and promptly distributed them to farmers for spraying, effectively avoiding the adverse effects of the dry hot winds. “Dry hot winds generally cause wheat to reduce yield by 100-200 jin per mu. This year, not only was there no reduction, but yield increased by 100-200 jin per mu. The county's wheat output reached a historic high, and the proportion of top-grade wheat was very high.” Hu Zhenfang said.
A multi-level meteorological support system has been built
It can issue various agricultural weather forecast products such as irrigation, fertilization and drying according to different farming seasons
At the Hebi Municipal Meteorological Bureau, the large screen on the wall clearly displays real-time images of crop growth. With a click of the mouse in front of the computer, staff can adjust the angle of the probes installed in the farmland. When zooming in, the condition of corn leaves can be seen very clearly. “Using this platform, we can promptly and accurately grasp seedling conditions, the growth environment and the occurrence of pests and diseases.” introduced Zhang Ruiguang, director of the Hebi Municipal Meteorological Bureau.
This satellite-ground dual-base monitoring platform effectively combines satellite remote sensing with ground sensing and wireless communication. It conducts real-time, continuous monitoring of farmland ecological environment parameters such as surface temperature, air humidity, soil moisture, photosynthetically active radiation of vegetation, leaf area index and pests and diseases, realizing visualization of the farmland ecological environment as well as crop growth periods, seedling conditions, growth vigor and disaster conditions.
Wang Youqing, deputy county magistrate of Xun County, opened his mobile phone and, through the mobile version of the satellite-ground dual-base monitoring platform, could directly view real scenes of the farmland, crop growth conditions and farmland meteorological elements, enabling him to grasp farmland information in a timely manner and reasonably arrange agricultural production.
Wang Youqing said that the satellite-ground dual-base monitoring platform increased meteorological disaster prevention capacity by 40%. Having tasted the sweetness of meteorological services, the county government has incorporated modern meteorological services for agriculture into its overall planning, into the performance assessment system and into the fiscal guarantee system.
Throughout Henan Province, a multi-level meteorological science and technology support system has been built. The Henan provincial government and the China Meteorological Administration jointly built a key laboratory for agricultural meteorology to solve key technical problems urgently needed for operational services. The province has established 4 agricultural meteorological experiment stations and newly built 102 modern agricultural meteorological science and technology demonstration parks, carrying out experimental verification of agricultural meteorological indicators for specialty agriculture and facility agriculture as well as demonstration services for applicable technologies.
With scientific and technological progress, Henan Province has improved a system of 20 standardized products, and can issue various agricultural weather forecast products such as irrigation, fertilization, pesticide spraying, storage and drying according to different farming seasons, providing meteorological services for the entire process of crop production.
Precise forecasts save farmers input costs
Meteorological services have gradually strengthened the ability of the “three rural sectors” to avoid meteorological disasters
“Bang bang bang,” the sound of the guns was deafening. In the courtyard of the Yufeng Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Xun County, in front of a Type 37 anti-aircraft gun, five or six weather modification operators were conducting drills. When favorable weather conditions arrive, they will promptly carry out artificial rain enhancement.
Xu Tongxi, chairman of the cooperative, told reporters that in 2013 the meteorological department built a fixed weather modification gun station here, equipped with anti-aircraft guns, rockets and an operational team, enhancing the ability of grain production to resist meteorological disasters.
Wang Jianguo told reporters that in recent years, through weather modification operations, the province has increased water by about 1 billion tons annually on average, with hail protection covering an area of 10,000 sq km, making a positive contribution to the province's consecutive years of bumper grain harvests in recent years.
From “we serve whatever we have” to “we serve whatever society needs,” from mainly departmental services to extensively utilizing social forces and promoting the socialization of meteorological services, from simply focusing on operational assessment to being oriented toward social satisfaction... Henan Province's construction of the meteorological service system for agriculture and the rural meteorological disaster prevention system is advancing steadily. The ability of the “three rural sectors” to avoid meteorological disasters has gradually strengthened, and the benefits of meteorological services for the “three rural sectors” have become increasingly significant.
During corn sowing, farmers in Xun County generally spray “Yu Huang Jin” and other lodging-resistant yield-increasing agents to enhance the plants' lodging resistance and achieve increased yield. This year's climate has been relatively dry. If lodging-resistant yield-increasing agents were used, they might have a serious impact on corn that was already “underdeveloped.” Based on monitoring and forecasts by the agricultural and meteorological departments, farmers did not adopt this technique, thereby both avoiding adverse effects on corn growth and reducing input. Hu Zhenfang said, “By not using lodging-resistant yield-increasing agents, we save 5 yuan of input per mu. This one item alone saved farmers in the county several million yuan.”
Farmers in Qibin District of Hebi City likewise benefited greatly from precise meteorological forecasts. The Juxilai Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Qibin District has transferred 1,470 mu of land and manages 5,300 mu of farmers' land under trusteeship. “At the end of July, the weather was relatively dry. The corn was somewhat wilted, and the cooperative was preparing to pump water to irrigate the land. At that moment, we received a weather forecast: there would be light to moderate rain tomorrow and the day after.” said Tang Quanhe, chairman of the cooperative and a “national major grain-growing and grain-selling household.” “Seeing the information, we did not pump water to irrigate the land, and just like that saved tens of thousands of yuan. High grain yields really cannot do without the meteorological department.”
Now the corn is growing beautifully and is about to be harvested. “For every day that corn harvest is delayed, an additional 10 jin can be gained per mu, and the cooperative can increase income by hundreds of thousands of yuan, but this all depends on accurate weather forecasts.” Regarding meteorological services during the harvest season, Tang Quanhe and other growers are full of anticipation...