This year's "double rush" is especially intense, as farmers race against time to harvest and plant

On July 31, in Jiangjiashan Village, Dananhu Township, Hanshou County, Hunan Province, Zhang Changyuan, a major national grain grower and seller, and his fellow cooperative members were carrying out "double rush" work under the scorching sun. Zhang Changyuan told reporters that the rush harvest of more than 1,300 mu of early rice had just been completed, and they were now busy rushing to plant late rice.

Because Hunan had previously experienced continuous overcast, rainy and sunless weather, this year's early rice harvest across the province was delayed by more than a week compared with previous years, and late rice seedlings generally exceeded the seedling age by 5 to 10 days. If they were not transplanted in time, it would directly affect the transplanting and growth process of late rice. Therefore, compared with previous years, this year's "double rush" has been especially intense.

In order to fight this hard battle of "rush harvesting early rice and rush transplanting late rice," agricultural departments at all levels in Hunan attached great importance to it, with agricultural technicians and agricultural machinery working together, seizing the season, taking the initiative, improving the efficiency of the "double rush," ensuring that every grain of early rice was returned to the warehouse and that late rice was transplanted in time.

According to Xu Jingbo, director of the Grain and Oil Crops Division of the Hunan Provincial Department of Agriculture, in response to this year's special agricultural situation, the agricultural department issued technical guidance to instruct farmers to transplant late rice early and urged farmers to increase the basic number of late rice hills and transplant enough basic seedlings. According to the fertilization principle of "shifting nitrogen fertilizer application earlier and controlling nitrogen while increasing potassium," tillering fertilizer should be applied early and heavily, and in the middle and late stages, nitrogen fertilizer should be controlled and potassium fertilizer increased according to the seedlings and weather, to promote early growth and rapid development of late rice. If some late rice has still not headed before the arrival of cold dew wind, foliar spraying of potassium dihydrogen phosphate, plant growth promoters and the like should be used to promote heading and full heading of double-cropping late rice, avoid or reduce the harm of cold dew wind, and improve the seed-setting rate and 1,000-grain weight. In addition, do a good job in forecasting and reporting pests and diseases, and carry out prevention and control of rice planthopper, rice leaf roller, striped stem borer, sheath blight and southern rice black-streaked dwarf disease, so as to protect seedlings and secure heads and effectively reduce losses from pests and diseases.

The combination of agricultural technology and agricultural machinery operations became a major highlight of this year's "double rush." A relevant person in charge of the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Machinery Bureau told reporters that mechanized operations saved about a week of time, greatly reducing the impact of unfavorable weather on late rice production. At present, the province has more than 90,000 combine harvesters and 30,000 rice transplanters working on the front line of the double rush. Mechanized harvesting of early rice is completed at an average of 2.7 million mu per day, mechanized transplanting of late rice advances at an average of 600,000 mu per day, and more than 3,000 units of rice dryers are operating at full capacity, drying 100,000 tons of rice per day.

According to the latest agricultural situation dispatch on July 30, early rice harvesting in Hunan Province has reached 96%, and late rice transplanting progress has reached 90%. The "double rush" is expected to end around August 5.