How is "zero fire points" achieved in the ban on straw burning?

Waves of wheat rippled and machines rumbled. Recently, the author learned during an interview in Jieshou City in northern Anhui that as of June 7, the summer harvest of 530,000 mu of wheat in Jieshou City had basically been completed, and neither national satellite monitoring nor local actual monitoring found a single fire point, marking that the city had achieved its goal of "zero fire points" in the straw burning ban for the new year.

Three core measures were promoted

"The achievement of the 'zero fire points' goal in Jieshou's straw burning ban was mainly due to the adoption of the 'three core measures' of short-stubble harvesting, crushing and returning to the field, and no-till direct seeding," introduced He Fengyang, mayor of Jieshou City.

In order to fundamentally solve the problem, Jieshou City went deep among the people and extensively collected opinions and suggestions, finding a "good prescription" for the ban on straw burning and comprehensive utilization. As early as 2013, Jieshou City issued relatively mature work plans for the ban on straw burning and comprehensive utilization, and for agricultural machinery subsidies.

To promote short-stubble harvesting, Jieshou City strictly formulated operating standards for mechanized straw return to the field and an access system for harvesting machinery, requiring all harvesting machinery to be equipped with straw crushing or baling equipment; and assigned one village cadre or public supervisor to monitor each agricultural machine on site, ensuring that the stubble height does not exceed 10 cm. At the same time, nearly 2,000 combine harvesters were organized through multiple channels to rush the wheat harvest.

To achieve no-till direct seeding, Jieshou City widely promoted the use of new-type mechanical seeders. On the basis of higher-level agricultural machinery subsidies, in 2013 it invested another 3 million yuan, giving an additional subsidy of 500-1,000 yuan per unit for 1,330 newly added precision seeders, ensuring timely sowing of summer crops.

However, during the actual implementation of the plan, some people questioned straw return to the field. Some believed that straw return would make the soil loose and fail to preserve moisture, while others believed that if it was not burned, underground pests would increase and other problems would arise.

Qi Gang, a large-scale grower in Jieshou City, transferred more than 2,000 mu of land and was the first person to "eat the crab" with straw return. In response to the government's call, as early as 2012, he tried to modify his own large combine harvester, successfully achieving low-stubble harvesting below 10 cm, while also attaching a crusher to return all wheat straw to the field.

Facts proved that from 2013 to 2016, nearly 2,000 mu of wheat and corn planted on a large scale by Qi Gang all achieved bumper harvests, with yields reaching more than 1,000 jin per mu. Qi Gang said that the effect of straw return was not very obvious in the same year, but two years later, the straw became organic matter, and the soil structure and fertility were significantly improved and enhanced.

Straw return became a "treasure." It is understood that straw return can improve crops' drought resistance and drought tolerance, play a role in preserving fertilizer and moisture, and reduce the amount of artificial fertilizer used. The fertility after returning 100 jin of straw to the field is equivalent to 9.6 jin of compound fertilizer.

"In 2013, Jieshou City achieved the goal of not a single fire in the whole city, but new problems also emerged," introduced Tian Yiping, deputy director of the Jieshou City Environmental Protection Bureau. Wheat straw in large fields was harvested with short stubble and crushed and returned to the field, but for small plots where large combine harvesters could not enter, the discarded straw had nowhere for people to pile it. Some had no choice but to pile it by the roadside or ditch edge, easily causing traffic accidents or water environment pollution.

It is understood that Jieshou plants more than 500,000 mu of wheat each year, and the total amount of wheat straw in the city is about 290,000 tons, with a comprehensive utilization rate reaching 99%. Among this, about 261,000 tons were directly crushed and returned to the field, accounting for 90%; while the other 10%, about 29,000 tons of discarded straw, still had no outlet.

For this reason, Jieshou City also tried "high-temperature composting" of straw, returning it to the field after passing through livestock, and transferring it for utilization, turning straw into feed, fertilizer, and substrate.

"In 2014, Jieshou City invested 1.08 million yuan to purchase 4 fertilizer-making machines and gave them free to large-scale growers for trial use," said Liu Min, deputy director of the Jieshou City Agricultural Comprehensive Service Station.

Grid management consolidates the results of the burning ban

"To comprehensively win the battle against straw burning, Jieshou City achieved the four in place: organization, service, investment, and supervision," introduced Tian Yiping. In 2015, the city invested a cumulative total of 33 million yuan, mainly in accordance with the standards of 33 yuan per mu in summer and 23 yuan per mu in autumn, pre-allocating straw burning ban and comprehensive utilization funds to townships and subdistricts in advance.

It is understood that since 2014, in accordance with the principle of "whoever does a good job in comprehensive straw utilization gets the subsidy funds," Jieshou City implemented reward-in-place-of-subsidy in summer and autumn. In addition to the Anhui Provincial Finance subsidy of 14 yuan/mu and the Fuyang Municipal Finance subsidy of 2 yuan/mu, the Jieshou City finance department provided matching funds of 12 yuan/mu.

To implement the guarantee mechanism, Jieshou City promoted the leaders of several municipal leadership teams and the main responsible persons of municipal departments directly under the city to guarantee to townships, township cadres to guarantee to villages, and members of village "two committees" to guarantee to households and fields; all townships and subdistricts ensured "four-level guarantee" and "four-level grid" guarantees for wheat fields under their jurisdiction by marking boundaries. The city's fields were divided into 2,007 grids, with 12,600 grid responsible persons specified. At the same time, 1,421 command posts and 2,209 fire prevention points were set up in the fields, with personnel stationed in villages from townships and subdistricts and 132 municipal departments directly under the city on duty day and night, achieving full coverage of the burning ban. At the same time, to implement accountability, the city formed a six-level supervision system, used information technology, developed the online "Jinmubiao" supervision system, and brought 1,500 people into system management, making it more convenient to grasp personnel locations and duty conditions.

At the same time, in order to mobilize widespread participation of the whole city, the city mobilized teachers, doctors, students' parents, religious figures, disabled people, farmers, self-employed individuals, and other groups to participate widely, and also incorporated all 1,380 cleaning staff in the city's villages into the ranks of fire prevention personnel, forming a volunteer team of 7,851 people. On this basis, townships and villages in the city also established service organizations such as militia, party member summer harvest assistance teams, and emergency teams to fully participate in the straw burning ban, ensuring the smooth progress of the work.

Stepping outside the burning ban to grasp the "burning ban"

"At present, we have stepped outside the traditional thinking of grasping the straw burning ban," introduced He Fengyang. Since 2015, Jieshou has changed its previous practice of discussing the burning ban only in terms of the burning ban, and has placed the ban on straw burning and comprehensive utilization work into the overall pattern of agricultural and rural work for coordinated advancement. The straw burning ban work has achieved "four combinations" and "four major transformations."

According to the introduction, the "four combinations" means achieving combination with practicing the requirements of "Three Stricts and Three Honests" and "Two Studies and One Action," combination with strengthening rural grassroots organization construction, combination with promoting comprehensive rural environmental governance and building beautiful villages, and combination with developing modern agriculture and promoting farmers' poverty alleviation; it achieved the "four major transformations": a major transformation in cadres' working methods from banning burning to service, a major transformation in the masses' ideological understanding from not daring to burn to being unwilling to burn, a major transformation in cadres' working methods from banning burning to service, and a major transformation in the social atmosphere from widespread questioning to full support.

It is understood that in the work of building a clean and hygienic livable environment and a beautiful countryside where farmers can live and work in peace and contentment, Jieshou City took the straw burning ban as an important part of comprehensive urban and rural environmental rectification work to ensure cleanliness of the sanitary environment and long-term effectiveness. Using the opportunity of summer harvest and summer planting, it vigorously promoted land transfer and agricultural structural adjustment, and promoted modern agricultural planting, thereby reducing the pressure of the straw burning ban. At the same time, it treated the results of the straw burning ban as one item for testing cadres' work ability, combined it with strengthening rural grassroots organization construction, and mobilized cadres' enthusiasm.

Recently, the author saw in the duty room of Dahuang Town in Jieshou City that Zhang Jiannan, deputy secretary of the town party committee and deputy town mayor, was sitting in front of a computer checking the summer harvest situation of fields in all villages across the town through the newly installed high-definition "Blue Sky Guard," while directing work through the walkie-talkie in his hand.

Zhang Jiannan said that at present, the "three summers" operation site situation of more than 30,000 mu of wheat across Dahuang Town is fully covered by 5 high-definition video monitors. Not only can each high-definition video monitor rotate freely 360 degrees, but the scenery in the image can also be freely and clearly magnified, achieving all-weather, all-angle observation. Within a 2-3 km radius around the installation points, straw burning, summer and autumn harvesting and planting, supervision personnel attendance, and the real scene of the wheat harvest site can all be seen at a glance.

Zhang Yang, secretary of the Dahuang Town Party Committee, introduced: "'Blue Sky Guard' high-definition monitoring greatly facilitates timely overall control and machinery dispatch for the 'three summers' work, and improves work efficiency. At the same time, it greatly reduces the previous intensity of mainly manual inspection work. Through information-based means, it can more accurately locate the scene of an incident at the first time, greatly saving manpower and material resources, and also plays a positive role in social security and prevention in key areas."

"Now, the environment here during summer harvest has really become much better. In the past, people did not even dare to dry clothes outside, because the clothes would be covered with straw ash," said Li Yicheng, a resident of Libinzhuang. Even his wife Yin Xiurong's chronic bronchitis had improved a lot. Now, even if he were asked to burn straw, he would not do it.