Ministry of Agriculture announces completion of this year's 200 million mu of deep loosening and land preparation by agricultural machinery

Since the beginning of this year, agricultural mechanization departments at all levels have resolutely implemented the arrangements in the Report on the Work of the Government regarding "increasing deep-loosened land by 13.33 million hectares (200 million mu)", treated deep loosening and land preparation by agricultural machinery as an important technical measure for tapping the potential for increased grain production, and pursued it with scientific planning, careful organization and strong promotion. As of November 30, 166.46 million mu of autumn deep loosening had been completed nationwide; adding the 36.98 million mu completed in spring and summer, a total of 203 million mu of deep loosening and land preparation was completed for the whole year, exceeding the 200 million mu task of deep loosening and land preparation by agricultural machinery. At present, the deep loosening and land preparation work has been completed in the vast majority of provinces (regions), and the remaining provinces (regions) in the south have entered the final stage, which will end in late December.

To ensure that the deep loosening task was completed without fail, the Ministry of Agriculture at the beginning of the year broke down and assigned the 200 million mu deep loosening operation task to the relevant provinces, established a monthly progress reporting and assessment system, regularly reported the progress of deep loosening and land preparation by agricultural machinery to the State Council and notified all provinces, and continuously strengthened the sense of responsibility of all localities for fulfilling the annual target task. Before the busy "three autumns" period, the Ministry of Agriculture held a special on-site meeting on deep loosening and land preparation by agricultural machinery to carry out mobilization and arrangements; from late September to early November, the Ministry of Agriculture sent multiple supervision groups to key areas such as Northeast China, North China, Northwest China and the Huang-Huai-Hai region to carry out special inspections. All provinces and regions responded positively to the arrangements of the State Council, strengthened organizational leadership, refined work plans and implemented target responsibilities. Hebei Province implemented a county magistrate responsibility system for deep loosening operation tasks, providing strong organizational guarantee for promoting the fulfillment of the targets.

To strengthen the guarantee of agricultural machinery and equipment for deep loosening and land preparation, the Ministry of Agriculture required all localities, in implementing the machinery purchase subsidy policy, to give priority to meeting farmers' demand for purchasing large-horsepower tractors, deep loosening machines, combined land preparation machines and other operation machinery, and appropriately raised the subsidy standard for deep loosening machines. Taking the commonly used 4-5 shovel deep loosening machine as an example, the subsidy is 3000 yuan per unit, about 30% of the market price. As of the end of November, the subsidy funds used for tractors and deep loosening machinery this year reached 6.7 billion yuan, with 290,000 new tractors and 9,512 deep loosening machines (sets) added, and the national of tractors above 80 horsepower and deep loosening machinery exceeded 750,000 and 234,000 units (sets) respectively.

To further mobilize farmers' enthusiasm for deep loosening and land preparation, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture expanded the pilot provinces for deep loosening and land preparation operation subsidies from last year's Northeast China and North China to all suitable areas including Northwest China, East China and Southwest China. The specific subsidy standards are determined independently by each province based on local operation models, costs, farmers' wishes and other factors, ranging from 15 yuan to 40 yuan per mu. According to preliminary statistics, this year the provinces have arranged 1.95 billion yuan in deep loosening operation subsidy funds (including 1.42 billion yuan from the central government), and plan to subsidize an operation area of 79 million mu. At present, the pilot subsidy areas adopt the method of "operation first, subsidy later; publicity first, payment later", and have successively issued deep loosening operation subsidies by agricultural machinery to farmers and operators.

To strengthen supervision of the quality of deep loosening operations by agricultural machinery and ensure that operation subsidies are standardized and in place, the Ministry of Agriculture actively promoted the use of satellite positioning, the Internet of Things and other information-based means to supervise and manage deep loosening and land preparation. Heilongjiang, Anhui, Shandong and other provinces vigorously guided the installation of deep loosening testing instruments, realizing remote monitoring and real-time statistics of the process, area and quality of deep loosening operations by agricultural machinery, greatly improving supervision efficiency and effectively avoiding problems such as falsely reporting area to obtain subsidies.

According to reports, deep loosening operations can effectively break the plow pan, increase the soil's water storage and moisture conservation capacity and crop yields. A four-year comparative yield measurement in Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province, showed that corn increased by about 125 kg per mu on average. Monitoring data from Hebei Province show that after deep loosening, the water storage capacity of the land increased by about 15%, and wheat and corn yields increased by about 10% on average.