Shandong and Henan autumn grain harvest is a foregone conclusion, ushering in a bumper harvest this year
A large corn field in the ten-thousand-mu demonstration zone in Chengxinzhuang Village, Liugu Town, Hua County, Henan Province, where late-harvest technology is being implemented. Experts say that for corn that is peeled and dried for late harvest, each day the harvest is delayed can increase corn yield by 10 kg per mu.
Autumn is in full swing, and across the vast fields, a picture of autumn grain abundance is spread everywhere. According to agricultural situation monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture, the autumn grain harvest in Shandong, Henan and other provinces is a foregone conclusion. Preliminary yield estimates show that Shandong's autumn grain area is 55.475 million mu, an increase of 1.17 million mu, or 2.1%, over the previous year; total output is 46.976 billion jin, an increase of 800 million jin, or 1.7%, over the previous year.
There was a time when drought was severe, threatening autumn grain production on the North China Plain; there was a time when aphids and borers gnawed at the foundation of a bumper autumn grain harvest on the North China Plain…… The golden corn is telling us that it truly is “in the year of the ox or horse, farming goes well,” as the North China Plain reaps yet another year of abundance.
The fields sleep beside the irrigation canals, free from worry about drought or flood
“I really never expected such a bumper harvest this year!” At the edge of a corn field in Guozhai Village, Linyi County, Shandong Province, Zhang Xinyao, a major grain grower known as the “Grain King of Dezhou,” could hardly conceal his joy.
How bumper is it? Zhang Xinyao pointed to the large corn field before him: “This field right here, the county agricultural department just measured the yield, and the per-unit yield is over 1,200 jin!”
This year's drought was unusual. It had been dry from spring to autumn, the worst drought in Linyi's meteorological records for decades. No wonder farmers were all anxious about the autumn harvest. As Chen Guangchun, deputy county magistrate of Linyi County, was speaking, Zhang Xinyao interjected: “When you see the fields cracking open, how could you not worry?”
Why was a bumper harvest still achieved? Small-scale farmland water conservancy projects came in very handy. In recent years, Linyi County has worked hard to open up the “last kilometer” for crops crying out for water. In 2012, the county launched a small-scale farmland water conservancy project to eliminate blind spots in irrigation and drainage. In July this year, the first phase of Linyi's “2013—2015 High-Standard Farmland Water Conservancy Construction Demonstration County” project was completed and put into use. The total investment was 24.12 million yuan, with 14 new small water pumping stations, 72 culverts, 56.3 km of dredged ditches, 26 km of new production roads, 129 km of buried pipelines, and 23,000 mu of high-standard water conveyance irrigation area built. Six new technologies, including soil moisture monitoring, unmanned monitoring and automatic alarm, were adopted, basically achieving irrigation informatization.
After the small-scale farmland water conservancy project was put in place, irrigation conditions in Linyi County's farmland improved markedly. The county's effective irrigation area reached 701,000 mu, water-saving irrigation area reached 410,000 mu, annual irrigation water savings reached 120 million cubic meters, the county's comprehensive grain production capacity increased by 12 percentage points, with an average annual increase of 38.8 million kg and farmers' income rising by 4,038 yuan.
Water conservancy projects have boosted comprehensive grain production capacity, and in a year of severe drought, the protective role of water conservancy for crops was once again confirmed in Hua County, Henan Province.
Hua County has 1.95 million mu of cultivated land and year-round grain planting of more than 2.7 million mu, with total output of 2.7 billion jin. It is a typical major agricultural county, major population county and major grain county, long known as the “Granary of Northern Henan.” It is China's number one wheat county, Henan Province's number one grain-producing county, and a national advanced county in grain production for “eleven consecutive championships.”
The drought, the likes of which had not been seen for years, made Hua County extremely anxious. Since 1963, Hua County's grain production had never encountered such a severe drought. Because Hua County had always attached great importance to farmland infrastructure construction, “in the end, the drought could not do much to us.” County magistrate Chen Zhong said with deep emotion.
Since 2012, Hua County has planned 33 ten-thousand-mu zones, 38 thousand-mu zones and 10 hundred-mu zones of high-standard grain fields, with a planned area of 1.55 million mu. It comprehensively coordinated land improvement, irrigation and drainage, field roads, forest network protection, power facilities and other engineering projects, concentrating construction efforts. Farmland infrastructure was improved, with more than 36,000 motor-pumped wells maintained countywide and an effective irrigation area of 1.5606 million mu.
“The fields sleep beside the irrigation canals, free from worry about drought or flood!” Chen Zhong said. Facing this year's severe autumn drought, Hua County planned ahead and responded scientifically, winning the battle to combat drought and preserve a bumper autumn grain harvest, and yield estimates again show a bumper harvest.
Good seeds and good methods produce “ton-grain fields”
How great a role does agricultural science and technology play in a bumper grain harvest? The ten-thousand-mu demonstration zone in Sunhanfu Village, Zhaijia Town, Linyi County, truly commands deep admiration.
“With the ‘one increase and four changes,’ crops are simply different.” Village Party secretary Sun Fengzhong led this reporter to the demonstration zone. “Guess how much corn this experimental field yields? When the county agriculture bureau came to measure, the per-unit yield was 1,800 to 1,900 jin. We farming folk never dared imagine such a yield in the past!”
What is the “one increase and four changes”? Qi Baoping, head of the agricultural technology station in Zhaijia Town, explained this summer corn's “harvest classic” to this reporter——appropriately increase planting density, switch to density-tolerant varieties, change intercropping to direct seeding, change extensive fertilization to formula fertilization, and change manual operations to mechanized operations.
Old Sun quickly had this reporter inspect the corn planting density. Wow! The corn stalks were almost touching one another. Qi Baoping said: “This experimental field plants 5,400 plants per mu, so a high per-unit yield is no surprise. Farmers' general field planting is usually 4,200—4,400 plants, and this year the countywide field yield estimate is 1,219 jin per unit. According to Qi Baoping, the Ministry of Agriculture's appropriately delayed harvest technology for summer corn has also shown results in Zhaijia Town. Starting from early October, for each day the harvest is postponed, the yield can increase by 10 kg per mu.
Looking up at the field sign, it turned out this was a Ministry of Agriculture ten-thousand-mu high-yield grain creation demonstration plot, with the goal of an average wheat yield of 650 kg per ten thousand mu and an average corn yield of 850 kg per ten thousand mu. Old Sun calculated the yield account: “With wheat plus corn, we have long since achieved ton-grain fields, but there is still a gap from the target on this sign.”
If good methods are the secret to a bumper crop, then good seeds are the key to a bumper harvest. During interviews in Linyi County and Wenshang County in Shandong Province and Lankao County in Henan Province, this reporter found that the corn seeds farmers generally favor are the lodging-resistant, high-yield “Denghai 605” and “Zhengdan 958.” These varieties repay farmers' affection with solid yields.
Relying on Huafeng Seed Industry Company, a national key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization, Hua County hired Academician Cheng Shunhe of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Researcher Zhang Shihuang, chief scientist of the National Corn Industry System, as experts, and established an academician and expert workstation to carry out seed research. As a result, Hua County continuously intensified the promotion of improved varieties, and the coverage rate of improved corn varieties, mainly the “Jundan” series, the “Huayu” series and “Zhengdan 958,” reached 100% countywide.
Science and technology have given wings to a bumper grain harvest. During this year's autumn grain production, Hua County hired 15 well-known experts, including Guo Tiancai, deputy head of the national wheat expert group, and Li Chaohai, head of the Henan Province corn expert group, to form an expert service team to offer advice and solve problems for grain production. The expert group and technical instructors made more than 4,000 visits to the countryside cumulatively, and more than 400,000 person-times of the public received training, which played a key role in comprehensively securing a bumper autumn grain harvest this year.
According to surveys, Hua County's autumn grain planting area this year was 1.086 million mu, with an expected average per-unit yield of 1,250.6 jin, an increase of 186.6 jin, or 17.5%, over the previous year, and an expected total output of 1.358 billion jin, an increase of 246 million jin, or 22.12%, over the previous year. Among this, corn was planted on 1.047 million mu, with an expected average per-unit yield of 1,256.48 jin and total output of 1.316 billion jin. Area, per-unit yield and total output are expected to hit record highs again.
New types of business entities join hands with farmers to “wrap up” the autumn harvest
Behind the boundless bumper harvest on the North China Plain are active new types of rural business entities. It is precisely these new types of business entities—individual households, joint households, large households, cooperatives and family farms—that have taken the lead, producing one bumper harvest story after another.
Developing new types of rural business entities has promoted grain production and changed farmers' destinies. Jia Weitao is a farmer of “some standing” in Wenshang County, Shandong Province. That is because his experience is almost the development process of all new types of business entities: once an individual household, then developing into a joint household and large household, and also the head of a family farm and a cooperative. Relying on 1,700 mu of transferred cultivated land, he now runs grain production and has a net income of more than 1 million yuan each year.
Individual households have always been the main business entities in China's agricultural production, and today's individual households are no longer the individual households of the past. Huang Guoxing, a villager in Xihejing, Baidaokou Town, Hua County, was led by agricultural technicians and himself came to love agricultural technology. By increasing corn planting density and introducing “Longping 206,” he achieved a per-unit yield of 1,300 jin this year. In the grain production process, he grew from using brute force to using skill, and from relying on experience to relying on science and technology, becoming a new type of professional farmer.
Joint households, large households, cooperatives and family farms are all pulsing with new meaning in modern agricultural production. Through alliances among major grain growers, Linyi County has brought grain production to a new level. At present, Linyi has 47 grain-growing households with more than 100 mu each, with a planting area of nearly 200,000 mu. After the large households formed alliances, they achieved better intensive production. Wei Dedong, a farmer in Deping Town who transferred 3,000 mu of cultivated land, is a “national major grain grower.” He said: “Because more than 10 major grain growers have joined together, we dare accept even the biggest grain orders.”
Industrial and commercial capital is pouring in. In Lankao County, Henan Province, Jinkai Group's Lankao Modern Ecological Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Park transferred 9,500 mu of cultivated land in one go last year. The transferred cultivated land is mainly used to plant corn and wheat. The transfer price calculated at a wheat yield of 1,000 jin is 1,118 yuan. National direct grain subsidies are given directly to farmers. In addition to income from transferring land, farmers can also choose to work at the agriculture and animal husbandry park to earn another income.
Rural reform has created new conditions for developing modern agriculture and promoting grain production.
Across the crisscrossed fields of the North China Plain, the land is filled with harvest and interprets the new atmosphere of rural reform.