Good Harvest Powered by Powerful Technology

The wheat waves shine like gold. Operators drove harvesters to harvest the wheat from the south to the north of wheat field.

"The 2000 mu of wheat I planted has been harvested (1 mu = 0.067 ha.), and the average yield per mu has reached about 650 kg. This is a true good harvest year!" Deng Hui, a large-scale grain grower in Lixin County, Anhui Province, was happy. All the farmers in the main grain producing areas are smiling. It is the science and technology that lays a stronger foundation for the agricultural development and food security.

Variety upgrading is in favour of enhancing wheat yield and improving wheat quality in an accelerated manner

During the wheat harvest season, experts from the national wheat industry system measured the yield of three key high-yielding wheat fields in Woyang County, Anhui Province.

According to the measurement results, the yields of all the three fields exceeded 800 kg/mu. The measured wheat yield of the variety Yannong No. 1212 was 847.1 kg/mu in Songpaifang Village, Dianji Township, Woyang County.

Seeds are the "chip" of agriculture. Quality seeds are the prerequisite for obtaining the high yield and the selection of improved seeds is the key link. According to Xiao Shihe, chief expert of the national wheat industry system, in last several years, China has developed a number of new wheat varieties and has achieved remarkable results in yield improvement, quality improvement and resistance breeding. The yield increase of wheat is the most obvious among the three main crops (wheat, maize and rice). The upgradation of wheat varieties has laid a solid foundation for a bumper grain harvest in the summer.

In Fengnong Crop Planting Professional Cooperative in Dongming County, Heze City, Shandong Province, the wheat planting area has reached more than 20,000 mu. Since 2020, nearly 80% of the farmlands was sown with the wheat variety of "Xinmai 26". “Xinmai 26" is a strong gluten variety which can resist the lodging and high temperature in the late growth stage. It is one of the four super gluten varieties released by the national wheat industry technology system. According to Liu Hongli, Head of the Cooperative, based on the actual harvest, the yield of the new wheat variety is higher than that of other varieties and the wheat kernels are plump.

“Xinmai 26” has become a leading variety of high-quality and strong-gluten wheat in the Huanghuai wheat production area in China. Meanwhile, it has also become the main variety for increasing gluten and efficiency and for being as main ingredient of different flour formulae in the large domestic milling enterprises, such as Wudeli, COFCO and Yihai Kerry. “Xinmai 26” is popular among farmers and grain purchasing enterprises, because its overall benefits are slightly better than those of old varieties.

The scientists have developed a series of new wheat varieties with stable grain yield and high grain quality, and thus effectively improving the yield stability of large-scale wheat production and the quality of raw grains, and further guaranteeing China’s food security. “Xinmai 26”, “Shiluan 02-1” and other strong gluten varieties have met the quality and efficiency needs of the flour processing industry and market through the integrated cultivation technique of improved varieties and advanced methods, achieved high production and generated more economic income. “Xinmai 9369”, “Zhongmai 6052” and other varieties with high nutrient use efficiency can maintain the yield even if the applied amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers have been reduced by 20%. With high yield in a large planting area, the wheat cv. “Yangmai 33” shows strong scab resistance year after year and meets the international leading standards. The wheat cv. “Zhongmai 5051” and “Hengmai 29” are irrigated once during the whole growth period, the yield per mu exceeds 500 kg and 40-50 cubic meter of water is saved.

Anhui, Henan, Shandong, Hebei and other main wheat producing areas have mainly taken high-quality varieties for wheat production. Anhui Province has established 307 patchs of 10,000 mu land for special quality wheat, explored the production-marketing-processing integration mode of "single sowing, single harvest, single storage and special use" and drawn a map of special quality wheat in Anhui Province. In this way, farmers have planted wheat in a large scale and enterprises can purchase wheat based on the map. Henan Province has planted 15.33 million mu of special quality  wheat, accounting for 18% of the wheat sowing area. As the harvested wheat has full grains, good appearance, large capacity and high quality, the order rate has reached 90%.

Scientific and technology services facilitates the production of wheat

During the grain-filling period of wheat, Huang Qingguo, an agricultural technician in New Development District, Handan City, Hebei Province, went to the field. In case of scab, powdery mildew, aphids and other plant diseases and insect pests during the grain-filling period, he has helped farmers control plant diseases and insect pests and spray the pesticides to increase wheat yield. In order to ensure agricultural production and make good use of the technology, China has established a perfect grass-roots agricultural technology extension system. Huang Qingguo is a member of this system. As an agricultural technician, Huang Qingguo is responsible for the whole process from wheat planting to harvest. He went to the fields to check the seedling growth situation, went to farmer’ home to give some guidance, and answered farmers’ questions in the WeChat group at any time.

In China, there are more than 500,000 agricultural technicians. They go to the farm land themselves, help the farmers and teach farmers how to plant wheat. In April 2021, according to the consultation and analysis of Jiangsu Provincial Plant Protection System, it is expected that there is high incidence of plant diseases and insect pests at heading stage in Jiangsu Province. The majority of agricultural technicians go to the grass-roots level, go to fields and farmers’ home, visit the epidemic-stricken areas, areas with weak technical forces and areas with complex seedling situation, and carry out diversified and comprehensive service guidance to ensure that growers can select the right time to apply right pesticides, and prevent and control plant diseases and insect pests scientifically.

In addition to the warmhearted services, agricultural experts provide timely and powerful technical guidance. With the national wheat industry technology system as the core, the agricultural expert team from the state to the local level serves the production of wheat all the year round. Just after the Spring Festival, the wheat expert task force of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center issued the national technical guidance on winter wheat to consolidate the foundation for a good harvest of summer grain. In mid-May 2021, the provinces such as Hubei, Shaanxi and Jiangsu experienced short-term heavy rainfall, strong winds and hail, resulting in wheat lodging. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs quickly dispatched three expert task forces to the disaster-stricken areas to check the disaster situation, guide the implementation of disaster relief and harvest protection measures and reduce the impact of disaster.

According to the data of the Department of Science, Technology and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, since March 2021, more than 8,000 experts and 460,000 agricultural technicians on China's Agricultural Technology Promotion Information Platform have used information-based means to provide efficient and convenient services for more than 3 million new business entities and 230 million small farmers in 31 provinces, more than 2,400 counties and regions in China, answer 1.1 million technical questions in total, and provide 1.473 million technical services. The China Agricultural Technology Promotion Information Platform has provided various services, including online Q&A and technical guidance. It has effectively promoted the online communication and interaction of agricultural experts, agricultural technology personnel and operational organizations across the country, realized 24-hour efficient service for agricultural technology guidance across time and space, and fully demonstrated the important role of scientific and technological services in supporting the summer harvest.

Various technologies ensure good harvest of summer grain

In the demonstration base of Zhiqing Cooperative in Hebei Province, the large sprinkler irrigation frame across the wheat field is very eye-catching. According to Li Kejiang, Deputy Secretary General of the North China Agricultural Water Saving and Efficiency Innovation Alliance and Deputy Director of the Dryland Farming Institute of the Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, "Through soil moisture monitoring equipment, farmers know when to irrigate and how much water is needed. This sprinkler irrigation unit can realize the integrated irrigation of water and fertilizer, save water, fertilizer and labor forces, and form an efficient water-saving model for the green production of wheat and corn. "

Science and technology has been applied to all links of grain production, from breeding and cultivation to irrigation and pest control. China has gradually built an advanced modern agricultural science and technology cluster, including seed industry, agricultural machinery and plant protection. As for plant protection, the plant green comprehensive prevention and control technologies of plant diseases and insect pests such as plant diseases and insect pests prediction, selection of prevention and control methods, and eco-friendly pesticides were already applied to each corner of the main wheat producing areas to ensure that "the existing plant diseases and insect pests did not cause severe economic loss.

With the application of Beidou navigation system and information technology in agricultural production, especially “Internet +” technology and “intelligence +” technology, the traditional agriculture is accelerating to transform into modern "intelligent agriculture" in China. Automatic spore capture instrument, 5G HD real-time monitoring of soil moisture, fertigation facilities... and other "black technologies" have been applied in an accelerated manner in the fields.

Funan Agricultural Service Center of Anhui Province can monitor the growth of 310,000 mu of quality wheat cross the county by the remote sensing image on the large screen. If the remote sensing image shows that the color of the plot is abnormal, it means that the wheat is not growing well. Therefore, experts need to go to the wheat field to find the reason for the poor growth and to solve the problems immediately. The average yield of wheat in the southern Anhui Province was increased by more than 50 kg/mu in 2021 based on satellite remote sensing technology.

According to Xiao Shihe, the comprehensive mechanization rate of wheat production in China has reached 96.5%, and the whole process mechanization has been basically realized in the main wheat producing areas. Comprehensive technology optimization and integration have been carried out in the production links, such as straw treatment, land preparation and sowing, water-saving irrigation, one-time fertilizer application, disaster prevention and control and loss-reduction storage. The whole industrial chain has improved the wheat production efficiency and the economic income.

According to the official from the Department of Science, Technology and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, during the "The 14th-Five Year Plan", China should adopt various technologies to strengthen seed industry innovation, improve agricultural machinery and equipment, integrate and promote green, quality and efficient technologies, promote integration between improved varieties and good methods and integration between agricultural machinery and agronomy, and fully tap the potential of science and technology. We should build a number of national digital agriculture and rural innovation centers and the digital agriculture application and promotion bases, promote the integrated application of information technologies, such as Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and block chain, so as to consolidate the scientific and technological foundation for the national food security.

Reported by Li Liying and Sun Mei

SOURCE：http://www.farmer.com.cn/2021/06/17/99872434.html