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Food in hand, the heart does not panic. A few days ago, the Hebei Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was informed that this year, Hebei Province’s summer grain harvest had tripled its production levels. The summer grain sowing area of 34.107 million mu (5.5 million acres), averaging a per-mu yield of 439.37 kilograms had a total output of 14.986 million tons. This means Hebei has achieved three increases in area, unit yield and total output.

“Summer grain marks the first season of grain production throughout the year. Achieving a bumper summer grain harvest is crucial to stabilizing annual grain production.” This is according to the relevant person in charge of the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, who added that Hebei regards grain production as the primary task and top priority of the farming milieu, comprising”agriculture, rural areas and farmers.” The official added that the results show a solid job in insuring food security. Hence, the relevant office has set up a joint guidance group to go deep into the field and focus on the improvement of wheat yields, guide farmers face-to-face to implement detailed field management measures, and make every effort to ensure a bumper summer grain harvest. 

The total area is the basis of the harvest

In order to stabilize the sowing area of wheat, Hebei decomposes the grain area and defines output target tasks in cities and counties. This practical vision goes deep into the villages and plots. The provincial office then  consolidates the responsibilities of party committees and local governments at all levels, seizes the favorable opportunity of appropriate conditions, and actively guides farmers to tap the planting potential and expand the wheat planting area.

Adhere to the principle of “holding grain in technology”

 Under the objective to revitalize of the seed industry, Hebei has vigorously implemented a series of actions such as the innovation of the seed industry, the support of seed industry enterprises, and the improvement of the seed industry base. The integrated pattern of improved seed breeding and the promotion of these seeds with enterprises as the core is also taking shape. Hence, the dissemination rate of improved seeds in agricultural production has reached more than 43%.  The Hubei office avers: “Focusing on the wheat industry, we will cultivate and promote a series of water-saving and high-yielding wheat varieties such as ‘Malan No. 1’ and ‘Hengmai 30’, as well as a number of high-yield and adaptable strong wheat varieties such as ‘Gao You 2018’ and ‘Ji Mai 765.’ Good seeds have become the ‘key code’ of the summer grain harvest.”

Insist on “holding grain in the ground”. 

Focusing on grain production’s functional areas and important agricultural products’ protection areas by the end of last year, the province had built a total of 52.32 million mu (8.5 million acres) of high-standard farmland. This saw further improvement in the quality of arable land and the level of agricultural infrastructure in the project area, and it played a role in raising the new peak of grain output this summer. This year, Hebei will build and upgrade 3.22 million mu of high-standard farmland. It will also support and guide social capital to participate in the construction of high-standard farmland, raise construction standards, and improve the quality of arable land.

In order to ensure full harvest of summer grain, Hebei gave full play to the role of administrative package and technical services. The province also carried out the two major actions of “fine and accurate scientific management of wheat in the whole process” and “strive for 90 days to win the harvest of summer grain.” The action went hand-in-hand with field day activities such as “fertilization management” and “one spray, three prevention(s)”, and did a good job in the monitoring and early warning of disasters such as cold spring and hail. 

The province guns for continued prevention and response work, vigorously carrying out the unified prevention and control actions on diseases and pests, and the joint prevention and control, in order to achieve the full coverage of “one spray, three prevention” action. This will effectively curb the trend of the occurrence of diseases and pests such as rust, gibberus, wheat aphids, e.t.c. 45,000 science and technology grain production commissioners in the province, and agricultural technicians at all levels in provinces, cities, counties and townships went to the front line of production to guide farmers in the classification and management of seedlings during the workshop. They did this according to locality, and organized various forms of technical training such as live webcasting and video broadcasting.

If the grain is well planted, it is even better to harvest

This year, Hebei organized machine harvesting operations in an orderly manner, set up special work classes at all levels, strengthened departmental linkage, scientifically dispatched 109,000 wheat combine harvesters in the province and took the initiative to introduce 11,500 cross-regional harvesters from other provinces. The province also registered and implemented the docking operation. The harvest progress was two days earlier than the same period last year. The wheat yield reached more than 99.7%, and the yield loss rate was reduced to 0.91%.

Source: Agri.cn