China News Service, August 18th. According to the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Wang Ge, deputy director of the National Agricultural Technology Center, recently analyzed the impact of floods in the south this year on rice production. According to field visits and investigations, this year’s flooding areas are relatively concentrated and affected by disasters. Early rice is the most severely affected. One-season mid-season rice and double-season late rice are also affected to varying degrees. However, due to the expansion of planting area and enhanced technical support, rice is expected to achieve a bumper harvest in the disaster year.
Data map: After the flood subsided, farmers in Junqiao Town, Hukou County, Jiangxi Province were sowing and raising seedlings. Photo by Li Xuehua
Since the flood season this year, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have entered the plum season earlier and lasted for a long time. The rainfall is widely distributed and accumulated rainfall is large. Heavy floods have occurred in some areas. The occurrence of flood coincides with the critical period of early rice filling harvest, middle rice field management and late rice seedling raising and transplanting, which has adversely affected rice production and aroused widespread concern in the society. After the disaster, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs organized a rice expert group to conduct field surveys to assess the impact of the disaster, scientifically guide post-disaster production recovery, and carry out technical guidance based on local conditions to minimize disaster losses.
According to Wang Ge, from the perspective of early rice production, the flood disasters caused the early rice fields in some areas to be unable to be harvested in time, and the phenomenon of lodging and ear sprouting was serious. The yield was affected to a certain extent, but the trend of increasing yield was not reversed. The main reasons are as follows:
One is the expansion of planting area. This year, the country has taken strong measures to restore early rice production, fallow and abandoned fields have been fully restored, and the planting area of early rice has increased significantly, laying a solid foundation for the stability of total output. According to the survey, the area of early rice in Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi has increased significantly this year, about 4.7 million mu more than in 2019. During the survey, various localities responded that although the area affected by early rice was relatively large this year, the area affected by the disaster and the area with no harvest were much smaller. The substantial increase in the area of the main early rice producing areas has made room for early rice disasters and provided an area guarantee for stable rice production.
The second is the rational construction of early rice populations. During the growth period of early rice this year, the preliminary weather conditions are generally favorable, the resources such as warm, light and water are well matched, the quality of seedlings is good, and the foundation is high yield. According to multi-point surveys and comparisons, the average number of ears per mu of early rice this year was 211,000 ears, an increase of 2 million over the previous year; the number of grains per ear was 115.4, an increase of 1.2 grains from last year; the seed setting rate was 77.4%, 1.1 percentage points lower than last year; the thousand-grain weight was 24.6 Grams, down 0.4 grams from last year; the theoretical output is 388.6 kilograms, down 5.3 kilograms from the previous year.
The third is to strengthen technical support. There are 4 provinces in my country where more than 10 million mu of early rice is planted. Guangdong and Guangxi provinces (regions) are not affected by floods. Hunan and Jiangxi are hardest hit. The disaster areas are mainly along the rivers and lakes. In these areas, disasters have occurred frequently in history, and the awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation is strong. In recent years, with the increase in the number of large-scale operation entities, the area of concentrated seedling cultivation has continued to expand, and the number of drying equipment has continued to increase. Centralized seedling raising has greatly improved the quality of seedlings and the ability of crops to withstand disasters; drying equipment has provided a guarantee for early rice harvesting, greatly reduced disaster losses, and made it possible to achieve a good harvest in the disaster year.
From the perspective of the production of mid-season rice, although the flooding disaster delayed the growth of some mid-season rice in the south, it was unable to dry the fields in time, and the tillers were blocked, which was not conducive to the establishment of high-yielding colonies. At present, the mid-season rice is in the seedling stage, and there is a lot of room for maneuvering in the later stage. As long as there is no major natural disaster in the later stage, the yield and total output are expected to be the same as last year. The reasons are as follows:
One is the concentration of affected areas. my country's mid-season rice is widely distributed, from south to north, mainly in the northeast, southwest and middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The planting area in 2019 is about 304 million mu. The survey found that this year’s disasters were mainly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, mainly in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu. As the mid-season rice in this area is in the tillering stage and has strong flood tolerance, the impact on overall production is limited. The crop failure was mainly concentrated in the flood storage areas along the river, which accounted for a small proportion of the national medium rice area.
Second, timely response measures. After the disaster occurred, all localities attached great importance to disaster reduction. According to the water accumulation situation, methods such as mechanical drainage or digging drainage ditches were used to eliminate the accumulation of field water and soil waterlogging in the cultivated layer to reduce the accumulation of water time. Chemical fertilizers promote plant growth and high-yield population construction. For waterlogged fields, according to the number of stems and tillers, we can keep draining water in stages and open the fields multiple times to regulate the quality of the population and increase the rate of tillers and ears. According to different planting methods, varieties and seedling conditions in the mid-season rice growth stage, ear-grain fertilizers can be reasonably applied when the population peak seedlings have passed and the leaf color is obviously faded and "yellow", and appropriate potassium fertilizers can be applied to accelerate grain filling.
The third is mature reserve technology. In recent years, there have been many studies on rice flood disasters, and disaster mitigation technologies have been mature. For the fields before the blooming period, water regulation and fertilizer management can be strengthened after the drainage of accumulated water to promote the transformation and upgrading of the seedlings; for the fields after the blooming, the seedlings can be cut and the regenerating rice can be harvested, and generally cut 3-5 days after the flood. seedling. Before cutting seedlings, apply quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer in time to mulch the roots to promote buds, and leave the rice stubs low and about 20 cm in length to ensure the high yield of ratooning rice with large ears and multiple ears, which can greatly reduce disaster losses.
From the perspective of late rice production, the flood disaster caused part of the late rice seedling fields to be submerged, and the quality of the seedlings was deviated. The late stubble of early rice affected the timely planting of double-cropped late rice. Conducive to stable and high yield of late rice. However, there are also favorable factors in late rice production such as increased planting area and sufficient technical reserves. As long as field management measures are in place, a bumper harvest in late rice production is guaranteed.
First, the area is expected to increase. As the first season of double-cropping rice, early rice affects not only the current season but also the next late rice. The increase in the area of early rice this year has laid the foundation for the increase in the area of late rice. At present, all regions are actively carrying out post-disaster recovery production to ensure the planting area of late rice.
The second is that the technology is in place. The survey found that after the early rice crops were stubble this year, all localities attached great importance to the implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation technologies. They implemented "giving fertilizer" and "giving medicine", so that they were planted in time to compensate for the delay, and the seedlings were basically sufficient. At the same time, strengthen the regulation of water and fertilizer, promote early and rapid onset, and speed up the process of fertility.
The third is to improve disaster reduction technology. For the destroyed seedling fields, the fields that cannot be planted can be "turned early and late" according to local conditions, scientifically select suitable early rice varieties, sow the seeds as soon as possible, and strengthen the prevention and control of pests and weeds after sowing, which can effectively reduce disaster losses.
Wang Ge said that my country has a vast territory, vast territory, many ecological types and different resource endowments. Disasters are often regional and phased. The damage to a region or crop does not mean a reduction in production throughout the year and the whole country. In recent years, with the improvement of science and technology, the comprehensive production capacity of rice has been continuously improved, and the ability to resist natural disasters has been continuously enhanced. From a nationwide perspective, the climate is complex and changeable. Every year, there are areas that are affected by disasters and reduce production, and there are places where there are no disasters to increase production. The total amount is compensated for each other, and there is a lot of room for adjustment. From the perspective of rice itself, there is a certain degree of group self-regulation and the ability to compensate for the yield components. Individual and group interdependence and restriction eventually form a different yield structure. For example, when the number of ears per mu decreases, the number of grains per ear will increase to a certain extent. In actual production, as long as disaster monitoring and early warning are strengthened, disaster prevention and mitigation plans are strengthened, as long as response measures are in place and remedial technologies are in place, a bumper harvest can also be achieved in a major disaster year.