In late August, Gu Xiaofeng (first from the left), deputy director of the Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, led a team to Guizhou to guide drought relief.
Photo by Beijing News reporter Tian Jiexiong
Overlooking from a high altitude, in the area where the two major river systems of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River intersect, the terrain of Guizhou, which is adjacent to Sichuan and Chongqing, is rugged, and the mountains have eliminated the plains, making it appear fragmented.
In the days after the summer, the high temperature, fine and hot weather in northern Guizhou continued, the clouds in the sky were always thin, there was wind in the mountains, and the clouds floated, which could only shade the crops on the ground for a while.
It has been almost 60 days, and there has been no effective rainfall in many parts of northern Guizhou.
In late August, a scientific and technological team composed of experts from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences went to Guizhou to guide drought resistance. Under the guidance of the experts, farmers had to dispatch water sources, rush to harvest and switch to planting. Switch to drought resistance.
"Red Beetroot"
Sorghum production declines in many areas in northern Guizhou
"We have always been called the 'back garden of Sichuan and Chongqing'." In northern Guizhou, locals in Xishui County, Zunyi City always bring undisguised pride when mentioning their hometown.
This is the hub at the intersection of Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing. Different from the low pressure and high temperature in the basin, the temperature in counties and cities in the mountainous area of northern Guizhou is always slightly lower.
On those days when the temperature is the highest in Chongqing and Sichuan, people from across the province come to Guizhou, and Xishui people have long been accustomed to the Bashu dialect in midsummer, "But this year is an exception. In my memory, Xishui has never been so hot. "
The Xishui County Meteorological Observatory once issued a high temperature orange warning signal. By August 21, the high temperature of more than 34 degrees Celsius in the county had continued for a week, the sun was burning, and the heat wave in the air was surging.
Ren Shuming, a villager in Liangcun Village, Liangcun Township, was no longer able to care about the heat. He and his wife took a sickle and a bamboo basket on their backs.
In Guizhou dialect, "Hongliang" is another name for sorghum.
Zunyi in Guizhou and Luzhou and Yibin in Sichuan, through which the Yangtze River system flows, are the most famous liquor production bases in my country. The "Golden Triangle" formed by the three places surrounded by mountains is responsible for half of China's liquor industry.
In northern Guizhou, sorghum is the food crop with the largest planting area besides rice and corn. Small farmers are closely connected with well-known wineries and are used to receiving purchase orders from Moutai winery in August every year.
Ren Shuming and his wife only grow sorghum, and 15 mu of sorghum fields are scattered in the mountains at an altitude of 1,100 meters.
In fact, as early as the end of June, Ren Shuming could already feel the unusual temperature this year.
Before the flood season, the temperature was obviously high. By mid-July, the rain in previous years did not arrive as scheduled, and the water storage area was empty.
It is far away from the water source. At present, the land that used to yield 500 catties per mu has now reduced by about 30% to 40%.
"Some may be able to collect more, but it may be difficult to exceed half of the grains that meet the winery's purchase standards." In fact, the purchase price per kilogram of local wineries this year has just increased from 4.6 yuan last year to 5.6 yuan. Yuan, after being caught off guard by the drought, could not wait for a bumper harvest, so Ren Shuming had no choice but to grab the harvest while it was sunny.
"The bureau has prepared 6 tons of rapeseed seeds, which have been distributed to all towns in the county, which can compensate some farmers for their losses." According to Yuan Ling, director of the Xishui County Agriculture and Rural Bureau, the seeds for the next season will be prepared in advance. Distributing work is a relatively safe way to fight the drought at this moment.
"The Dam Area"
After years of construction, stable and increased production can be maintained
Relatively flat places at low altitudes are another story compared to areas with higher altitudes.
Near Xishui, the drought in Tongzi County has reached a severe level, while in Shixi Town, the rice fields of Fangshu, a large grain-producing household, are abundant in water.
It is a flat land between the mountains. In the Yunnan-Guizhou region, such a flat land with a relatively gentle terrain is also known as the "dam area".
Machinery is applicable here. The plants in the paddy field are dense, and the rice grains near the end of the filling are also full and firm. This season, Lou Fangshu's goal is to stabilize and increase production.
Lou Fangshu said that the water in the fields comes from the nearby Xiaoxigou, which is less than 100 kilometers away. The upstream of the river is the Chongqing Jinfoshan Reservoir with a storage capacity of over 100 million cubic meters. Huangping Village, Shixi Town, is controlled by the reservoir. 300,000 mu of irrigated area.
This is actually a "quasi-high standard farmland" under construction.
Since 2017, this dam area of about 3,000 mu has been contracted by Lou Fangshu, and he has transformed the small fields of the past little by little into the concentrated and contiguous planting fields.
In 2019, Guizhou carried out the establishment of model dam areas and standard dam areas in the province. Thanks to this opportunity, the farmland water conservancy and water transportation facilities have been improved, and Lou Fangshu has also become one of the beneficiaries of the canal construction along the coast.
But even if there is still water in the fields, the ducks in the paddy fields will still die because of the high temperature. "In the past few years, there have been occasional droughts, but none of them can be compared to this year. The average temperature here is 34-5 degrees Celsius. , this has never happened before." On the same day, the weather forecast showed that there would still be no rainfall in northern Guizhou in the next few days. Experts from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and cadres from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences instructed Lou Fangshu to transport the water source and continue to pump water. It took a few days."
Wang Tiantian
Growers can't bear to cut rice
On August 22, the four departments of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Emergency Management, and the China Meteorological Administration jointly issued the "On Deeply Implementing the Spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important Instructions and Doing a Good Job in Resisting High Temperature, Heat Damage, Drought, and Harvesting Autumn Grain." Notice", in addition to hills and hills and the end of the irrigation area, the "Notice" also mentioned that the areas lacking water sources also include "Wangtiantian".
"Even if we have rain-fed agriculture here, it is Wangtiantian." The drought is not only concentrated in northern Guizhou, but Taijiang County in the Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in southeastern Guizhou is also facing drought this summer. Rice, the village party secretary Wang Chuan said that at high altitudes, there are no ponds in the area, and the annual harvest is mostly based on the sky.
This year's rice harvest was not good. The weather was too dry. Some of the seedlings planted in May had not tillered by the end of August.
Because many paddy fields have not been moistened by rain for too long, the openings the width of an adult's palm have been split open.
Compared with the north, life in southeastern Guizhou is more comfortable and comfortable. The rate of food commodities grown by the people is not high, and most of them are self-sufficient.
Wang Chuan mentioned that every year, the food grown in the fields of each household cannot be eaten up, but because this soil has nurtured generations of villages surrounded by mountains, the common farmers still have a legacy of passing on the land from generation to generation. Respect.
Plants that take root in the cracked soil, whether or not they will lead to a harvest, will stand up until the next planting season.
general ledger
Grain expansion and stable production are expected
Since August, the high temperature in Sichuan and Chongqing and the anti-drying of the Yangtze River during the flood season have attracted much attention.
Guizhou is not a province where the main stream of the Yangtze River flows, and the extreme temperature is lower than that of Sichuan and Chongqing. From the perspective of experts from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, like other provinces in the Yangtze River Basin that are affected by high temperature, fine and hot weather, Guizhou's crops are also in the long-term without rain. Suffering in the heat.
Gu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Institute of Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, is the leader of the guidance group for this trip to Guizhou. He told the Beijing News reporter that from the point of visit, the altitude range of 600-1000 meters in the mountainous area of Guizhou Crops are generally more seriously affected by drought. This height is destined to be far away from water sources, and the temperature has not yet decreased due to the increase in altitude.
"In addition, the basic irrigation measures in the mountainous areas of Guizhou are relatively lacking, which has led to many arable land in the mountainous areas becoming Wangtiantian."
But in terms of food security, Gu Xiaofeng mentioned that at present, Guizhou also has some advantages and characteristics of its own, "For example, Guizhou has expanded the area of grain cultivation this year, and at the same time, the early nutritional measures in Guizhou have been in place, so the situation of seedlings is also relatively strong. In addition, the large area of rice and sorghum in Guizhou is less affected by high temperature sensitive periods because of the earlier planting time."
During the inspection, the experts gave farmers and local agricultural and rural departments a lot of guidance and advice, including timely application of fertilizers, manual intervention in the pollination process to ensure the seed setting rate, watering in the morning and evening to avoid one-time irrigation when there is a water source, and straw recycling. Tian and so on.
What makes Gu Xiaofeng gratified is that many of the technical solutions given by the experts are also the main work being done by the local agricultural and rural departments.
Gu Xiaofeng believes that the most urgent task for farmers is to rush to harvest and switch crops.
According to the forecast of the meteorological department, the latest rain in northern Guizhou may fall at the end of August.
Even if this summer's rains don't come as expected, growers and crops are still waiting.
Beijing News reporter Tian Jiexiong