Crop rotation, fallow and storage of grain on the ground (people's eyes, perfect fallow and rotation system of arable land)
Primer
"Field fallow also increases income." Ye Guangkuan, a villager in Lijiakou Village, Liujie Township, Yongqing County, Hebei Province, who has planted crops for half his life, stopped planting winter wheat in response to the national seasonal fallow policy in 2019. The average yield of corn per mu increased by about 50 kilograms the following year. , plus a fallow subsidy of 500 yuan per mu, the annual average net income per mu is about 600 yuan, which is about 200 yuan higher than before fallow.
Hebei is a typical resource-based and water-scarce province. The groundwater has been overexploited for a long time, forming the largest groundwater funnel area in the country.
As a large agricultural province, Hebei's wheat planting area is about 33 million mu, and agricultural water accounts for more than half of the total economic and social water use.
After the implementation of one season (wheat) fallow and one season (corn) planting, the average water consumption per mu is reduced by 150 cubic meters.
At present, 2 million mu of arable land in Hebei Province is seasonally fallow, reducing the exploitation of groundwater by 300 million cubic meters a year.
Exploring and implementing the pilot system of cultivated land rotation and fallow in some areas is a major decision-making arrangement made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council in view of the prominent contradictions in my country's agricultural development and the changes in supply and demand in the domestic and foreign grain markets. The purpose is to promote cultivated land recuperation and sustainable agricultural development.
In November 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in the "Explanation on the Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development": "To implement the system of crop rotation and fallow, the country can Supply and demand situation, focus on carrying out pilot projects in groundwater funnel areas, heavy metal pollution areas, and areas with severe ecological degradation, arrange a certain area of cultivated land for fallow, and provide necessary grain or cash subsidies to fallow farmers.”
In June 2016, the former Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Pilot Plan for Exploring and Implementing the Land Rotation and Fallow Land System", proposing that "adhere to ecological priority, comprehensive management, rotation as the mainstay and fallow as a supplement, in order to ensure national food security and not affect the Farmers’ income is the premise”, and took the lead in carrying out crop rotation pilots in the cold and cool areas of the northeast and the interlaced areas of agriculture and animal husbandry in the north, and carried out pilots of fallow in the groundwater funnel area of Hebei, the heavy metal pollution area of Hunan, and the severely degraded ecological areas of the southwest and northwest.
Since the pilot program, the area of crop rotation fallow has increased from 6.16 million mu in 2016 to 69.26 million mu in 2022, and the number of provinces implementing it has increased from 9 to 24.
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "improve the fallow and rotation system of cultivated land".
Not long ago, the reporter went to Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Yunnan and other pilot provinces for crop rotation and fallow to see how to subtract the cultivation intensity, multiply the quality and benefit, transform the agricultural production mode, and let the economic benefits and ecological effects resonate at the same frequency .
Why use crop rotation and fallow?
Let the heavy-loaded cultivated land take a rest, and the overdrawn soil take a breather, and the cumulative implementation of crop rotation and fallow has exceeded 100 million mu
"After a soaking rain, the stalks can pop up and cover the farmland with green oil." In the late winter, standing at the edge of a large field at the head of Ma'anshan Village, Pingyuan Town, Yanshan County, Yunnan Province, Yunnan's 23rd-degree plateau features Ren Wenlin, executive director of the Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., told reporters that scallion is a special variety specially planted for winter fallow, which can increase the content of soil organic matter, restore soil microbial communities, and improve soil resistance to diseases and insect pests.
Following Ren Wenlin's footsteps, the reporter stepped into the ground. The brown soil under his feet was soft and thick. Some tender seedlings had broken through the ground, and there was a faint fragrance in the air.
Many people can't imagine that the land full of vitality in front of them was once a land of rocky desertification.
Ren Wenlin said that in the past, this piece of cultivated land was fragmented, with shallow cultivated layers and low organic matter content.
Yanshan County is one of the counties with the most severe rocky desertification in Yunnan Province, with serious soil erosion and rocky desertification area of 857 square kilometers, accounting for nearly 1/4 of the county's area.
The pressure on agricultural resources and the environment continues to increase, not just in Yanshan County.
After long-term development, the development and utilization of cultivated land in our country is too intensive, and some places are seriously overdrawn. Soil erosion, overexploitation of groundwater, soil degradation, and aggravation of non-point source pollution have become prominent contradictions restricting the sustainable development of agriculture.
Since 2016, my country has explored and implemented a pilot system of crop rotation and fallow in some areas.
In February 2018, the former Ministry of Agriculture held a press conference on the pilot project of the cultivated land rotation and fallow system. The person in charge of the planting industry management department introduced at the meeting: "The crop rotation mainly implements the rotation of corn and soybeans, and exerts the role of soybean root nodules in nitrogen fixation and soil cultivation. , to realize the combination of planting and raising land, and sustainable agricultural development. Fallow is to reduce the use of cultivated land water resources, so that the cultivated land can be recuperated, and at the same time be treated to ensure that the cultivated land can be used when it is urgently needed, and the grain can be produced.”
In September 2016, Yanshan County was designated by Yunnan Province as a pilot county for arable land fallow, with the first batch of 10,000 mu of fallow.
"Green manure crops such as sweet potato are planted in the fallow land, without watering, fertilizing, or spraying pesticides. When they grow up, they will be plowed directly into the field to improve the soil structure." said Shen Dechao, director of the Soil and Fertilizer Workstation of Yanshan County.
On the land of Ma'anshan Village, the villagers used to grow one season of corn, one season of miscellaneous grains or vegetables every year.
With the advancement of the rocky desertification ecological restoration project, starting from 2021, Yunnan 23rd Plateau Characteristic Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. has transferred 10,000 mu of land in Ma'anshan Village, implemented winter fallow, and only planted rice for one season. The current yield per mu has reached 600 kg above.
"Although one season's harvest has been reduced after the fallow, the investment in management and maintenance has decreased accordingly, and the net income has not changed much. The key is that the soil is becoming more and more fertile." Ren Wenlin said, "If you want the land to support people, you must first raise the land. The cultivated land takes a rest, and the overdrawn soil takes a breath."
Practicing the concept of green development, upgrading the traditional farming mode, implementing the crop rotation and fallow system, and promoting the transformation of production-increasing orientation to quality-enhancing orientation, forming a planting method that combines cultivated land use with nutrition.
"In the past, everyone didn't recognize the replacement of crops, but only believed that the selling price of soybeans was high." Wang Yanju, director of the Sisifang Agricultural Products Planting Professional Cooperative in Hailun City, Heilongjiang Province, said that soybeans in Helen are expensive, and farmers chase after the price, planting soybeans crop by crop , The long-term monoculture leads to more and more chemical fertilizers, the poorer the soil, and the more frequent diseases, "The black soil has become a 'three-run field' that runs away from water, soil and fertilizer."
In 2017, part of the cultivated land in Zhongfu Village where Wang Yanju lives was included in the crop rotation pilot.
What are the benefits of crop rotation?
In the autumn of that year, under the organization of the Agricultural Technology Promotion Center of Hailun City, Wang Yanju visited the agricultural demonstration park in the city.
Wang Yanju pushed aside the black soil and looked up and down, only to see that the soybean root system in the crop replacement area was more developed and the seeds were fuller.
Listening to the expert's technical explanation, he decided to take out 800 mu of land and try to rotate corn in the coming year.
One year of corn, one year of soybeans, and two years later, seeing the gratifying growth of soybeans in Wang Yanju's field after changing stubble, many villagers came to "learn."
"In the past five years of crop rotation, the yield per mu of soybeans and corn has increased by 20%, but the use of chemical fertilizers has decreased by 20%. The common soybean sclerotinia and purple spot diseases in the past have also decreased." Pressing the calculator, I opened the agricultural situation File, Wang Yanju couldn't hide her joy.
In 2022, the crop rotation area of Zhongfu Village will reach 2,400 mu, a year-on-year increase of 20%, and the total grain output will increase by 24% year-on-year.
"Through comprehensive measures such as crop rotation fallow, straw returning, deep plowing and deep loosening, the average thickness of the cultivated land in the province's crop rotation fallow pilot areas has increased by 22.8%, reaching 28.4 cm. Such soil can better preserve moisture and fertilizer." Heilongjiang Province Guo Jiayong, deputy director of the planting management department of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said.
In April 2021, the Online Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was held. Tang Renjian, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, was invited to give a video speech for the opening ceremony, saying that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the protection of soil biodiversity. A series of powerful measures to focus on improving soil quality and vitality.
A total of more than 100 million mu of fallow rotations have been implemented to allow the soil to rest.
How to implement crop rotation and fallow?
Fully consider factors such as balanced supply of major agricultural products, inventory status, structural adjustment, etc., and rationally determine key varieties for crop rotation, replanting and fallow
The wind is cold and the fields are covered with snow. In winter, the crop rotation demonstration area in District 4 of the Rongjun Farm of the 93rd Branch of Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group Co., Ltd., Heilongjiang Province is covered with snow.
A few months ago, this land was full of yellow ears of wheat, emerald green corn, red sorghum, purple bean curd...
"Concentrated and contiguous advancement, divisional and classified policies, we have explored a diversified crop rotation model according to local conditions to ensure a balanced increase in crop production and efficiency." Zhai Jie, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Rongjun Farm Co., Ltd., introduced that in 2022, the four districts of the farm will demonstrate crop rotation The region's total grain output increased by 35.7% year-on-year.
"Considering market supply and demand, etc., the planting area of each rotation crop on the farm changes every year." Zhai Jie said, "In response to the implementation of the national soybean and oil production capacity improvement project, this year the farm plans to plant 137,000 mu of soybeans, accounting for 100,000 acres of farmland. At the same time, in order to adapt to the expansion of demand from downstream manufacturers, it is planned to plant 15,000 mu of sorghum this year, a year-on-year increase of 25%.
According to Zhang Honglei, general manager of the 93rd branch of Beidahuang Land Reclamation Group Co., Ltd., according to regional advantages and crop layout, Beidahuang Group mainly uses corn and soybean rotations, supplemented by rotations of miscellaneous grains, miscellaneous beans, forage grass, and oil crops. Up to 80% or more.
How to determine the rotation crops for each year?
Each farm not only formulates tasks in response to government guidance and market needs, but also scientifically decomposes and adjusts tasks based on the agricultural files of each plot.
"We fully consider the planting history of the plots, and try our best to implement inter-family and genus rotations of legumes, corn, sorghum and other gramineous crops." Zhang Honglei said.
Open the No. 1-4-2 field files stored on the computer of the Jiusan Branch Heshan Farm, and every agricultural activity in this field from spring sowing, summer management to autumn harvest in recent years is clear at a glance.
"What was planted in which year, what pesticide was sprayed when, and the deep plowing or harrowing were all recorded in the book." He Yulong, a grower in the first management area of Heshan Farm, introduced that what is suitable for planting on this land in the coming year, these records It is all based on scientific evidence, "For example, some fertilizers used in the previous corn field are beneficial to the soybean production in the next year, so we will tend to rotate soybeans in this field."
Promote the "third and third crop rotations" of corn-potato-soybean, and the "second-second crop rotation" of corn-soybean, sorghum-soybean, and potato-soybean..."In recent years, we have continued to optimize the planting structure and initially established a The reasonable crop rotation system not only protects the black soil, but also improves the production capacity and quality of agricultural products." Zhang Honglei said.
"In view of the large shortage of soybeans and oil crops in China, the focus is on the rotation of corn, soybeans, and oil crops in the Northeast and Huanghuaihai regions. In recent years, the soybean area has increased by more than 30 million mu and the peanut area has increased by more than 3 million mu." 2021 In July 2010, the Planting Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released a piece of information on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, showing that Heilongjiang has formed a "one crop rotation system" in which the rotation of corn and soybeans is the main rotation, supplemented by rotations of miscellaneous grains and potatoes, etc. The crop rotation mode of main and multi-auxiliary has been accepted by the majority of farmers.
The excess should be reduced, the shortage should be replenished, and the superior one should be increased. Each pilot area fully considers factors such as balanced supply of major agricultural products, inventory status, structural adjustment, etc., and reasonably determines the key varieties of crops for crop rotation and fallow.
Stepping into the green rapeseed planting base in Xiaba Village, Dongba Street, Gaochun District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, the rapeseed has strong green stems and gratifying growth.
Wei Qing, head of Hetian Koshihikari Agricultural Planting Professional Cooperative, squatted in the ground, opened a rapeseed with both hands, pinched off the vegetable sprouts, and handed a piece to the reporter. The taste is better." Wei Qing said that during the Spring Festival this year, the price of rape sprouts was 10 yuan per catty, and the average net income per mu reached more than 1,250 yuan.
Wei Qing told reporters that the land under his feet used to be planted with one season of rice and one season of wheat each year. The two grass crops were planted together, and the soil fertility burden was heavy. Every mu of rice had to be fertilized with 100 jin of fertilizer; The yield is low, and it is easy to encounter high temperature and rainfall during the harvest period, which induces scab and affects the quality.
In 2016, Jiangsu launched a pilot project of the provincial-level crop rotation and fallow system. In areas with low crop production efficiency and obvious ecological degradation in autumn and winter, methods such as crop rotation, winter plowing and sun-drying, and fallow and fertilization were implemented.
In the same year, Wei Qing changed all the 290 mu of land he transferred to planting rice in one season and green manure in the other, and received a subsidy of 200 yuan per mu.
In 2018, Jiangsu Province was identified as a pilot province for the national cultivated land rotation and fallow system. Nanjing City further optimized the crop rotation mode, changing the rice-fertilizer rotation to rice-oil rotation, and shifting from mainly growing land to combining land-raising: rape leaves and flowers can fertilize the field , rapeseed can be pressed for oil.
In 2020, Wei Qing planted dual-purpose oilseed rape under the guidance of the agricultural technology department.
"The amount of fertilization has been reduced, and the quality of rice has improved." Wei Qing introduced that the protein content of rice is more suitable between 8% and 10%, and the higher the content, the worse the taste. The average amount of fertilizer applied has dropped from 100 catties in the past to the current 60 catties, the protein content per 100 grams of rice has dropped from 11 grams to about 8.2 grams, and the price of rice has risen from 3.5 yuan per catty to more than 8 yuan. The net income per mu is nearly 3,000 yuan."
Taking the rice oil tanker as an opportunity, Nanjing continues to expand the planting area of winter rapeseed, which will reach about 300,000 mu in 2020, achieving the first restorative growth of winter rapeseed planting area in 10 years.
Since 2016, financial funds at all levels in Nanjing have invested nearly 300 million yuan to complete the fallow area of more than 1.37 million mu of cultivated land, and the organic matter content of cultivated land in the implementation area has increased by about 1% on average.
"Rice-oil rotation is the main mode of Jiangsu's pilot crop rotation system. In autumn sowing in 2022, Jiangsu will continue to focus on rice-oil rotation, helping rapeseed recover to more than 3 million mu." Guan Yongxiang, director of the Jiangsu Provincial Agricultural Technology Extension Station, introduced, " In addition, according to local conditions, Jiangsu has explored a variety of crop rotation models in combination with the improvement of cultivated land quality, agricultural ecological environment protection, optimization and adjustment of planting structure, and the development of high-quality rice industry."
In February 2018, the former Ministry of Agriculture held a press conference on the pilot project of the crop rotation and fallow system. The relevant person in charge introduced at the meeting that the technical model of the crop rotation and fallow pilot project is mature and applicable, and the ecological effect has initially appeared, which is mainly reflected in two aspects: One is the coordination of production and ecology.
The "three-three crop rotation" model has been established in cool and cool areas, the "damage control and soil cultivation" model has been established in heavy metal polluted areas and areas with serious ecological degradation, and the "one-season rain-fed and one-season fallow" model has been established in groundwater funnel areas; The area is consistent with the suitable species.
Choose legumes, solanaceae, grasses and other crops with complementary nutrient utilization and different occurrence patterns of diseases and insect pests to improve the efficiency of light, temperature and water use and reduce the loss of diseases and insect pests.
After soybean rotation in the mountainous areas of eastern Jilin, the use of chemical fertilizers has been reduced by more than 30%, and the use of pesticides has been reduced by about 50%.
How to protect farmers' income?
Implement a subsidy distribution system that guarantees the basics and pays attention to actual results, and the subsidy funds from the central government are implemented in counties and townships and cashed out to farmers
"Planting one less crop of wheat every year will increase the income by 200 yuan per mu." Ye Guangkuan, a villager in Lijiakou Village, Liujie Township, Yongqing County, Hebei Province, counted with his fingers.
Before the pilot seasonal fallow, wheat and corn were planted in rotation, and the annual average net income per mu was about 400 yuan; The average net income per mu is about 600 yuan.
"Now everyone thinks that the fallow policy is good from the bottom of their hearts, unlike a few years ago when they were a little hesitant when it was first piloted and promoted." Ye Guangkuan said with a smile. The older generation has the concept of "people are lazy". If the grass is planted, it will be laughed at by the neighbors. Therefore, when the village cadres came to mobilize the seasonal fallow pilot project, many villagers were surprised and murmured in their hearts. ...
The words in the "Pilot Plan for Exploring and Implementing the Crop Rotation and Fallow System of Cultivated Land" gave the cadres and masses of Lijiakou Village "reassurance": "Our country has diverse ecological types and large regional differences, and the situation of crop rotation and fallow is complicated. We must fully respect the wishes of farmers and give full play to their subjective ideas. Initiative, do not engage in coercive orders, do not engage in 'one size fits all'. Encourage townships and villages as units, concentrate and advance to ensure effective and sustainable."
Households ran from house to house, looking at each piece of land. Village cadres from Lijiakou village came to talk about policies and do work. They calculated both income accounts and ecological accounts: Hebei is located in the largest groundwater funnel area in the country, and the per capita water resources are far lower than National average, winter wheat cultivation needs groundwater pumping for irrigation.
Changing wheat and corn from twice a year to early-sowed corn once a year, realizing one season (wheat) fallow and one season (corn) planting, can reduce water consumption by 150 cubic meters per mu.
"Land is the fundamental guarantee for the survival of farmers. To make farmers willing to carry out crop rotation and fallow, it is necessary to ensure that their income will not decrease." In June 2016, the comrades in charge of the former Ministry of Agriculture interpreted the "Pilot Plan for Exploring and Implementing the Crop Rotation and Fallow System" Shi introduced that the central finance will allocate the subsidy funds to the provinces, and the provinces will make overall arrangements according to the pilot tasks, and adopt the method of directly distributing cash or in-kind subsidies based on local conditions, and implement them to counties and townships, and cash them out to farmers.
According to the subsidy standards determined in the "Pilot Plan for Exploring and Implementing the Crop Rotation and Fallow System", the pilot crop rotation subsidy is 150 yuan per mu per year, the seasonal fallow pilot in the groundwater funnel area of Hebei is subsidized 500 yuan per mu per year, and the two-season crop areas in Guizhou and Yunnan are fallow all year round The pilot subsidy is 1,000 yuan per mu per year... In order to ensure that farmers who participate in the pilot of the crop rotation and fallow system do not suffer losses and are motivated, the Ministry of Finance continues to improve the crop rotation and fallow subsidy policy during implementation.
Ye Guangkuan, the chairman of the Kuanle Planting and Breeding Farmers Professional Cooperative, was moved to settle the income account and ecological account of the fallow farming. From the winter of 2019, he began to implement seasonal fallow farming on the land transferred by the cooperative.
"Seasonal fallow land is rotated every three years. From 2019 to 2021, our cooperative will transfer more than 9,000 acres of cultivated land, of which more than 6,000 acres will be seasonally fallow." Ye Guangkuan said that in the winter of 2022, the cooperative will have 1,000 acres of cultivated land implemented Seasonal fallow, contiguously distributed around Lijiakou Village.
Walking into the village compound of Lijiakou Village, there is a seasonal fallow notice board posted on the bulletin board, and the fallow area and subsidy amount of each household are clear at a glance.
"The subsidy is paid directly to households, and the villagers can rest assured that they will not suffer losses." Yue Yunbo, director of the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Yongqing County, said that the funds required for the fallow subsidy are combined with the central financial subsidy funds for comprehensive management of groundwater overexploitation.
Follow the procedure of subsidy after implementation, and cash out after publicity. After passing the acceptance check, cash out to the cooperatives or farmers who implement seasonal fallow through "one discount" or "all-in-one card".
"Pilot counties should establish a crop rotation and fallow supervision mechanism with county overall planning, township supervision, and village implementation." "Establish an evaluation standard and system for the effect of farmers' implementation of crop rotation and fallow, and use the evaluation results as an important basis to implement a basic and effective subsidy distribution system." ...Yue Yunbo is familiar with the requirements put forward in the "Pilot Plan for Exploring the Implementation of Crop Rotation and Fallow System".
He introduced: "Yongqing County focuses on strengthening and improving publicity and other systems to ensure the accurate distribution of fallow subsidy funds and maximize the incentive effect of funds."
According to the information published on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, since the pilot implementation of the crop rotation and fallow system for more than six years, the central government has continued to increase support, and the implementation scale of crop rotation and fallow has increased year by year.
The implementation area will increase from 6.16 million mu in 2016 to 69.26 million mu in 2022, the subsidy funds will increase from 1.436 billion yuan to 11.145 billion yuan, and the number of implementation provinces will increase from 9 to 24.
With the in-depth implementation of the crop rotation and fallow system, it will effectively promote the high-quality development of my country's grain production.
Reporter Yang Wenming Yao Xueqing Shao Yuzi Zhang Yikai