At the beginning of the new year, it is time for farmers to figure out what to plant and how much to plant. The pace of agricultural transformation and structural adjustment in China has been accelerated this year, and the adjustment of planting structure will inevitably affect farmers' planting plans. coupled with the wide variety of crops on the market, farmers will face more choices. What kind of varieties can meet the requirements of farmers? At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the reporter visited many large growers and listened to them talk about their expectations for breeders, their expectations for variety characteristics, and their desire for good varieties.
Editor's note:
At the beginning of the new year, it is time for farmers to figure out what to plant and how much to plant. The pace of agricultural transformation and structural adjustment in China has been accelerated this year, and the adjustment of planting structure will inevitably affect farmers' planting plans. coupled with the wide variety of crops on the market, farmers will face more choices. What kind of varieties can meet the requirements of farmers? At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the reporter visited many large growers and listened to them talk about their expectations for breeders, their expectations for variety characteristics, and their desire for good varieties.
Rice: good management and good harvest is good for the "appetite" of large families.
At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the Qianfeng Land Co-operative in Alnquan Town, Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, is about to hold its annual membership meeting. Wei Tao, the agricultural professional manager of the cooperative, is busy preparing a "work report" and begins to plan next year's production plan.
Wei Tao already has a mind on the arrangement of the variety structure of this year's spring rice. In the spring of 2015, under the strong recommendation of Wei Tao, the cooperative not only continued to plant "Fyou 498" in more than 700 mu of rice fields, but also experimented with two new high-quality rice varieties, "Huaxiang 7" and "Y2you 973". After a "wrestling contest", the performance of the variety characters has been known, and Wei Tao has a favorite object in mind, and what he needs to do now is to present the facts at the members' meeting and convince the members' representatives.
What kind of rice seeds can meet the tastes of big growers? Wei Tao believes that for farmers on a scale of hundreds of mu, stable yield is more important than high yield. He calculated an account for the reporter: the seed cost per mu of planting high-quality rice is about 80,100 yuan higher than that of ordinary hybrid rice, but judging from this year's sales, the price of high-quality rice is 1% higher than that of ordinary rice. Calculated on the basis of a yield of 1000 jin per mu, the input-output ratio is still very cost-effective. "therefore, compared with the high yield index, the disease resistance and adaptability of varieties deserve more attention." Wei Tao said.
Wei Tao's view was agreed by Yang Bo, a big grain grower in Xinjin County. In the spring of 2015, after small-scale trial planting in the first year, Yang Bo planted the transferred more than 700mu of land on the high-quality rice variety "Yixiang 2115". "Disease resistance and adaptability are good, and field management is relatively simple, which saves a lot of labor costs." Yang Bo told reporters that although the price of seeds is much higher than that of ordinary rice seeds, the price per jin is still 10 cents higher than that of ordinary rice in the face of a considerable depression in grain prices this year, and the overall accounting is still good.
In addition to disease resistance and adaptability, suitable mechanized operation is becoming another core index for seed selection of large grain growers. In recent years, the doubling of the number of agricultural machinery has brought Chengdu Plain into the era of mechanized planting. In 2014, the area of rice and wheat harvested by machinery in the city reached 99%, and even the transplanting of rice seedlings, where the degree of mechanization was relatively slow, increased by 97% compared with the same period last year. "the main reason is that the cost of manpower in rural areas is getting higher and higher." Wei Tao said that in order to reduce manpower investment, cooperatives have already achieved full mechanization from transplanting to harvesting.
Yao Guanggui, chief agronomist of Chengdu Committee of Agriculture, said that with the continuous expansion of the proportion of large-scale planting, the demand of the seed market is changing, and more and more attention has been paid to such indicators as adaptability, disease resistance and lodging resistance. Statistics show that in 2014, the moderate scale operating area of grain in Chengdu increased to nearly 400000 mu, an increase of more than 80 percent over the same period last year.
So, has the market kept up with this change? Seed companies were very active. Just after the big spring, some seed companies contacted Wei Tao in the hope that he could try out the new varieties cultivated by the company next year. In the face of all kinds of door-to-door sales of rice varieties, Wei Tao felt a little dazzled and had no choice. He hopes that the relevant local departments and trade associations will organize themselves to do some authoritative evaluation of the local performance of some new varieties, so as to provide guidance for the selection of large varieties.
Wheat: looking forward to a new variety of frost-resistant, drought-resistant and pest-resistant wheat
"the corn market is not good, and the key to next year depends on the wheat." On the afternoon of December 28, 2015, Wang Huiyi, a family farmer in Matun Village, Tancheng Street, in Tancheng County, Shandong Province, known as the "Lunan Granary", said, "fortunately, we have bred improved varieties for seed companies in recent years. These varieties are freeze-resistant and drought-resistant. Generally, the yield is more than 1100 jin, and when it is good, it reaches 1300 jin."
Wang Jun, who is also from Matun Village, summed it up succinctly: "improved varieties plus deep ploughing and deep pine, coupled with one spray and three precautions, can basically guarantee a yield of more than a thousand jin per mu."
According to a person from the Tancheng County Bureau of Agriculture, the perennial grain growing area of the county is 700000 mu, and the supply rate of improved wheat varieties has reached 100% in recent years. Jimai 22, Luyuan 502, Simai 98 and other improved varieties have become more and more prominent in achieving year-on-year production.
In the past two years, every Lesser Fullness of Grain season, Tancheng will organize food and agriculture to carry out the selection of improved wheat varieties. Each village selects one or two trusted "soil experts", "Tian Xiucai" and "planting experts" to participate in the whole selection process, on-site visits, on-site comparisons, on-site scores, and on-site evaluations. select good wheat varieties with good quality, high yield and more tillers. According to the results of the selection, the county agricultural bureau will determine the main varieties to be promoted in the coming year.
"this is a good method. After it is elected, it will be uniformly supplied by the government, and everyone will be relieved to buy it." Wang Huiyi said.
Du Qile said: "We have planted more than 800 mu and have a large planting area. We can sign a breeding agreement with the seed company, and they will raise the price by 10 cents. This is the best way to do so."
It seems that the importance of improved wheat varieties has been widely recognized by farmers in Tancheng. So, what are the expectations for the future wheat seed market?
After careful consideration, du Qile first spoke: "there are three fears of growing wheat: first, they are afraid of freezing in winter, second, they are afraid of drought in spring, and third, they are afraid of being plagued by insect pests in the later stage. Therefore, I hope that the anti-freezing, drought and pest resistance of improved wheat varieties will become better and better, and hope that better new varieties can appear on the market. "
"Yes, let's start with frost damage, the climate is changeable, and we are frightened in winter and at the beginning of spring. For example, in the warm winter of the past few years, the wheat seedlings turn green early, and it is really troublesome to encounter a big late spring cold. " Wang Jun said.
Wang Huiyi said that the watering conditions of his wheat fields are not good, there are stones more than one meter underground, and there is no water from drilling wells, so he can only rely on digging large wells to store water. There has been a severe drought in Shandong in the past two years, and the big mouth well does not work at a critical time, and it depends on the drought resistance of the selected wheat varieties.
Speaking of diseases and insect pests, the three farmers spoke of scab in unison. "other diseases and insect pests are easy to prevent, and it is this scab that is the greatest harm to growing wheat now." Wang Huiyi said.
In Tancheng, scab damage has occurred from time to time in recent years, with production reduced by 5% to 10% in general years and 20% in severe cases. Wang Jun said: "although we spray at the heading stage, it is still difficult to prevent it. Once we get it, there is no way. It affects not only the output but also the quality. If there is a serious plot of wheat, it is not easy to sell."
"this is the 'cancer' of wheat, which is difficult to prevent and cure. Therefore, I most hope that the varieties resistant to scab will come out as soon as possible, so that we will not be frightened any more. " Du Qile said.
The reporter learned in the interview that due to the unified supply of seeds by the government, farmers in Tancheng do not have to worry about buying fake wheat seeds, and the seed market is also very standardized. When the two food and farmers inquired about the planting benefits of characteristic varieties such as high-gluten wheat and rye wheat, a person from the county agricultural bureau replied that the key to planting characteristic varieties is to find a market first in order to ensure an increase in income. If they do not have the processing capacity, there is no advance docking processing enterprises or professional market to expand the species blindly, there will be a greater risk.
Cash crops: longing for resistant seeds with old flavor
"what we lack is the science and technology of rational deployment of intercropping and interplanting and the combination of planting and breeding, rather than a" good prescription "for widely treating diseases and insect pests with pesticides; what we lack is seeds that are resistant to drought and disease, not seeds that have changed their taste and yield. So I hope that in 2015, someone will pay attention to our demand and develop old seeds with strong resistance. " Zheng Weizhi speaks freely.
Zheng Weizhi is a new farmer with city life experience and e-commerce experience. At the end of 2014, he returned to his hometown of Xiangning County in Shanxi Province to engage in ecological agriculture, which began to be named Luya Ecological Agriculture, and later changed to his hometown vegetable garden.
"when the rational and healthy concept of eating begins to return, people no longer eat for the sake of eating, no longer ignore the additives and pesticides and fertilizers in the food for the sake of appearance, but they pursue a natural and healthy diet and miss the taste of childhood. However, such food is not easy to find in the city's shopping malls. In the face of worrying social problems, the customer orientation of the small vegetable garden in our hometown is urban residents who pay attention to health, so we chose to use e-commerce to sell characteristic agricultural products in the mountains of Luya to the dining tables of consumers in first-tier cities. "
"when the rational and healthy concept of eating begins to return, people no longer eat for the sake of eating, no longer ignore the additives and pesticides and fertilizers in the food for the sake of appearance, but they pursue a natural and healthy diet and miss the taste of childhood. However, such food is not easy to find in the city's shopping malls. In the face of worrying social problems, the customer orientation of the small vegetable garden in our hometown is urban residents who pay attention to health, so we chose to use e-commerce to sell characteristic agricultural products in the mountains of Luya to the dining tables of consumers in first-tier cities. "
Zheng Weizhi's ecological agriculture is very fine. They chose crops that grow naturally with the season, such as walnuts, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, potatoes, gourds, cucumbers and all kinds of beans. Among them, there are not only new varieties on the market, but also old varieties that farmers have been growing over the years.
"there are obvious differences between the new and old varieties sown together. The new varieties grow obviously during the dry period of Luya in spring, while the old varieties are not so good. After summer, the new varieties are the first to mature, while the old varieties are always more than 20 days late. The most representative is beans, where new varieties can be picked in late June, while old varieties can not be eaten until late July. But when the new variety is put into the pot, it doesn't have the sweet-smelling bean flavor of the old variety. " Zheng Weizhi said.
"there are more differences between new and old varieties of tomatoes. The new varieties are drought-resistant and insect-resistant, but the fruit is more fleshy and less juicy, so it is obviously not as sour and sweet as the old varieties. The fruit of the old variety is smaller during drought, is easy to rot when Rain Water is sufficient, and has almost no harvest when it is serious. "
"after improvement, the twisted gourd has become a small golden gourd and a twisted towel gourd. The previous varieties are almost extinct. The small golden melon has a lot of moisture and has an unspeakable medicinal flavor, and the twisted gourd has become so that all the flesh of the melon is shredded and can not find any melons. The old variety grows very well in the seedling stage, blossoms a lot, but the fruit is less, after the fruit, it is easy to break down from the fruit, so it has been abandoned by the common people. After the old variety of gourd produced by Zheng Weizhi was sold to the Guangzhou market, some consumers used it to steam rice, which tasted particularly good. Unfortunately, he contacted many scientific research departments and seed companies, and no one was interested in this conventional variety.
"homogenized varieties have caused many farmers to increase production without increasing income, and even seriously unmarketable agricultural products. What we lack is pure and authentic original ecological food, and we take advantage of our unique geographical conditions to take the road of scarcity and unique traditional taste, but we lack the technical personnel to cultivate such varieties. At present, we can only raise the selling price to sell such agricultural products as luxury goods to the dining table of urban high-income people. In 2016, I hope this is no longer a bottleneck, but a ladder. " Zheng Weizhi said.
Source: farmers' Daily