Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that the national soybean output this year was 40.57 billion Jin (20.285 million tons), an increase of 7.78 billion Jin (3.89 million tons) over the previous year and a year-on-year increase of 23.7%. In addition to the increase in total soybean output, soybean planting area and yield per mu also increased more. Among them, the national soybean planting area this year was 154 million mu, an increase of 27.425 million mu or 21.7% over the previous year; The yield of soybean was 132kg/mu, with an increase of 2.1kg/mu or 1.6% over the previous year. Soybean has achieved a substantial increase in total output, total sown area and yield per mu.
This year’s grain production has really adjusted the planting structure and expanded soybeans and oilseeds. The state has implemented the project of improving soybean and oilseed production capacity, focusing on promoting rotation to expand beans in Northeast China, and focusing on promoting soybean and corn strip compound planting to expand beans in Huang-Huai-Hai, Northwest China and Southwest China. At the same time, oil production has developed steadily this year, with the area of rapeseed reaching 110 million mu, and oil crops such as peanuts and oil sunflower have remained stable. The expansion of soybean oil has made a good start, thanks to the powerful measures of agricultural and rural departments at all levels, a series of policies to protect farmers, and the service and guidance of many agricultural experts all over the country. The whole country has played chess and made concerted efforts to expand soybean oil, which has achieved tangible results.
Break through the barrier, seize the pass, stabilize grain and expand beans to see results
Committed to reducing external dependence, this year launched a tough battle to improve soybean production capacity. Among them, soybean and corn strip compound planting is the most important technical measure promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in expanding soybean oil production, which has been demonstrated and popularized in 16 provinces for more than 15 million mu.
Corn with soybeans, ten years without leakage. In recent years, the experimental demonstration and popularization of soybean and corn strip compound planting in Sichuan, Shandong, Hebei and other places have proved that the corn yield can be basically unchanged and the soybean yield can be increased in one season. Despite the previous promotion experience, the first year of large-scale promotion inevitably encountered many obstacles.
Tang Song, director of the Economic Work Department of the National Agricultural Technology Center, said that soybeans and corn belong to different families and different genera, with different habits and growth modes, different plant heights, and different technical requirements for weeding, chemical control and pest control.
This year, many difficulties have been encountered in variety selection, mechanical sowing, field management, mechanical harvesting and extreme weather.
"This year’s soybean and corn intercropping has overcome many difficulties." Wen Chunshuang, a researcher of agricultural technology extension in Nanhe District Agricultural and Rural Bureau of Xingtai City, Hebei Province, said with emotion. In June, the high temperature in Nanhe District persisted for a long time, resulting in douban-like deformation of some soybeans, which hindered the emergence of seedlings. Nanhe District actively guides farmers to water and help soybean seedlings to be unearthed, and contacts the meteorological department to carry out artificial rainfall twice to alleviate the drought and reduce losses as much as possible.
In the end, both corn and soybeans have a good harvest: compared with the original net cropping, the planting loss is basically the same, and with the government’s subsidy of 200 yuan per mu, the per mu benefit of growers can reach 600 yuan, basically achieving the goal of "harvesting more beans in one season without reducing corn production".
In the face of layers of tests, the agricultural and rural departments actively responded and planned early and deployed early. At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued soybean expansion targets to all provinces, and decomposed the tasks of rape and strip compound planting into provinces, counties, towns and main bodies. After "beginning of spring", meetings on agricultural production and soybean oil expansion in spring were held successively to promote the implementation of the task of expanding seeds.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has also established a joint meeting mechanism for soybean oil seed expansion, formulated and issued an action plan and guidance for soybean oil seed expansion in 2022, and implemented wall chart operations and oil expansion according to the map. In the key agricultural season, a working group will be sent to carry out supervision and guidance, and a special class and hotline will be set up to actively coordinate and solve the gap in agricultural materials, so as to ensure timely delivery to households and meet the needs of expanding seeds.
All localities also regard the expansion of soybean oil as an important task in the work of agriculture, countryside and farmers. Heilongjiang adheres to the responsibility of the party and the government, sets up a special work class, and makes every effort to promote soybean planting expansion; Inner Mongolia organized special classes to promote, implemented ledger management, and technical experts followed up the whole process to ensure the completion of the seed expansion task; Liaoning included soybean planting area and yield in the performance evaluation of each city, and issued several notices to deploy seed expansion.
Through various efforts, this year’s soybean-corn strip compound planting has achieved the expected results, and basically achieved the goal of "not reducing corn production and harvesting more beans in one season". According to Yong Taiwen, a post scientist of the national soybean industry technology system and a professor at Sichuan Agricultural University, the effect of increasing beans in the main producing areas of Huang-Huai-Hai this year is obvious. On the basis of ensuring that the corn area is not reduced, the soybean area has increased by nearly 8 million mu, including more than 1.3 million mu in Shandong, Hebei, Henan and Anhui provinces.
Increase support and fully mobilize farmers’ enthusiasm for planting
"To tell you the truth, there were concerns before deciding to engage in soybean and corn strip compound planting, mainly because I was worried that the output would not go up." Feng Guangrong, head of Fengguangrong Planting Family Farm in Anju District, Suining City, Sichuan Province, admitted to the reporter that he was drumming when he first tried compound planting. This year, he planted 1000 mu, which not only stabilized the corn output, but also collected about 300 kilograms of soybeans per mu. Seeing that all the worries about the grain in hand were eliminated, he said that he would continue to expand the planting area next year.
Like Feng Guangrong, many farmers were worried about strip compound planting at first. What everyone is most worried about is the cost and benefit. After all, compared with net planting, compound planting has added many links, and the input costs of labor, pesticides, seeds and machinery have increased to varying degrees.
Farmers’ concerns were quickly resolved. This year, the central government will provide special subsidies for the popularization and application of soybean and corn strip compound planting mode, increase support for agricultural socialization services and subsidies for agricultural machinery purchase, and increase support through green, high-quality and efficient actions to stabilize farmers’ planting income expectations.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, arranged project funds such as incentives for oil-producing counties, farmland rotation and green, high-quality and efficient actions to focus on supporting soybean oil production. At the same time, the implementation of soybean and corn strip compound planting subsidies was initiated, and the central government subsidized 150 yuan per mu, explicitly requiring local governments to support 50 yuan. In addition, pilot projects of soybean full cost and planting income insurance were carried out in some major producing counties, and 9 modern agricultural industrial parks, 10 industrial clusters and 9 strong industrial towns of soybean oil were newly built. Incorporate compound planting machines into the catalogue of subsidies for the purchase and application of agricultural machinery, and subsidize them according to the highest proportion.
In addition to the financial support from the central government, the provinces also provide real money to subsidize farmers. Hunan raised more than 20 million yuan of matching funds at the provincial level, and relevant counties (cities, districts) integrated relevant agricultural funds to improve the subsidy standard for soybean and corn strip compound planting; Dezhou City, Shandong Province raised the soybean planting subsidy to the standard of 300 yuan per mu; On the basis of the central financial subsidy, Jiangsu province subsidizes 170 yuan per mu, which fully guarantees the income of planting subjects. All these have laid a solid foundation for stable and high yield.
"I have planted soybean and corn strip composite planting for 4 years and the effect is very good. This year, the government has increased subsidies, and I am more confident when I watch the policy tilt towards large growers and business entities. " Zhao Guang, a large grain grower of Wangqi Farmers’ Professional Cooperative in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, told the reporter that this year, the supporting agricultural machinery suitable for soybean and corn strip composite planting technology has been increasing, and there is not much concern about planting technology, and the planting scale will continue to expand next year.
Do a good job in service and technical guidance.
"Compared with pure farming, the pests of soybean planted in compound farming are more serious than that of corn. Some corn pests turned to harm soybeans and ran on them. Thanks to the help and guidance of the government, the pests and diseases were finally prevented. " Liu Houzhi, chairman of the Xiangbang Cooperative in Fangsi Town, Yucheng City, Shandong Province, said that in order to solve pests, the local agricultural and rural bureau provided farmers with green prevention and control means such as insect attractants and insecticidal lamps free of charge.
It is understood that Yucheng took the initiative to contact the provincial expert group of the docking department for technical guidance this year. The ministerial-level expert group, together with the provincial-level expert group, participated in the consultation and guidance of the whole process of strip compound planting. According to the actual soybean production in Yucheng City, it worked out a technical plan with the municipal agricultural and rural departments, implemented the work of selecting areas, subjects, modes, varieties, agricultural machinery and pesticides, compiled technical manuals and wall charts, formulated technical opinions, and set up a scientific and technological team to carry out technical guidance and services throughout the process.
Not only Yucheng, but also agricultural technology experts can be seen in the process of soybean oil expansion in various places this year. Beijing set up a two-level linkage soybean production technical service team in the urban area to provide technical support for soybean expansion and production increase; Sichuan relies on the platform of science and technology going to the countryside for thousands of miles and bean innovation team, focusing on key technologies such as sowing and fertilization, prevention and control of diseases, pests and weeds, and carrying out multi-channel and multi-level training; Huachi County, Gansu Province adopts the technical "contracting" mode of contracting rural areas and sending technicians to go deep into the fields to carry out full coverage guidance.
Guidance service is indispensable for high and stable yield. This year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs sent more than 100 government officials and more than 200 scientific and technological personnel to form a roving guidance group and a scientific and technological detachment, and went to the first line of production, to enter the village and guide services. The National Expert Steering Group for Soybean and Oilseed Productivity Improvement Project was established, and online and offline special lectures, technical training and expert Dalian Line were organized, with a total training of more than 4 million people. Drawing more than 400,000 technical wall charts in different regions and modes, recording 15 short technical videos of key links in production and 10 special technical lecture videos. In addition, the National Soybean High-yield Competition was launched to select "Ten Typical High-yield Models" and summarize a batch of replicable and popularized high-yield technical models.
The relevant person in charge of the Planting Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said that it will continue to expand the planting area of soybean oil, provide accurate technical service guidance, ensure the steady improvement of soybean oil production capacity and self-sufficiency rate, and stabilize the "oil bottle" of China people.
