China News Service, Tongliao, October 11th. Question: New test questions in the Golden Corn Belt: After the "tons of grain fields", how to turn a bumper yield into a bumper harvest?
China News Service reporter Liu Wenhua
The "cold dew" has arrived. In Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, which is located in the world's "Golden Corn Belt" at 43 degrees north latitude, harvesters are driving into contiguous corn fields.
Tongliao is one of the four prefecture-level cities in the country that produces more than 20 billion kilograms of grain. In 2025, the average yield per mu of the local 2.08 million mu demonstration area will reach 1,018.25 kilograms, making it the first major grain-producing area in the country to implement a comprehensive "ton of grain field" system on a scale of 2 million mu. This year, this model has to pass two hurdles: the severe drought in midsummer, and the test of increasing income after the bumper harvest.
Maintaining the bottom line of tons of grain during drought
"There has been no effective rainfall for 40 consecutive days in the dog days, and the electromechanical wells have not been idle for a day." said Liu Dapeng, a major grain grower in Huatugula Town, Horqin Zuoyi Zhongqi. He planted more than 4,800 acres of corn, and also led eight surrounding cooperatives to cultivate more than 42,000 acres.
The drought has pushed up electricity and labor costs for pumping water, but the bottom line for production has been maintained. Liu Dapeng introduced that the yield per mu of cooperatives ranges from 1,900 jins to 2,200 jins. "Tons of grain are the bottom line. Although there is a drought this year, there is sufficient sunlight and accumulated temperature, and water and fertilizer control can keep up."
Stabilizing the harvest in the year of severe drought relies on the integration of science and technology promoted by the integrated system. Yin Fengzhen, a fourth-level researcher at the Tongliao Municipal Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau and chief of the Planting Management Section, said that in response to the bottleneck of low spring corn planting density in the north, Tongliao cooperated with the expert team of Li Shaokun from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to promote the precise control and high-yield technology of dense corn planting. This year, the promotion area reached 13.54 million acres. The local area has scientifically increased density through the "wide and narrow rows of 80+40 cm" configuration. The number of seedlings per mu has been stabilized at 5,000 to 6,000, and the average number of ears harvested per mu has increased from the conventional 4,000 ears to about 5,000.
Wang Jing, deputy director of the Tongliao Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Development Center, said that increasing spring corn production in the north relies on improved varieties, good methods, good opportunities, and complete planting. Relying on the integration of drip irrigation with water and fertilizer, the local water use efficiency has increased by 25 to 30 percentage points, and the fertilizer utilization rate has increased by 10 to 15 percentage points. The average yield per mu has increased by more than 100 pounds, effectively reducing water and fertilizer costs in drought years. The city's comprehensive mechanization rate for the cultivation and harvesting of major crops reached 91.8%.
Market test after bumper harvest
Liu Dapeng did some calculations: This year, land rent has increased from about 800 yuan per mu to more than 900 yuan. Adding in labor and electricity costs for drought relief, the cost has increased significantly. At the beginning of the scale opening, the price of corn fell. The listed dry grain price of local large-scale deep processing enterprises was about 2,100 yuan per ton based on 14% moisture content, which was lower than the same period last year. Some small grain depots also suppress water content and collect grain at a discount when purchasing.
The more prominent contradiction lies in the postpartum period. The temperature in the early stage of autumn harvest this year is warm, and the moisture content of some late-maturing varieties is relatively high. If the wet corn that is directly harvested cannot be dried in time, it will easily become hot and moldy. "We don't have drying towers and warehousing, so wet grains can only be sold as soon as possible, and we are very passive in terms of price and moisture. Once the price goes down, farmers may increase production without increasing income."
Various efforts are being made to crack down on “postpartum confinement”
In response to the above test, Tongliao City came up with its own plan.
Wang Zonghua, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Tongliao Municipal Grain and Material Reserve Bureau, introduced that Tongliao is changing the way of grain collection and storage, promoting the "five generations" service of agent cleaning, agent drying, agent storage, agent processing, and agent sales, as well as the direct corn grain harvesting model, and continuing to rectify "grain lying on the ground." At present, there are more than 350 grain enterprises in normal operation in the city, with a daily drying capacity of more than 130,000 tons. 116 grain post-production service centers have been built to solve the problem of quality decline and passive price discount caused by mildew.
In terms of disaster reduction, Tongliao has established a collaborative linkage mechanism between agriculture and animal husbandry, finance, meteorology, finance, insurance and other departments to connect the entire chain from meteorological early warning, disaster investigation and damage assessment to insurance claims settlement, so as to reduce the losses of grain growing entities due to disasters.
Big players are also taking the initiative to break the situation. Liu Dapeng is discussing with surrounding cooperatives to jointly form an agricultural service center or cooperative to strive for post-production drying and warehousing projects; he also plans to try to use corn futures for hedging in the next production season. “We don’t seek to sell to the highest price, we just seek to lock in a reasonable profit range.”
