Try to plant "Beijing Maize" on 10 million mu of arable land next year

Corn, with a planting area of 550 million mu, is one of the most important crops in China. All along, corn sowing and harvesting all rely on manual labor, and only American corn varieties can be sown fully mechanized. Next year, China will have 10 million mu of arable land fully mechanized to plant "Beijing corn", which is the first domestic corn variety in China to achieve full mechanization from sowing to harvest.

Yesterday, the reporter learned from the Rural Center of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission that two new maize varieties, Lianchuang 808 and Yufeng 303, cultivated by Beijing Enterprise Lianchuang seed Industry, have passed the national crop variety approval and announced to the public. Two new corn varieties independently developed in Beijing can achieve fully mechanized production. The whole process of mechanized production of corn is to realize mechanization in the whole process of sowing, management, harvest, grain drying and grain circulation.

At present, the sowing and harvest of domestic maize varieties mainly rely on manual labor. Whenever the corn is ripe, it needs to draw out a lot of manpower and material resources to rush for harvest, and then break the stick, transport, air drying, threshing, drying, grain collection, sorting, sale, storage and other links.

"single-grain sowing and direct grain harvest are two major problems in fully mechanized corn production." Wang Yibo, chief scientist of Lianchuang seed industry, said that maize varieties cultivated through hybridization and transgenic have achieved the presentation of corn hard endosperm-starch and other nutrients in corn grains are not easy to be pulverized and are protected by a hard film. In this way, it can effectively prevent the seed from being pollinated and unable to germinate during sowing, and it can also be threshed directly during harvest without having to worry about the crushing of the corn grain.

Artificial sowing of three seeds per pit and mechanical sowing of one seed per pit to ensure sufficient germination rate of the seeds. By sowing seeds alone, mechanical sowing can save farmers 30% of the cost per mu. In addition, the mechanical sowing speed is several to ten times that of manpower. "Labor costs 150 yuan a day, while artificial sowing costs only one mu of land. If more than one seedling grows in a pit, it takes a lot of effort to get rid of the extra seedlings. " Scientists from the joint venture seed industry say. Not only that, mechanical harvesting of corn can complete 100 mu a day, the harvest cost per mu is only half of labor, but also can simultaneously complete threshing and other steps.

Compared with sowing, harvesting seeds directly has always been the most difficult "difficulty" to overcome. In addition to the factors such as the moisture content of the grain is much higher than that of wheat and is easy to be broken, how to remove the wrapped leaves outside the corn cob quickly and cleanly is also a difficulty. The leaves of the traditional varieties of corn are tightly wrapped around the sticks. The outermost layer of foliage is highly fibrotic, which can easily lead to the hanging of the thresher shaft; the inner foliage is high in moisture, not easy to peel off, and easy to cause juice to dye on the corn grain.

"in the last few days of maturity, the wrapped leaves of the new corn varieties can be loosened and easily stripped off." Wang Yibo said, "what is more interesting is that we let the wrapped leaves of the corn cob mature from the inside to the outside, and the inside leaves dry before the outer layer."

At present, when the new varieties of corn in the demonstration base are harvested and threshed, the "polishing rate" of wrapped leaves has reached 90% to 95%, exceeding that of American corn varieties.

At the same time, due to the protection of hard endosperm, corn grains are not easy to be broken. The harvest video shows that although the cornfield is still bright green, the mechanically harvested and threshed corn is yellow and intact. "in this state of harvest, the water content of corn grains is as high as 30%, more than twice that of mature wheat." Wang Yibo told reporters that farmers can start harvesting corn and going on the market four or five days in advance. "the price of one jin can be five cents higher."

In addition, domestic maize varieties also have better lodging resistance, density tolerance, and disease resistance than American corn, and the average yield per mu can be increased by 8% to 10%.

The entry of "Beijing corn" varieties into the market has broken the situation of monopoly of foreign corn varieties in the field of mechanized production. "next year, our corn varieties will plant 10 million mu in eastern (northern) North China, Huanghe, Huaihe, Hai (he), northwest, southwest and other regions." Wang Yibo said that according to the improved variety promotion plan, the planting scale will reach 40 million mu in 2018.