Experts call for expanding planting of high-quality wheat

During the summer harvest season, it was learned from the "2015 first China High quality Wheat Industry Development Forum" held on June 10 that with the increasing demand of flour and food processing enterprises for high quality wheat, the shortage of domestic high quality wheat supply was highlighted. Experts at the meeting called for speeding up the breeding of high quality wheat varieties and expanding the planting area of high quality wheat to meet the needs of processing enterprises for high quality wheat.

China is the largest country in wheat production in the world, but the supply of high-quality wheat is slightly tight. In 2014, the price of domestic high-quality wheat once soared to more than 1.6 yuan / jin, and many flour and food processing enterprises entered the market for grain.

Du he, executive vice chairman and secretary general of the Nutrition steering Committee of the China Food Industry Association, pointed out that the processing of convenience food based on wheat accounts for a very large proportion of China's annual food industry output value of about 11 trillion yuan. However, there is a large gap in high-quality wheat in a large wheat country, which shows that there is a structural contradiction between China's wheat production and the demand of the food industry.

In recent years, the wheat yield in China has increased slightly between 120 million and 130 million tons, but the planting and yield of high-quality wheat have a decreasing trend. The insufficient production capacity of high-quality wheat has become one of the important factors restricting the sustainable development of China's wheat industry.

Professor Wei Yimin, director of the processing Research Office of the Technical system of the National Wheat Industry and Deputy Director of the National Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee, said at the forum that China's total wheat output and consumption are basically the same, or even have a slight surplus. however, about 2 million tons of high-quality wheat are imported every year, mainly to meet the needs of processing enterprises. Therefore, it is urgent to optimize varieties and expand the proportion of planting area of high-quality wheat.

Experts at the meeting believe that the way to improve the quality of wheat requires equal emphasis on eugenics and breeding. Eugenics means breeding wheat varieties that are more suitable for food processing and modern consumption needs, including shape, taste, etc., while eugenics is to choose more suitable planting areas and make full use of superior soil, climate and other conditions to produce more high-quality wheat.

It is understood that as early as 2005, the Mailang Group took the lead in launching the "Today Mailang High quality Wheat Project". As of 2014, its planting area for promoting high quality wheat has reached one million mu.

Sun Yunfeng, general manager of the flour Division of Jinmailang Group, told reporters: "We have been committed to guiding farmers to grow high-quality wheat. In the next step, Mailang will carry out closer cooperation with rural cooperatives to continue to expand the cultivation of high-quality wheat and provide enterprises with high-quality processing raw materials." In addition, the forum also discussed in depth the regional distribution and characteristics of high quality wheat in China, the high quality wheat belt at 37 °north latitude, the relationship between good wheat and good noodles, and the relationship between high quality wheat and food safety and food quality.