Investigation and reflection on promoting the Construction of Grain production City by Water Conservancy Project

As one of the 20 commercial grain bases in the country, Xiangyang City has persisted in firmly grasping grain production for many years, ensuring that grain output has "increased in a row", especially after breaking through the 10 billion jin mark in 2012, it has maintained its status of 10 billion yuan for three consecutive years, which has made due contributions to establishing Xiangyang's status as a major grain production city and ensuring national food security. However, with the accelerated pace of industrialization and urbanization, the decrease of the total amount of cultivated land, the deterioration of the environment, the decline of the quality of cultivated land, the aggravation of drought, the unreasonable allocation and use of water resources and other factors, it has a negative impact on ensuring the grain production capacity of Xiangyang and consolidating the status of Xiangyang as a big city. The provincial party committee and the provincial government attach great importance to this, and after scientific demonstration, they decided to build a water resources allocation project in northern Hubei, which not only brought good news for the allocation and improvement of water resources in the whole northern Hubei region, but also provided a strong guarantee to improve the grain production capacity of Xiangyang and ensure the unshakable status of a big city of 10 billion jin. So, how to take this as an opportunity to further strengthen grain production in the context of the new normal of economic development, achieve stable grain income, improve quality and efficiency, and promote the transformation of Xiangyang agricultural city into a strong agricultural city? Through special research, we have formed some thoughts.

I. favorable conditions for increasing grain production capacity in Xiangyang

Xiangyang now has jurisdiction over 9 counties (cities and districts), 78 townships and 2391 administrative villages, with an area of 6.93 million mu of arable land. In recent years, around the strategic goal of building a strong modern agricultural city, Xiangyang City has persisted in ensuring grain supply, processing and increasing efficiency, overall planning to promote harmony, innovation and vitality, and the continuous improvement of grain production capacity. In 2012, it became the first major city in Hubei Province and the first 10 billion jin of grain production in the south of the Yangtze River Basin, accounting for 1 billion jin of grain production in the province and nearly 1% of the country. A correct analysis of the favorable conditions for improving grain production capacity in Xiangyang will help to explore the establishment of grain production functional areas, help to further consolidate the confidence in building 10 billion jin of grain production as a big city, and mobilize the enthusiasm of the whole city's grain production.

(1) Policy support is unprecedented, which will provide strong support for increasing grain production capacity in Xiangyang.

The Central Committee's "some opinions on strengthening Reform and Innovation and speeding up Agricultural Modernization" (document No. 1 of 2015) clearly pointed out that building modern agriculture and speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development must revolve around the core of ensuring national food security. The opinion has a high gold content for improving grain production capacity, and its policy support mainly includes: in terms of basic production capacity, comprehensively carry out the delineation of permanent basic farmland, and comprehensively implement the overall plan for the construction of high-standard farmland throughout the country. we will implement actions to protect and improve the quality of cultivated land, and explore the establishment of functional areas for grain production. In terms of capital investment, we should innovate the investment and financing mechanism, increase capital investment, and concentrate our efforts on speeding up the construction of a number of major water diversion projects, key water source projects and backbone projects for the treatment of rivers and lakes. The compensation for land expropriation and the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation for the construction of major water conservancy projects for water saving and water supply shall be the same as those for major national infrastructure projects such as railways. In terms of infrastructure, we will speed up the continued construction and water-saving transformation of large and medium-sized irrigation districts, accelerate the construction of modern irrigation districts, and strengthen the construction of small-scale irrigation and water conservancy infrastructure; in terms of scientific and technological promotion, we will implement scientific and technological projects for high grain production and the scientific and technological demonstration of saline-alkali land transformation, further promote the establishment of high grain production and the green production model, implement plant protection construction projects, and carry out specialized unified prevention and control of crop diseases and insect pests. As a major grain producing area in the country, Xiangyang has the conditions and strength to fully dock and strive for the macro policy support in the above four aspects. According to the comprehensive calculation by the experts of the Municipal Committee of Agriculture, Xiangyang can strive for 50 to 6 billion yuan a year in the policy funds for increasing grain production capacity of the central government and Hubei Province, coupled with actively matching policy funds at the corresponding level. the investment in further improving grain production conditions will certainly be greatly guaranteed, and it will also play a huge positive role in consolidating Xiangyang's position as a big grain production city.

(2) the construction of the water resources allocation project in northern Hubei will lay a solid foundation for increasing grain production capacity in Xiangyang.

At the end of 2014, the water resources allocation project in northern Hubei, which was officially started in Xiangyang, the provincial party committee and provincial government clearly put forward the work goal of "two-year pre-construction and three-year construction". The project is listed by the National Development and Reform Commission as one of the 172 major water-saving water supply projects to be implemented first in the country, running from northwest to southeast, running through 7 counties (cities and districts). The total length of the water diversion line is 267km, with a total length of 148km in Xiangyang, accounting for 55% of the total length of the water diversion project. The total investment of the project is 16.5 billion yuan, with an investment of more than 10 billion yuan in Xiangyang, accounting for more than 60% of the total investment of the project. The average annual water diversion volume of the project is 770 million cubic meters, of which the share allocated to Xiangyang is 461 million cubic meters, accounting for 60%; the total population benefiting from the project is 4.8181 million, of which 2.1525 million are from Xiangyang, accounting for 45%; and the irrigation benefit area is 3.635 million mu, of which Xiangyang benefit area is 2.21 million mu, accounting for 61%. After the full completion of the project, it can not only ensure normal water supply in northern Hubei, solve the problems of drought resistance and drinking water, but also have more than 25 medium-sized reservoirs along Xiangyang with a storage capacity of 594 million cubic meters, and ensure irrigation needs in case of drought, so as to thoroughly solve the problem of "dry buns" in the "three northern" areas. According to expert estimates, after the construction of the water resources allocation project in northern Hubei, 30% of the cultivated land along Xiangyang can be converted from drought to water, which will increase the city's grain production capacity by more than 1 billion jin.

(3) the comprehensive potential can be deeply tapped, which will expand the effective space for increasing grain production capacity in Xiangyang.

1. There is still potential to be tapped in terms of basic grain output capacity. Xiangyang is rich in cultivated land reserve resources. by implementing comprehensive agricultural development and comprehensive management of low-yield fields, promoting the construction of high-standard farmland and expanding the area suitable for grain sowing, the city can increase grain production capacity by 1.2 billion jin. First, with the help of the water resources allocation project in northern Hubei, the "three-north water source" project (north of Laohekou, north of Xiangzhou and north of Zaoyang) has been implemented in the hilly land of northern Hubei, which can increase the irrigated area by 1.755 million mu, restore irrigation by 877800 mu, and improve the irrigated area by 3.35 million mu. The second is to carry out cascade channelization regulation of the Hanjiang River, tidal flat control, dike cutting and straightening, reclamation of wasteland suitable for farming and abandoned land, and restoration of abandoned land, which can increase the area of suitable grain by 350000 mu and increase grain production capacity by 200 million jin. Third, through the implementation of field water conservancy projects, fertile soil projects and standard farmland construction, and by means of the combination of fertilization, soil improvement, water control, improved varieties and good methods, the ability of water, soil and fertilizer conservation of cultivated land can be effectively improved. improve the basic agricultural production conditions and soil fertility, ensure that the area of fertilization and improvement of medium-and low-yield fields can reach 2 million mu, and have the ability to increase production by 200jin according to the increase of soil fertility per mu. It can increase grain production capacity by about 400 million jin.

2. There is still potential to be tapped in the role of science and technology in increasing production. With the progress of agricultural science and technology and the continuous enhancement of policy support, there is still great potential to increase the per unit yield of grain crops. For example, the average per unit yield of wheat in Xiangyang was 764jin in 1997, and that of rice was 1367 jin in 1997. The purpose of increasing per unit yield can be achieved by popularizing excellent varieties and integrating technology to solve key technical problems. At present, the planting density of rice in the city is generally low, which can be increased from 15000 tons to 18-20 thousand tons. According to a preliminary calculation, through the promotion of super rice and other excellent varieties in a large area, supporting water-saving, fertilizer-saving, cost-saving and efficiency-increasing techniques, high-yield cultivation techniques, optimizing the farming system, and increasing the multiple cropping index, the per unit grain yield of the whole city is expected to increase by 10%. The grain production capacity can be increased by about 800 million jin. In addition, the prevention and control of diseases and insect pests will be strengthened through new scientific and technological means, and the implementation of "pest capture" will reduce the current grain losses caused by diseases and insect pests from 5% to less than 3%, which can increase grain by 160 million jin per year.

3. There is still potential to be tapped in improving the level of mechanization of grain production. The survey shows that in 2014, the machine tillage level in Xiangyang City was 96.2%, the rice and wheat machine harvest level was 95.2%, the corn machine sowing level was 60.3%, the rice machine transplanting level was 37.2%, and the wheat machine sowing level was 62.4%. Among them, the mechanized strip sowing technology of wheat reached 43%, an increase of 5 percentage points over the previous year. Although the mechanization level of grain production in our city is in the forefront of the province as a whole, compared with the main grain producing areas in China, the mechanization level of rice and corn crops is lower and still has the potential to increase production and reduce losses. According to the proportion that the sown area of rice is not less than 4 million mu in the future, and the harvested area of the machine is 50% and 80% respectively, the net increase can be 100 million jin.