The trend of new technology blows into Chinese traditional granaries

There is no imagined layer-by-layer, bulging sack, only neatly stacked wheat grains about two stories high. This is a scene seen by a reporter of the China News Service in the granary of the grain and oil reserve depot directly under the Zhejiang Grain Bureau. With the help of new technology, the warehouse, which has only more than 30 employees, manages a large amount of grain.

Changing the packing warehouse to bulk is a key step in the upgrading of traditional granary facilities. Huang Zhijun, director of the provincial grain and oil depot management center in Zhejiang Province, said that in the past, grain was packed in sacks, so it is needless to say that it is necessary to increase expenditure on buying sacks, but what is even more distressing is that the gap between sacks is wasted, virtually reducing the storage capacity of grain in the warehouse. In addition, loading and unloading grain also needs to be carried manually, which is time-consuming and laborious.

In this case, the directly affiliated grain and oil depot began to transform the packing warehouse into bulk. At present, nine warehouses have completed this transformation.

This change seems commonplace, but the effect is unusual. Jin Jiande, deputy director of the grain and oil reserve depot, said that after the transformation, the warehouse capacity has been increased from the original 1800 tons to 3650 tons, and grain loading and unloading has also become more convenient and faster. "in the past, it took more than 30 stevedores to unload a ship of grain, but now it takes 6-7 people to unload four or five vessels." the efficiency of grain transportation and turnover has been better guaranteed.

On the basis of bulk transformation, more advanced technologies have the opportunity to show their talents. For example, moving the air duct from the ground to the wall and changing the vertical wind to slowly blow through the grain horizontally can make the grain dissipate heat better and lose less water. After the grain pile is sealed, high-purity nitrogen is added to replace the insecticide, so that the pests die due to lack of oxygen, which will neither make pesticide residues on the grain nor pollute the environment.

The trend of new technologies such as intelligent control, information technology and the Internet of things has also blown into the traditional granary.

For example, in terms of controlling temperature and humidity, in the past, the warehouse tested the grain temperature "like measuring the temperature of a person." the staff needed to insert the thermometers into the grain heap one by one, and then pull them out one by one after a few minutes to read and record the data. it takes more than a dozen people to work for a day after recording all the warehouses. Now, with the wireless grain situation detection system based on "cloud technology", it only takes an hour to complete the same workload.

In China, there are more and more grain and oil depots using new technologies to transform old storage facilities. According to reports, warehouses such as the grain and oil depots directly under the Zhejiang Grain Bureau account for about half of Zhejiang Province.

According to the latest data from the State Grain Administration, 78% of all warehouses in China are equipped with mechanical ventilation systems, 57% are equipped with computerized grain situation measurement and control systems, and the degree of mechanization of warehousing and logistics operations has been significantly improved. The grain storage capacity of popularizing and applying the new grain storage technology of "four in one" (grain situation detection, mechanical ventilation, recirculation fumigation, grain cooling) has reached 160 million tons.

Technological transformation has become popular in China's granaries because of the official emphasis on ensuring food security.

China's grain output has increased for ten years in a row, and a bumper summer grain harvest in 2014 has become a foregone conclusion. However, the fact that there are too many people and little arable land and the relationship between food supply and demand has always been in a fragile "tight balance" has not changed. Reducing the loss of grain in the reserve link has become an inevitable requirement for the Chinese people to "keep their rice bowls firmly in their own hands."

At the same time, with the continuous increase of output, how to effectively use and preserve food has become an urgent problem to be solved.

Officials have repeatedly stressed on different occasions the need to apply advanced grain storage technology to promote the upgrading of grain storage facilities.

When presiding over the executive meeting of the State Council in June this year, Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that at present, China's warehouse capacity is generally tight, and there is a serious shortage in some areas, so it is necessary to strengthen the construction of storage facilities to ensure that grain grains return to the warehouse.

Zhai Jianglin, director of the Circulation and Science and Technology Development Department of the State Grain Administration, revealed that the grain system is currently studying the deployment of 100 billion jin of new warehouse capacity this year and next, and that the new warehouse capacity will actively adopt new technologies such as green grain storage, intelligent control, informatization, and energy conservation and emission reduction to improve China's food security reserve capacity and level.