Stabilizing Agricultural production requires attaching importance to Water Conservancy Construction

Since the beginning of summer, a severe drought has swept 12 provinces and regions across the country, affecting more than 72 million mu of crops, the worst being Henan Province, China's second largest grain-producing province, which has suffered the worst drought in 63 years. According to the forecast of the meteorological department, the drought in North China, Huanghuai, Jianghan and other places may continue or develop in August, resulting in an unfavorable situation of continuous drought in summer and autumn, and the situation of drought resistance is not optimistic.

If you look at the historical data, you will find that in recent years, some parts of China have experienced severe drought every year, and the public will not be surprised. Secondly, unlike sudden destructive natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods, drought is a continuous state, in which the former needs immediate rescue and a race against time, while the latter is in a state of "warm boiled frogs". Cannot be rescued or reduced by manpower in a short period of time.

Because of this, we cannot completely blame the drought on natural disasters. Local droughts can be overcome. Unlike the sudden outbreak of destructive forces such as earthquakes and floods, through the construction of systematic water conservancy facilities, the damage caused by drought can be greatly reduced. Only in the era of relatively pure agricultural civilization can we feel that drought is a natural disaster.

In the past three decades, water conservancy facilities in some areas have fallen into disrepair, and a large number of diseases have led to a very fragile ability to deal with disasters. This is because over the past three decades, governments at all levels have built large and small hydropower projects on a large scale, which is for economic purposes, because hydropower can bring huge local income. Rural water conservancy investment not only has no contribution to government finance (agricultural tax has been abolished), but also means that local governments have to invest a large amount of expenditure. Therefore, some local governments ignore agriculture and water conservancy and are unwilling to invest. Or argue that the local governments do not have the financial resources to invest and need the support of the central government.

Hydropower projects are endowed with many functions, such as power generation, water supply, flood control, drought resistance, and so on, but in fact, apart from power generation, other functions are very difficult to perform, such as gradual river closure in the upper reaches during drought and flood discharge when floods come. on the contrary, these situations aggravate the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources.

A significant portion of the 2008 stimulus package was invested in water conservancy. However, from the local reports since then, most of the water conservancy projects have become "image projects". In the future water conservancy construction, financial waste should be avoided, and full consideration should be given to the due role of these projects when the drought comes. This consideration should be a game of chess, because each place usually has its own starting point.

As global warming brings more and more extreme weather and instability, as a country that mainly depends on self-sufficiency in grain, it needs to pay attention to water conservancy construction and stabilize agricultural production. Autumn grain accounts for 70% of the annual grain output, and Henan's grain output accounts for 1/10 of the national output. The drought in Henan will not only affect the national grain output, but also make some local people have no harvest. The former can be relieved through imports, but the reduction in the income of local farmers cannot be made up for.