With nine droughts in ten years, how can there be a bumper harvest in successive years?

"The ground is still here. With the all-membrane technology, it's different. There's no need to look at God's eyes anymore." In the field of Malian Village, Xiangquan Town, Dingxi City, Gansu Province, Su Shangren, a farmer, has a smile on his face. The corn grows well. It is almost tall. The plump leaves reflect the sunshine.

Ma Lian Village has been trapped by water for a long time."A bowl of oil cannot be exchanged for a bowl of water". In the past, it was "planting a slope and collecting a basket". Su Shangren sighed: "I really didn't expect that every family can produce 1300 jin per mu now!"

Gansu is short of water. Dry land accounts for 70% of cultivated land in Gansu Province, and nearly 80% of rural population lives in arid and semi-arid areas. Especially in the central and eastern regions, the per capita water resources are only 6% of the national average.

However, the popularization of dry farming technology has completely changed the face here. The fundamentals of "ten years and nine droughts" have not changed, but Gansu's grain production has been bumper harvest year after year, stabilizing at more than 10 million tons for five consecutive years.

1. Forced "all-film" technology

Soil moisture conservation, rain collection and heat preservation, grain production increased by more than 30%, 8 years to promote more than 15 million mu

Su Shangren's family has 10 mu of land. In the past, there were minor droughts and major droughts."'There is no water with soil'. When the year is not good, even the rations of the whole family cannot be provided."

How to change the status quo of relying on heaven for food has become the number one problem for agricultural scientists and technicians in Gansu Province.

In the 1980s, some places in Gansu began to try plastic film planting technology. "At first, it was half-covered with film. In case of drought, the water could not be preserved. The sun was shining, and the corn leaves under the film twisted the rope instead." Su Shangren said.

Several generations of agricultural technicians have continuously studied and tackled key problems, developing from "semi-film" to "full-film", and then combining ridge and furrow sowing, Gansu people independently explored the dry farming technology of "full-film double-ridge and furrow sowing", which was popularized in the whole province in 2007.

Yang Qifeng, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of Gansu Province, who presided over the research and development of the main body of the technology, introduced that the technical principle of full-film double-ridge sowing is simple, that is, autumn rain and spring use, after rainy season, double ridges are formed in the field, crops are sown in the furrow, and the cultivated land is fully covered with plastic film to reduce evaporation and keep soil moisture.

This technology can not only preserve moisture and collect rain, but also increase light and temperature, which can increase the utilization rate of precipitation from 40 -50% to more than 70%, and increase the grain yield per millimeter of precipitation from less than 1 kg to 2.5 kg.

New technologies are not easy to popularize. The masses are still covered with film, and their resistance is great. The government increased subsidies and arranged special funds for demonstration and promotion. Looking at the heavy corn cob, everyone is eager to try, ploughing, ridging, mulching, stubble inversion, trial planting.

Su Shangren became the first person in the village to "eat crabs". Since 2008, he has planted wheat into film-covered corn and potatoes. The yield of corn per mu has reached 1800 jin, with an annual income of more than 30,000 yuan.

Now, Su Shangren has also become a soil expert, he told reporters "reveal":"corn field covered with white film, potato field covered with black film, because potatoes like cool, black film under the soil temperature is 1 degree lower, conducive to its growth."

The planting structure has changed and the farming method has changed. Malian Village achieved poverty alleviation in the whole village in 2014. Cao Xin, a cadre stationed in the village, said: "Now every household in the village uses plastic film, not only for corn and potatoes, but also for some farmers to try to plant medicinal materials covered with plastic film."

Practice has proved that this technology has low input and high output, which can increase grain production by more than 30%. By 2015, Gansu Province will complete 15.26 million mu of full-film double-furrow sowing area, covering 10 cities, prefectures and 50 counties and districts in the central and eastern dry farming areas, benefiting 1.7834 million farmers. Nowadays, dry farming areas have become new "main grain producing areas", fundamentally changing the appearance of dry farming areas in Gansu Province.

Not only in Gansu Province, from full-film corn to full-film potato to full-film wheat, this technology has driven agriculture in arid areas of Northwest China into the era of "full-film technology".

2. Standardization technology is exquisite

Regulations have rules to follow, agricultural machinery combined with agronomy, according to local conditions pay attention to ecological environment

In such a serious soil erosion area as Gansu Province, will the development of agriculture affect the ecology? With a long-term perspective, dry farming technology must continue to move towards standardization and standardization.

Drought-resistant technology is based on ecology, adapting to local conditions, making good use of "sky water" and keeping "soil water". Yang Qifeng introduced that Gansu Province is adjusting and optimizing the industrial layout to make the natural precipitation period and crop water demand period highly consistent. According to altitude, accumulated temperature and other factors, the dominant areas of corn, potato and wheat planted in double furrow with full film were determined. Autumn film mulching is dominant in the area with annual precipitation of 250-450 mm, and top ice film mulching is dominant in the area with annual precipitation of more than 450 mm. The proportion of autumn film mulching area increased to 56%, basically covering the appropriate area.

In order to popularize the technology in place, agricultural technicians at all levels go deep into the front line, and technicians squat in villages and households to ensure that the training reaches households.

Li Wenjun, a farmer from Lishan Village, Liuliang Township, Zhuanglang County, talked about drought-resistant technology like several treasures: "The technical regulations are clearly written. Only when the soil moisture content reaches more than 15%, can corn germinate. The width of ridges and planting density are also exquisite."

Combination of agricultural machinery and agronomy to further improve drought resistance and yield increase effect. "With mechanical film mulching, three mu of land will be finished in half an hour, while with manual work, three labors can dry one mu a day." Li Wenjun said, The most important thing is mechanical film flat like a mirror, Full film double ridge sowing technology requirements large ridge width 70 cm, Height 10 cm, Small ridge width 40 cm, Height 15 cm, Manual difficult to unify standards.

At present, the dry farming machinery service team of Zhuanglang County is active on terraced fields. Through skilled mechanical cultivation, film mulching and harvesting for farmers, the mechanization rate of agricultural production in the whole county has reached more than 40%. In Gansu Province, more than 2560 specialized agricultural machinery service organizations have been supported and cultivated at present. Through the integrated use of agricultural machinery and tools, the mechanization level of dry farming has been improved, and the area of mechanical ridging and film mulching has reached 9.38 million mu.

Integrated drought-resistant technology continues to mature, achieving a win-win situation for food and ecology protection. Zhuanglang County has built millions of mu terraced fields through comprehensive management of small watersheds, and built the past "three-run fields" into "three-protected fields". At present, the forest land area of the whole county has reached 640,000 mu. By the end of 2015, more than 800 square kilometers of soil erosion have been treated accumulatively, with the treatment degree reaching 75.5%, realizing green income increase.

3. Face "white pollution"

Local mandatory standards were introduced to turn old films into treasures, with a recovery rate of 78%.

The whole film double furrow sowing technology solved the problem of water, but new problems appeared, the most prominent one was "white pollution", and a large number of residual plastic film brought hidden worries to cultivated land.

"Agriculture is destined to be unsustainable if we can't solve the problem of 'white pollution' in the soil for today's harvest regardless of ecology." Yang Qifeng said, Gansu Province in the country took the lead in issuing waste agricultural film recycling regulations, prohibit the production, use of agricultural film thickness less than 0.008 mm, prohibit the use of weather resistance period more than 12 months of agricultural film, and issued local mandatory standards.

"Government + market" to control "white pollution". According to the idea of "government support, market operation and recycling", the province arranges 20 million yuan of special funds every year to support the construction of a number of advanced recycling and processing enterprises. At the same time, it has set up rural waste film recycling points and formulated the policy of exchanging old for new to improve the enthusiasm of plastic film recycling.

Huachi County explores how to turn "white garbage" into treasure, process it into plastic particles, and make it into plastic buckets, plastic basins, plastic tables and chairs, etc. This year, Huachi County recovered 11 million tons of plastic film, realizing economic benefits of more than 8 million yuan. Villa township plastic film recycling station director Ai Sanhong introduced, In corn planting concentrated towns, County agriculture and animal husbandry bureau is responsible for setting up recycling station, Farmers will recycle plastic film to recycling station, Measurement exchange new film, And then sell the old plastic film to the county plastic processing enterprises. The more waste films farmers send, the more new films they bring back, so they can be motivated.

Yu Yanwen, a farmer in Shangwan Village of Shanzhuang Township, turned over the old plastic film stacked on the ground at the beginning of the year, sent more than 20 tons of waste plastic film, and exchanged new plastic film according to the ratio of 13 catties to 1 catty. This spring, film laying saved a lot of money.

At present, more than 2000 waste agricultural film recycling stations have been established in townships and villages in Shandong Province, initially forming a market-oriented recycling mechanism. In 2015, the recovery rate of waste agricultural film in the whole province reached 78%.

New technologies are constantly being used. Yang Qifeng introduced, At present and enterprise cooperation development of high light efficiency longevity environmental protection plastic film, Preliminary realization of "One film, Continuous three years". The province also carried out degradation plastic film pilot projects in Guanghe, Liangzhou and other places, and this autumn will demonstrate the use of degradation plastic film in 15 counties and districts.