Mechanization of Wheat: Where to Go After 97%?

　　　　In 2020, the comprehensive mechanization rate of wheat production in China is about 97%, and the mechanization rate of ploughing, planting and harvesting respectively is 99.67%, 90.88% and 95.87%, which has taken the lead in realizing full mechanization in the three main grains. In Henan province, which has the largest wheat production area, the comprehensive mechanization rate of wheat has reached 99.3 percent. So, wheat production mechanization enterprise has been "accomplished"? What kind of level is mechanization of wheat production in our country in the world? Is there room for further improvement? In view of the above problems, the reporter interviewed the national wheat industry technology system mechanization post scientist, Henan Agricultural University mechanical and electrical engineering college professor Wang Wanzhang.

　　Comprehensive mechanization rate is not the only focus

　　"Although the comprehensive mechanization rate of wheat production is close to 100 percent, there is still a lot of work to be done in the field of wheat production mechanization technology in addition to improving the mechanization rate, and there are many shortcomings at present." Wang told reporters, such as tillage machinery, seeder, grain harvester and other operating machinery and equipment technology level is not high, the proportion of medium and low gear is high, serious homogenization; The reliability, adaptability, automation and intelligence of harvesting machinery need to be improved. Poor quality of soil preparation and sowing, high rate of harvest loss; In addition, wheat production areas in China are widely distributed, with large differences and many planting patterns, which restrict the development of wheat mechanization production. For example, small plots and small-scale planting lead to frequent retractions of operating machinery, which makes it difficult to give full play to the efficiency of agricultural machinery and improve operating efficiency.

　　In addition, there are still weak basic research and key technology research, insufficient technological innovation ability and technical integration, weak sustainable development ability, lack of systematic research and technical integration of agricultural mechanization, and have not formed a perfect whole-process mechanization production technology mode and standardized machine configuration system.

　　"In fact, compared with developed countries, China's wheat production mechanization level, agricultural equipment manufacturing level, product reliability and agricultural machinery efficiency and other aspects also have a big gap." Wang frankly, the world's major developed countries as early as in the 20th century 50 to 80's, have achieved comprehensive mechanization of agricultural production. Japan and Korea, whose agricultural production situation is similar to Ours, also realized full mechanization in 1982 and 1996, respectively.

　　"Power shift tractors, longitudinal axial flow combined harvesters, wheat combined field preparation and sowing and fertilization in developed countries are also in a leading position in technology." said Wang for example, China's wheat seeder operation line number is mostly not more than 12 lines, developed countries are more than 20 lines of less precision seeding machinery. In China, the horizontal axis flow combined harvester of wheat is mainly used with the cutting table below 3 meters and about 8 kg, while the foreign countries have already applied the cutting table above 6 meters and fed more than 12 kg of longitudinal axis flow combined harvester of grain. In addition, in terms of operational efficiency, China's per mu power of wheat production is five to seven times that of the US. In terms of operational cost, the per mu production cost of wheat planting in China is about 3 times that of the United States, and the per mu labor cost is 18 times that of the United States.

　　"And domestic wheat production machinery due to the price advantage is more competitive, but there is still a big gap in product reliability, intelligent degree." Wang told reporters that although in recent years, with the adjustment of China's agricultural industrial structure, the transfer of rural labor force and large-scale land management, the relevant state departments, agricultural machinery enterprises and research institutes have increased investment in large-scale high-end agricultural machinery equipment RESEARCH and development. However, due to the late start, there is still an obvious gap with foreign brands in product design, materials, components and technology, and it is at the middle and low end of the global value chain.

　　Where should mechanization of wheat production go?

　　"Therefore, we should clarify the current goal and focus of wheat mechanization production in China -- to achieve stable and high yields in large areas, improve mechanized production efficiency and reduce production costs." Wang concluded that in order to achieve this goal, efforts can be made from all aspects of production: research and development and promotion of joint field preparation machinery, and constantly improve the quality of wheat field preparation; Strengthen the research on the technology of sowing wheat with less no-tillage in rice-wheat and maize-corn rotation areas, focus on solving the technical problems such as seed belt cleaning, deep fertilization and precision sowing, and wheat sowing in rice-stubble wet soil, and promote the application of large and medium-sized high-performance wheat sowing machinery. Research and promotion of high efficiency, strong adaptability, can realize a multi-purpose vertical axial flow combined harvester technology, further improve the reliability of the combined harvester; Promote the application of drying technology and technical equipment in line with the characteristics of producing areas, increase the selectivity of heat sources, reduce production costs and energy consumption, and achieve wheat harvest without landing; We will promote the transfer of land and the construction of high-standard farmland, carry out research on the integration of agricultural machinery and techniques and the mechanized production of wheat, and create favorable operating conditions for agricultural machinery.

　　In addition, we should also develop and promote intelligent technologies such as automatic navigation, precise spraying and intelligent decision-making. Information services such as meteorology, wheat field growth status, harvest progress, and wheat maturity prediction will be actively carried out. For the risk of extreme weather disaster, early warning, plan and machine and tool scheduling should be done in advance to reduce the loss of wheat production caused by natural disaster and extreme weather.

　　"Finally, do a good job of wheat machinery to reduce losses is also the focus of the future." Wang put out a set of figures: the total wheat output in 2021 is 136.95 million tons, if we can reduce the wheat harvest loss rate by 1 percentage point, equivalent to increasing the wheat planting area of more than 230,000 hectares, the potential is very large. Therefore, in the current situation where it is very difficult to increase the area of arable land, loss is an increase in production.

　　So, how to effectively derogate? Wang believes that strengthening agricultural machine training and improving harvesting skills is the key to reducing wheat machine income at this stage. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision and management of wheat harvest operation, make good use of various communication channels, strengthen the publicity, education and training of machine harvest and loss reduction operation standards, and promote the operation according to standards and regulations. Guide both sides to include the operation quality requirements into the operation contract, strictly control the quality and loss. In the long run, it is necessary to strengthen land transfer, build high-standard farmland, actively promote the integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy, create good agricultural machinery operating conditions, and reduce wheat harvest losses in the field; We will increase policy support, encourage scientific research institutions and production enterprises to research and develop green, efficient and low-loss harvesting equipment, and promote the application of high-performance combined harvesters. In view of the characteristics of wheat machine harvest production, information services such as meteorology, harvest operation schedule and prediction of wheat maturity should be actively carried out. For extreme weather disaster risks, early warning, plan and machine scheduling should be made in advance, and the advantages of big data and "Internet plus" information technology should be fully utilized to realize rapid wheat harvest.