East China’s Jiangsu province is taking advantage of the recent spell of sunny weather to speed up the harvest of autumn grains with more than 60% of the rice harvested.
A family farm in Wucunqiao town, Lishui District of Nanjing demonstrated a new technology for rice production. While transplanting seedlings, the machine covered the ground with a biodegradable film to control weeds and reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
Paddy fields covered with plastic mulch can effectively avoid weeds and reduce the use of chemical herbicides.
The new technology can also save water and heat. With the use of one-time slow-release fertilizers, the amount of fertilizer applied in farmland will also be greatly reduced.
Last year, Chen Xiaojian grew 9 mu of rice with the help of the new technology and obtained good input and output. This year, he decisively expanded the growing areas to more than 280 mu.
"In the past we needed two workers to weed one mu by paying 300 yuan to each worker. By using the new technology we can increase our income by 200 to 300 yuan per mu," said Chen Xiaojian, Head of Gufeng Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, Lishui District, Nanjing.
"This technology can reduce the use of pesticides by 30%, the use of chemical fertilizers by 20% and save water by about 20%, ultimately improving the quality of rice and significantly promoting the agricultural ecological environment," said Zha Guisheng, Senior Agronomist, Head of Crop Cultivation Guidance Station, Lishui District, Nanjing.
The refinement of management concepts can also reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Jiangsu Land Reclamation Nongfa Xinyang Branch has put into full use this year the unmanned aerial vehicle inspection system, which can regularly view the growth of field seedlings from high altitude, effectively reducing the total amount of fertilizer used in production.
"In one season we can reduce the use of chemical fertilizers by about 5%, and the cost of pesticide use per mu has been reduced by 7-8%, but the output has not decreased," said Geng Huihui, Director of Agricultural Center, Xinyang Branch, Jiangsu Land Reclamation Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.
"The new technology allows us to accurately understand the pests, weeds and fertilizer-deficient areas so that we can implement various production measures in a timely manner based on the survey results
thereby increasing economic efficiency and personal income," said Wang Jinsuo, Captain of the Eighth Team, Xinyang Branch of Jiangsu Land Reclamation Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.
In recent years, Jiangsu has vigorously promoted the reduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by actively demonstrating and promoting a batch of new technologies and equipment for soil testing and formula fertilization.
Jiangsu has also monitored crop disease and insect pest resistance and pesticide effectiveness, achieves accurate forecasting and accurate drug use, and continuously improves the level of green production of crops so that the province's use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide decreased by 12.27% and 15.9% respectively compared with the figures in 2015.
