JINAN: About 16.5 million pieces of agricultural machinery are currently roaring on the vast farmlands of China, with over 3 million farmers and technicians taking part in the country’s summer harvest.
By Monday, the country had finished reaping winter wheat on 167 million mu (about 11.13 million hectares) of farmland, accounting for around 55 percent of its total winter wheat, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Wheat harvest in southwest China’s Sichuan Province and central China’s Hubei Province has almost come to a close, while that in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi and Hebei will be in full swing soon.
China’s summer harvest focuses on reaping winter wheat and oilseed rape. Spanning from May to late June traditionally, the grain output in the period takes up about a quarter of the annual total, which is of great significance to China’s food security.
Minimizing the losses in the process of harvesting is one of the keywords of the summer harvest this year.
In east China’s Shandong Province, China’s second-largest wheat-producing area, a variety of loss-cutting activities have been carried out in each county and city with wheat plantation areas exceeding 33,000 hectares.
Meanwhile, more than 1.5 million sets of agricultural machinery and over 280,000 farmers and agricultural technicians are joining in the harvest in Shandong, striving to keep the average loss rate under 2 percent.
By reaching that goal, the whole province can save 300 million kg of wheat during the harvest, according to a local agricultural official. –Agencies
