Make every effort to provide post harvest services for grain production (talking about new rural areas). Grain | drying | service
To ensure food security, we need to focus on both improving production capacity and building post production services. While implementing measures to increase production, we should also focus on providing post production services for grain production, reduce post production losses, and make China's rice bowl more secure and stable
This summer's harvest, Chen Guangzhong, a grain grower in Jinguang Village, Dianjiang County, Chongqing, had just finished harvesting 40 acres of wheat when he encountered rainy and cloudy weather, making it difficult for him to dry it. Coincidentally, a new grain post production service center integrating cleaning, drying, storage, processing, and sales has been built in the town. Chen Guangzhong directly pulled the new wheat from the ground into the drying room and sold it to the purchaser at a price of 1.45 yuan per kilogram just after drying.
When it comes to postpartum service, Old Chen candidly said, "Previously, due to weather and location constraints, drying grains was a 'big challenge'. With a postpartum service center, wheat can be dried and sold in a timely manner after harvesting, reducing losses. The purchase price per kilogram has also increased by 5 cents compared to last year."
Reducing losses means increasing income. At present, China has established over 5500 specialized grain post production service centers, achieving full coverage of major grain producing counties and achieving increasingly significant results in reducing losses and consumption.
Ensuring food security, in addition to taking multiple measures in the planting process, it is equally important to provide good postpartum services. Due to weather changes, machine harvesting progress, and other factors, if grains are not dried and dried in a timely manner after harvest, it is easy to cause high moisture content, decreased quality, and even mold and germination. Many farmers store grain and sell it when the market is good, but due to inadequate equipment and technology, they often suffer varying degrees of losses due to pests and mold. Therefore, it is of great significance to fully provide post production services for grain, ensure grain quality, reduce grain losses, and ensure food security and promote increased income for farmers.
Improving the post production service of grain and enhancing service capabilities is crucial. Taking drying services as an example, the development of drying in grain producing areas in China is still unbalanced and insufficient. In some areas, the facilities and equipment are insufficient, and the technical level is not high, which cannot meet the needs of farmers. We need to accelerate the improvement of drying facilities and equipment, accelerate the transformation of grain from "roadside drying and natural air drying" to specialized and scientific drying services, promote the upgrading of grain grades, and reduce losses. To enhance the post harvest service capacity of grain, we also need to give full play to the driving role of new business entities such as cooperatives and family farms. By increasing subsidies for machinery and facilities, we can enhance our sharing and service capabilities, and encourage more small farmers to solve their "post harvest troubles".
Postpartum grain services should target the entire chain. After the grain matures, it needs to go through various stages such as harvesting, transportation, storage, processing, and circulation to reach the consumer's dining table. Any leakage at any stage can cause significant losses. Doing a good job in postpartum service is equivalent to cultivating more "invisible good fields". Therefore, after the production of grain, a full chain and systematic management should be carried out, with the coordinated efforts of "production, purchase, storage, and sales" to help reduce grain losses and increase farmers' income through a "one-stop" approach. The China Agricultural Industry Development Report 2023 shows that by 2035, if the loss rates of grain harvesting, storage, processing, and consumption in China are reduced by 1 to 3 percentage points respectively, it can reduce grain losses by about 110 billion kilograms, equivalent to creating another "100 billion pound increase in production action".
To ensure food security, efforts should be made simultaneously in increasing production and reducing losses. The improvement of grain production capacity and the construction of post production services should be tackled with both hands. By improving the level of post production grain services and reducing post production losses, we can secure and stabilize China's rice bowl, making new and greater contributions to the comprehensive promotion of rural revitalization and the acceleration of the construction of an agricultural power.
