The main production area, the big granary, and the rice flower "Xiang" village talk about a bountiful year

The vast Dongting Lake basin has been known as the "land of fish and rice" since ancient times. Relying on the fertile soil here, Hunan has become an important rice production base in the country.

As one of the 13 major grain producing provinces in China, Hunan has a stable annual grain sowing area of 70 million mu and a stable yield of around 60 billion catties. The rice planting area has always ranked first in the country, and the double cropping rice area accounts for a quarter of the country. It is an important rice production base in the country.

At present, mid season rice in various parts of Hunan is being harvested with sickles. While the golden rice grains are returned to the warehouse, the green and lush late rice seedlings are flourishing. In the golden autumn season of the transition from green to yellow, the wind blows rice waves, the fragrance of fruits and melons wafts, and the land of Sanxiang is filled with hope of abundant harvest!

Increase production and harvest, be the "people" who refuse to let go

Entering the rice growing area, the fields were bustling with harvesting scenes.

In the demonstration area of rice oil rotation of ten thousand acres in Chating Town, Wangcheng District, Changsha, clusters of heavy rice ears cover the rice fields. Under the gentle breeze, layers of rice waves are stirred up, indicating a bountiful harvest this year.

Compared to most other areas in Hunan province where double cropping rice is planted, the demonstration area is surrounded by mountains on all sides, making it more suitable for planting one cropping rice, commonly known as medium rice. Entering September, harvesters and grain trucks are busy shuttling back and forth here, showcasing their skills.

Nowadays, modern agricultural machinery has replaced manual labor, and harvesting can be completed in just over 8 minutes per acre of land. It is worth mentioning that most of the people sitting on the agricultural machinery are young people who take the lead in establishing professional agricultural machinery cooperatives to achieve mechanization of the entire process of grain production. They also use the smart agriculture IoT big data platform to install the Beidou intelligent monitoring system on each agricultural machine. Sitting in the office, one can real-time grasp the location, operation time, and operation area of each agricultural machine, more efficiently dispatch resources, and achieve refined agricultural management.

In the vast fields, besides agricultural mechanics, there are also agricultural technologists who show off their skills.

Wangcheng is not only a major grain producing county in Hunan, but also an advanced county in national grain production. This year, it is expected to produce over 240000 tons of grain here, with a yield of over 600 kilograms per mu, an increase of 50 kilograms from last year. For them, every field here can be an experimental field.

Within the demonstration zone, agricultural technicians constantly break through bottlenecks and experiment with new varieties. Qinglian silk seedling is a new variety introduced this year. Its plant type is moderate and its particles are slender. The most crucial thing is that its anti lodging ability is very strong, and it can still stand tall and upright in heavy rainfall and strong winds.

By around late September, all the mid season rice in this field will be harvested. But for the rice oil rotation demonstration area, its "working day" does not end with the return of particles to the warehouse. After the rice harvest in the same field is completed, the locals will seize the opportunity to plant rapeseed immediately after the harvest. After planting rapeseed in the original winter fallow fields, the income per mu can increase by 800 yuan.

Now, the local seedling factory is cultivating rapeseed seedlings, and it is expected to start planting in early October. By next spring, this will become a field with thousands of acres of rapeseed flowers blooming. Using rapeseed flowers as a medium, the local area has created a tea pavilion flower sea, which has attracted more than 300000 visitors this year to enjoy the spectacular scenery.

Insect Mouth Grains "Science" Keeps steadfastly

This year, the overall occurrence of rice diseases and pests in southern China is showing a biased trend.

Guarding every grain from the mouths of pests can be said to be the key to ensuring a bountiful autumn harvest this year. In the Heshan District of Yiyang, the local grain grower Yu Cong's over 600 acres of late rice have suffered varying degrees of damage from the stem borer. Due to severe pest infestation, some fields are at risk of reducing production by more than 20%.

However, in his rice fields, a small lantern like white trap is inserted at the edge of the field every few tens of meters, guarding the rice fields like a sentry. Every two acres of land, Yu Cong places a sex lure bowl, which contains sexual attractants that can attract adult Chinese chilo borers. The inverted conical design ensures that pests can enter without leaving.

With the help of agricultural technology, Yu Cong's field management has also changed from "running to the scene" in the past to "watching surveillance.". A small display screen can display real-time information on the prevention and control of agricultural pests and diseases, while monitoring the changes in pest situation in real-time, including the quantity and types of pests. These data are uploaded to the big data platform, and through automatic analysis, pest warnings are issued to develop detailed pesticide application plans.

In addition to adopting "green prevention and control" measures, farmers have also adopted a "drone+unified prevention and control" approach.

Before spraying the drone, the staff of the Miluo Plant Protection and Inspection Station will use the field installed monitoring lights to calculate the incubation and egg laying time of the main pests. Once a conclusion is drawn, pest and disease information will be quickly released to the public, and farmers will then carry out unified pest control operations based on the information provided in the information.

After preparing the pesticides, farmers directly spray them through drones, and mist like pesticides scatter in the rice fields with the airflow. At present, local plant protection drones have basically achieved full coverage. Compared to the traditional manual spraying mode, drones can complete one acre of land defense operations in just 2 minutes, and all drone spraying ranges and operation conditions can also be viewed through the smart platform.

This year, Hunan is expected to recover over 6 million tons of losses caused by pests and diseases. At present, most of the late rice in Hunan has entered the stage of booting differentiation and is growing well.

The gentle breeze caresses and stirs up layers of rice waves.

Harvest delicacy "Pink" ink appears on stage

A bountiful harvest of rice also fills the September dining table with the fragrance of rice. Under the skillful hands of Hunan people, what kind of culinary form can rice transform into?

Due to the high content of amylose in early rice, the texture is loose and the taste is not as good as late rice. So the wise Hunan people processed the early rice into flexible and elastic Rice noodles.

Hunan people start their day with a bowl of Rice noodles. In Changsha, there is a Rice noodles Street in Hunan, which links the unique flavor of rice noodles in 14 cities and prefectures in Hunan. Here, you have to queue up to eat a bowl of Rice noodles. In the long queue, there are not only old customers who have been eating for over a decade, but also tourists who come from other places to check in. The taste of this bountiful harvest can be tasted by people all over the country.

To come to Hunan to eat noodles, you need to unlock a skill: "shudder".

The smooth Rice noodles with broth can quickly open the door to a new world of your understanding of Rice noodles. Line up for one hour and gossip for five minutes. In this short period of time, you can enjoy the feeling of hot pot. Slightly hot, filled with soup, hot and hot. Young and fashionable four palace grid fans, one price, four happiness; Bullfrog and abalone noodles make classic Hunan cuisine more fashionable.

For Hunan people, word-of-mouth is not only a daily habit, but also a taste description of their hometown. The best noodles to eat are "noodles downstairs, and noodles made by my mother", "many people who work outside come back and the first thing they do is eat noodles", and "what I miss the most when I go out of town is the beef noodles from our hometown"

In addition to Rice noodles, there are tens of millions of changes in rice. In Hunan, every grain of rice has its own professional identity, including tender and smooth rice tofu, fresh and hot chili peppers, and pickled meatballs intertwined with the fragrance of meat and rice.

How much love do Hunan people have for rice? According to statistics, the daily consumption of Rice noodles alone in Hunan can reach 4 million jin. Rice transforms into various delicacies, not only bringing a sense of happiness from carbon water, but also a sense of security from abundant food production.

Melon ripening, fruity aroma, and excessive sugar content

In the golden autumn of September, in the land of Sanxiang, in addition to golden rice ears and smooth Rice noodles, there are also fragrant fruits and plump fish and shrimp.

Hunan, located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, has a humid climate with abundant light, heat, and water resources, giving birth to a rich and diverse variety of characteristic agricultural products: the golden autumn pear in Hecheng, Huaihua has a golden and crystal clear appearance; The grapes in Li County, Changde are fresh, crispy, juicy, sweet and refreshing; The Shengnv fruit in Changsha has bright colors and a milky aroma

Recently, citrus, the fruit with the highest production in Hunan, has entered the mature season one after another. Last year, the citrus planting area in Hunan was about 6.456 million mu, with an annual output of 6.39 million tons, ranking among the top in the country.

At present, the early maturing honey oranges in the Huilongwei management area of Yongzhou are being harvested. Te Zao Mi Gan is one of the earliest citrus varieties to mature in autumn in the local area. From the outside, the fruit appears scattered yellow, with a diameter of approximately 6-7 centimeters. The taste can be described as "crispy, juicy, seedless, and shaky".

It is understood that local citrus fruits are harvested in a graded manner according to market demand. At present, the special early honey citrus on the market has a planting area of about 5000 acres, with an expected yield of about 5000 kilograms per mu. Most of it is sold to the southern region, and the daily shipment volume is about 300 tons. By the end of September, the color of honey oranges will be higher and more bright yellow, and the market demand in the northern region will be particularly strong.

Good fruit should have a more prominent brand.

The local government has implemented the production standards for the national geographical indication of agricultural products, "Fengfeng Honey Citrus", and formulated technical standards and operational norms from planting, picking, sales, product packaging, and other aspects to guide fruit farmers to grow standardized and good fruits, increasing their economic benefits by 15% to 20%.

Starting from September every year, fruit farmers enter a busy period. In addition to the current extra early honey oranges, there will be regular early maturing honey oranges and navel oranges in October, medium maturing honey oranges in November, and sugar oranges and wogan from December to April of the following year. At present, the concentrated and contiguous cultivation area of citrus here has reached 100000 acres, with over 5000 citrus growers working for over 8 months.

A small citrus carries the great dreams and expectations of the fruit farmers.

Stable Victory in Food Security

As a major grain producing province, Hunan has already achieved a bountiful harvest of early rice.

This year, the completed sowing area of early rice in Hunan is 18.072 million mu, achieving a total production of 7.432 million tons, both ranking first in the country. At the same time, Hunan has completed the planting of 22.22 million mu of medium rice and 19.07 million mu of late rice.

But there are still some "heavy" questions that urgently need to be answered in this expected harvest answer sheet: what kind of pressure and challenges will this year's autumn harvest face? How can Hunan shoulder the responsibility of stabilizing food security production?

At present, there are 45.25 million mu of paddy fields in Hunan Province, and the potential to increase sowing area is not significant. The main focus is still on improving yield, reducing disaster damage, and strengthening infrastructure.

By unveiling the list and leading the way, Hunan has selected 48 scientific research teams and established a batch of demonstration plots for compound cultivation of rice oil, rice oil, soybean and corn, radiating and driving large-scale balanced production increase in the province. At the same time, Hunan province is focusing on the non agriculturalization, non grainification, and abandonment of arable land, guiding various regions to effectively carry out drought resistance, irrigation protection, emergency response, disaster relief, and other related work.

In addition to the research team, the "agricultural machinery team" is also making efforts. As a typical hilly and mountainous province, in recent years, Hunan has innovatively developed 41 characteristic agricultural machinery that are suitable for the terrain, topography, and agricultural production characteristics of hilly and mountainous areas. Every year, Hunan guides the province to purchase at least 3 billion yuan or more through subsidies for purchasing machines.

By 2022, the coverage rate of socialized agricultural machinery services in Hunan has exceeded 50%, which has to some extent solved the problem of "inorganic availability" in agricultural production, as well as the problems of "no good machinery" and "organic not good use".

A year's harvest is not the end, year after year's harvest is the goal.

And where did the harvest come from year after year? The answer is: Seed. Only when seeds are safe can food be safe. Hunan is not only the birthplace of hybrid rice, but also a major province for hybrid rice seed production.

Gong Xin, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Hunan Province, stated that a large number of seed industry innovation bases represented by the Yuelu Mountain Laboratory are focusing on breeding more high-quality variety resources. At present, the seed production area in Hunan is stable at around 400000 acres, and the annual production of hybrid rice seeds is around 80 million kilograms. The seed quality testing and supervision system has also been established and improved.

Choosing good seeds, nurturing good seeds, and growing good grains are the Hunan strength that this land of fish and rice contributes to securing China's rice bowl and creating a picture of a bountiful harvest!