Yang Yu: It's never easy to say that the grain has passed the 100 million catties mark. Grain | Yang Yu

The wheat is ripe. Harvesting wheat is a top priority.

In recent days, regions such as Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Anhui, Hubei, and Hebei have been making every effort to harvest wheat. A few days ago, Henan experienced widespread and continuous rainfall, coinciding with the mature harvest period of wheat. The rain didn't come at the right time. A bountiful harvest is in sight and in the fields, and at a critical moment, there is an urgent need to seize grain from the dragon's mouth. Summer harvest and summer sowing, rushing to harvest and bake, farmers are working day and night.

Nineteen consecutive harvests, which harvest was not snatched out. The winter wheat harvest from last summer was hit by autumn floods during the previous year's sowing, with one-third of the crops sown late and frequent outbreaks of the epidemic during the harvest. The farmers fought hard all the way, took good care of them, rushed to harvest and plant, and ultimately achieved a bountiful summer harvest. Truly fulfilling that sentence, things are not difficult until they have gone through.

For food, it is particularly important to always feel uneasy. For a bountiful harvest, one must not be aesthetically fatigued. The national grain production has remained stable at over 1.3 trillion catties for eight consecutive years. Has the food problem been resolved despite years of abundant harvests?

"We can't talk lightly about food passing at any time." General Secretary Xi Jinping said so.

The implementation of a new round of action to increase grain production capacity by billions of kilograms is a major task that the Chinese agricultural industry is currently busy with. Highlighting that "1.3 trillion pounds" is not enough, we still need to take it to the next level.

Why is "not enough"? Two reasons——

One is that the world is experiencing unprecedented changes, full of uncertainty, and having food in hand is becoming increasingly important. Food security is an extremely important national security. In history, during the Spring and Autumn period, the state of Qi first induced the state of Lu to abandon grain and plant mulberry, and later surrendered to the state of Lu after running out of grain; King Goujian of Yue cooked the seeds and presented them as tribute to the state of Wu, and then took advantage of its poor harvest to annihilate Wu in one fell swoop. Today, whenever there is a disturbance in the world, food often ranks among the most vulnerable. In the international market, even if you have money, you won't be able to buy it, and even if you buy it, you won't be able to ship it back.

The truth is this: if there is a problem with the food, no one can save us. In terms of food, we must ensure that we are not choked. The coefficient of food security needs to be higher, even higher.

Secondly, the demand for food among over 1.4 billion Chinese people is still increasing, with higher quality and a demand for more quantity. People open their mouths every day to eat not only grains but also meat, eggs, and milk. "One pound of meat and five pounds of grain", the demand for grain consumption is undergoing structural changes. Like corn, which accounts for nearly 40% of China's grain production, its main use is as feed grain and ultimately needs to be converted into meat, eggs, and milk.

Everything is leisurely, and eating is important. Eat well, eat well, and also eat healthily.

So, one must hold onto their own rice bowl.

In the past decade of the new era, China's grain production capacity has increased by 140 billion kilograms. Raising it to a hundred billion pounds will make it even more difficult. To increase production capacity, from a global perspective, the key is still to focus on the two key aspects of arable land and seeds. Resolutely guarding the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land, resolutely curbing "non agriculturalization", effectively preventing "non grainification", and adhering to the principle of using good farmland and grain. Promote the research and development of key agricultural core technologies and the revitalization of the seed industry, and firmly grasp the dominant varieties in one's own hands. In terms of varieties, wheat and rice are nearing the ceiling and need to be improved, but we need to rely more on corn and soybeans to stabilize our food intake, corn, expand soybeans, and expand our oilseed crops. From a means perspective, we should focus on increasing yield per unit area, demand output and production capacity from technology, and promote the rapid increase of yield per unit area for major grain and oil crops.

Grain production capacity is not a question of whether or not to increase, but a question that must be raised and accelerated. One point increase in production capacity will stabilize food security. While busy with increasing production capacity, we also need to promote conservation and loss reduction. According to estimates from relevant institutions, China loses and wastes over 22.7% of its food annually, approximately 920 billion pounds. If half of it can be recovered, it would be enough for 190 million people to eat for a year. In addition to seeking food from traditional farmland, we also need to reflect the "big food concept", seek food from forests, rivers, lakes, and seas, seek food from facility agriculture, and seek heat and protein from plants, animals, and microorganisms.

To pay attention to food, we need to care for farmers, help them, and support them. Farmers can earn money by growing grain, and only then can grain production be guaranteed. According to the deployment of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, this year we will continue to improve the mechanism for ensuring the benefits of grain farmers, and improve the policy system of integrating prices, subsidies, and insurance. The minimum purchase price for wheat this year is 1.17 yuan per kilogram, and for early indica rice it is 1.26 yuan, both of which are 2 cents higher than the previous year, for three consecutive years and four consecutive years respectively.

In Henan these days, while rushing to harvest wheat, we have also opened a green channel for agricultural insurance, including wheat sprouting and damage in the scope of claims. The relevant departments require that claims for disaster losses be made as soon as possible and that all claims be made. Make every effort to "snatch" the wheat from the field and minimize the losses of the farmer brothers.

The people are the foundation of the country, and the valley is the destiny of the people.After more than a decade of continuous efforts, today China's self-sufficiency rate in grain is over 100%, the self-sufficiency rate in grains is over 95%, and the per capita share of grain is about 480 kilograms, which is higher than the internationally recognized food security line of 400 kilograms, achieving basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute food security.

No matter what the wind or rain, our hearts are fixed. At the same time, around food security, the whole country also has a basic mentality of being prepared for danger in times of peace, and has a state of looking at potential from the gap and making further efforts.

The wheat is ripe. The maturity of each season is nurtured by the efforts of the farmers and the whole society.

Harvest is never easy to come by. Every year's harvest does not necessarily mean that the next year's harvest can come automatically.