Corn planting in Lianhuashan area starts at 6 am on Saturday.

Spring ploughing is being promoted at full swing in Lianhuashan ecotourism resort area in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, one day after the province on Friday - over 70 days since the province has been fighting the COVID-19 flare-ups - reported zero new cases in both confirmed infection and asymptomatic carriers.

Corn planting in Lianhuashan area started at 6 am on Saturday. From ploughing, fertilizing to seeding, the whole progress was completed in half a day, according to an online live broadcasting launched jointly by the Global Times and China Telecom. 

"Farmers in China are so respectable and lovely" and "the black land in northeastern China really deserves its reputation," netizens expressed their admiration during the broadcasting. The live-broadcasting attracted about 3 million viewers.

"The spring ploughing has been promoted relatively at a normal speed comparing to previous years, despite the difficulties brought about by the coronavirus resurgence in several provinces," Jiao Shanwei, editor-in-chief of industry news website cngrain.com, told the Global Times on Saturday.

The international agriculture market has seen increasing fluctuations this year. Given the Ukraine crisis may persist for a period of time and natural disasters may break out constantly this year, global agriculture commodity prices may remain high, Jiao said.

Chicago soybeans futures were trading around $16 per bushel recently, compared to $12 at the beginning of the year and $8 at the beginning of 2020, according to data platform Trading Economics. 

Under such circumstances, the successful promotion of spring ploughing is of great significance for the overall stable grain production of China, Jiao noted. 

As the spring ploughing is generally conducted from March to May, now the step is reaching an end. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released on Thursday, spring farming has completed 72.4 percent nationwide, 1.8 percentage points higher year-on-year. 

Jilin plans to complete 86 million mu (53.3 million square meters) of grain planting in 2022, with the output stabling at over 80 billion jin (40 billion kilograms) under normal conditions, and soybean planting area being expanded by more than 800,000 mu in key areas.

As of May 3, the sowing of crops in Jilin reached 44.27 million mu, accounting for 48.62 percent of the total area, and the progress is faster than the same period of last year, according to statistics from agricultural department.

Jilin ranks fifth among Chinese provinces with over 38 million tons of annual output, according to official statistics released in 2021.  The local government has been rolling out measures to ensure spring ploughing not be impacted by the COVID-19 flare-ups, including unblocking logistics of agricultural supplies and personnel circulation, as well as subsidizing farmers for fertilizers. 

China has been ramping up efforts to ensure grain production and supply in recent years. Though challenges remain, the overall domestic supply is not a problem, Jiao noted.

"Yet, we still need all-sided efforts to safeguard food security of the nation, from production, harvest, stockpiling to consumption," he said.

Global Times