An agricultural machinery operator drives a harvester at a farm in Bozhou, East China's Anhui Province on May 27, 2022. As Grain in Ear, a traditional Chinese calendar day signaling a proper time for farming, approaches, local farmers have ratcheted up efforts to either plant or harvest summer grain. Photo: VCG

Area harvested for winter wheat had hit 37.98 million mu (2.53 million hectares) across China as of Saturday, with daily mechanically harvested wheat crops totaling 6.78 million mu, signaling a nationwide rollout of summer wheat harvesting, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Sunday. 

The announcement came on the heels of an official call for efforts to ensure the summer harvest as China aims to coordinate development and security amid the COVID-19 epidemic and an complex global situation.

Wheat harvesting was reaching its end in Southwest China's Sichuan Province and was over 80 percent complete in Central China's Hubei Province. The provinces of Henan and Anhui were some 10 percent done with the harvest, while the harvest season had begun in Jiangsu, Shaanxi and Shanxi, among other provinces, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Agriculture and rural affairs authorities at all levels have moved to coordinate virus prevention and control with summer production and acted in advance to help match supply and demand in mechanized wheat harvesting, initiate emergency harvests and reduce mechanical damage during the harvest, among other preparedness efforts.

Rural authorities are working with healthcare, transport, energy and other bodies to set up special task forces to jointly tackle sticking points that might affect wheat harvesting, thereby smoothing the flows of people and machines, read the statement.

In so doing, wheat crops across the country would be guaranteed access to mechanized harvesting, refueling, component replacement and readily available harvesters, the ministry said, stressing that it was important "not to miss out on the farming season or leave a single grain unharvested." 

The dose of assurance followed remarks by Premier Li Keqiang at a national teleconference on Thursday when he underlined the need for solid efforts to ensure the summer harvest.

The summer harvest is of significance to achieving the country's annual grain production target, stabilizing prices and coordinating virus response with economic and social development, Li said, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The premier urged smooth agricultural equipment and personnel logistics.

Vice Premier Hu Chunhua also addressed the conference, emphasizing efforts to straighten out channels for grain procurement and solve problems in this regard.

More than 2,600 green passages for farming machine transfers have been opened, with upwards of 2,500 reception service stations for mechanical harvesting and concentration stops for farming machines up and running, according to the agriculture ministry.

The ministry has pushed eight major wheat-producing provinces, including Henan, to sign a collaborative agreement on emergency mechanical harvesting and over 5,400 emergency harvesting teams have been established nationwide, as an effective response to wheat harvesting challenges amid virus containment efforts and weather disasters.

More than 900 hotlines on ensuring mechanized wheat harvesting have been made publicly available by local governments at provincial, city and county levels. The hotlines would operate 24 hours a day during the harvest season, the ministry said, disclosing plans to send nine work teams specially devised for oversight of mechanical wheat harvesting to keep a close watch on harvesters' itineraries in provinces such as Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu.