Farmers are busy sowing in Baise, Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on February 25, 2023. Photo: VCG

The Chinese government and farmers are ramping up efforts to secure stable food production this year, with the expansion of plant fields and adopting of more automatic machinery, as the spring plowing season kicks off. 

From the leading soybean production hub in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to the rice planting field in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, spring plowing is in in full swing now.

In Huachuan county, Heilongjiang Province, busy scenes can be seen across local soybean planting fields, with fertilizing work already underway. Instead of having farmers working in the field, automatic machines are used to make spring planting more efficient.

Wang Guicheng, a farmer and also a director of the Huachuan county's rural cooperatives, told the Global Times on Thursday that machinary increases spring plowing efficiency enabling them to expand planting field to 1,800 mu (120 hectares) this year from 1,500 mu last year.

In 2022, the sown area and output of soybeans in Heilongjiang hit the highest level in history, ranking first in the country. With the active preparation for the plowing, many are expecting this year to set a new record for soybean production.

Ji Mengjia, the head of a farm cooperative in Gangbei, Guangxi, told the Global Times that the spring plowing area has covered 10,000 mu, which makes up 70 percent of total farming area in the cooperative. The planting area of more than 3,000 mu has been expanded this year.

In addition, following support from the local government, water supply will be guaranteed from a local dam, Ji said. The efficiency of spring plowing is being monitored via drones.

In a video meeting held by All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives on Wednesday, the Party secretary of the cooperatives Han Liping called for an all-out effort to ensure the supply of agricultural materials for spring plowing so that a solid foundation for a good grain harvest is set. 

The efforts also include prior preparation of fertilizers and pesticide. Since last October, the nation's supply and marketing cooperative system has purchased more than 58 million tons of various fertilizers, a slight increase over the same period in previous years.

Global Times