Mechanization for winter rapeseed expansion and afterburner

Rapeseed is an oil crop
with the greatest potential to improve the self-sufficiency rate of edible vegetable oil in China.
Document No.
1 of the Central Committee this year clearly stated that China will vigorously implement the soybean and oilseed production capacity improvement project, and develop winter idle fields in the Yangtze River Basin to expand the planting of rapeseed
.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has demanded that this year be expanded by 10 million mu
on the basis of about 100 million mu of perennial planting area of rapeseed nationwide.

Mechanized equipment is the key to ensuring the expansion of
winter oilseed rape.
In September this year, during the autumn and winter planting season of rapeseed in the south, the Department of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs organized and guided a number of rapeseed expansion activities
.
On September 13, the special scientific and technological action of agricultural machinery to ensure the expansion of rapeseed was launched, and the Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was entrusted to take the lead in organizing experts in related fields across the country, and the science and technology teams in the southwest area, Xianggan area, Anhui-Hubei area and Suzhou-Zhejiang area were set up to carry out special guidance services
。 From September 26th to 27th, the General Station of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Expert Guidance Group for Mechanization of Rapeseed Production carried out mechanization promotion activities for rapeseed expansion in Jiangxi Province, carried out comprehensive evaluation of the operation effect of rapeseed transplanting machine, and organized technical personnel in agricultural mechanization management, agricultural machinery promotion and agricultural machinery appraisal in 10 key provinces of rapeseed expansion including Hubei, Hunan and Anhui to conduct exchanges and investigations.
.
.
These activities have helped
ensure that China completes the hard task of expanding canola.

Mechanization of rapeseed planting needs to be strengthened urgently

Zhou Qinggan has been associated with rapeseed for more than 30 years, and in addition to his own 78 mu of rapeseed field, he is also responsible for the management of hundreds of mu of rapeseed base of the Jiujiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Jiangxi Province.

Every year in late September, just after harvesting the rice, Zhou Qingjian turns the fields over and plants them with rape.

"When planting canola, you can't wait until October 15, which will affect the yield and the farmers' income
.
" Zhou Qingxian said
.

In reality, the long growth period of canola conflicts with the sowing and harvesting time of rice, and many farmers and enterprises are reluctant to plant canola
for fear of affecting the rice harvest.
The planting area of rapeseed in the "oil-rice" rotation area of the Yangtze River Basin in China accounts for more than
80% of the total rapeseed planting area in China.

"At present, whether farmers are willing to grow rapeseed and how much rapeseed they grow is mainly considered by economic benefits
.
" Wu Chongyou, head of the expert group for the mechanization of rapeseed of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said
.
Only by improving the level of mechanization and improving economic efficiency can farmers be willing to plant rapeseed and the country can achieve the goal of expanding rapeseed seed, and solving the contradiction problem of stubble during the growth period has become the key
.

There are two main ways of canola planting, one is live broadcast, and the other is seedling transplanting
.
Wu Chongyou said: "The problems solved by the two methods are different, it is necessary to adapt to local conditions, suitable for sowing and planting, the advantages of live broadcast are convenience and low cost, but it has the precondition of stubble, and areas with sufficient growth period can use this method
.
" If the growing period is insufficient and it is live, the yield will be very low, and the farmers will not want to plant.

”

The so-called seedling transplanting, that is, first raise the seedlings on the seedbed or cement ground, and then transplant them to the field, so that the rapeseed growth period does not conflict with rice, makes up for the problem of insufficient seedling period of rapeseed and realizes the double prosperity
of oil rice.

"Mechanized seedling transplanting can help China's rapeseed to solve the contradiction of stubble"
.
Wu Chongyou said that in the past, manual transplanting was inefficient, labor-intensive and costly, but now relying on mechanized transplanting, saving time and effort, and high
efficiency.

In 2021, the comprehensive mechanization level of rapeseed in China reached 61.
92%, of which the planting mechanization level was only 38.
81%, and the harvest mechanization rate was close to 50.
97%.

"On the whole, the level of mechanization of rapeseed in China is relatively low, especially the low level of planting mechanization and the relatively high
cost of operation.
" Wu Chongyou said
.
Improving the mechanization level of rapeseed planting has become an urgent need
for the development of China's rapeseed industry.

Blanket seedling transplanting to achieve "space for time"

In mid-October, in the field of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, seedlings that had been bred in advance and resembled grass blankets were placed on special machinery and ready to be planted.
.
.
This is a mechanized transplanting equipment
for rapeseed blanket seedlings developed by the Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, where Wu Chongyou is located.
This year, Jiujiang City purchased 15 blanket seedling joint transplanting machines, and between September 25 and October 10, intensive seedling breeding was carried out, and mechanized transplanting
was carried out in mid-October.

"Through 12 years of scientific and technological research, we have successfully developed a combined transplanting machine for rapeseed blanket seedlings, which not only solves the problem of land competition between rice and rapeseed, but also solves the problem
of poor adaptability and low operation efficiency of transplanting machine under the condition of heavy soil or straw return in rice stubble field.
" Wu Chongyou said
.

Blanket seedlings combined with transplanting machine, using "space for time", changing field seedlings into standardized blanket seedlings, breaking through the traditional ditching or burrow transplanting, relying on loose soil mobility to establish seedlings, creating a new principle
of blanket seedlings cutting into blocks to take seedlings-flat ridge cutting - seam planting.
Even when rice straw is returned to the field, it can be directly transplanted, which greatly improves the production efficiency and quality of seedlings, and achieves the effect of
saving seedlings and seeds.

From September 26th to 27th, at the site of the mechanization promotion of rapeseed expansion, the only three domestic rapeseed transplanting operation tools were comprehensively evaluated
.
Through testing, it was found that the planting quality of the three machine tools reached the industry standard level
.

"Technically, the core problem of rapeseed planting is to preserve seedlings, and transplanting can directly plant seedlings into the soil, and the reliability of seedling preservation is higher
.
" Wu Chongyou said
.

"From the actual effect, traditional manual transplanting, 2 laborers can only transplant 1 acre of land a day, the use of blanket seedling mechanical transplanting new technology, the operation efficiency can reach 5~8 acres / hour, the operation cost is only 1/10
of manual transplanting.
" Zhou Qingxian said
.

Good machinery should be promoted
.
This year, the Department of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other departments and bureaus organized and deployed in Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guizhou and other provinces and cities to carry out experimental demonstrations of mechanization of rapeseed transplanting and promote the expansion of rapeseed planting
.

Do a good job in the technical service guidance of rapeseed mechanization

"In recent years, the price of rapeseed has been good, but last year because of the heavy rainfall, the yield was not high, and this year it encountered drought, which posed great challenges to rapeseed planting, and rapeseed could not be sown at the right time
.
" Zhou Qingxian sighed
.

On September 28, the Xianggan Area Team of the Special Scientific and Technological Action for Agricultural Machinery Guarantee Rapeseed Expansion in Pengze County, Jiangxi Province, learned about this situation and guided
the ongoing live broadcast of rapeseed in combination with soil moisture and drought conditions.
Professor Leng Suohu of Yangzhou University pointed out that arid soil must be compacted after live broadcasting, so that rapeseed can more easily absorb water deep in the soil, so as to achieve higher seedling emergence rate
.
If the compaction treatment is not done, the sowing amount of rapeseed per mu of 6 taels, the seedling emergence rate will not reach 30%, endangering the yield of rape, and even the need for secondary sowing in severe cases
.

On September 29, when the team went to Hukou County to conduct research, it found a similar situation
to Pengze County.
The Hukou field is located on the tidal flats of a tributary of the Yangtze River, and farmers use DJI agricultural drones to carry out rapeseed flying, and team member Zhang Songchao suggested that the suppression should also be carried out after the fly-sowing to promote rapeseed implantation and entropy
preservation.

This year, the task of expanding the planting of rapeseed in Guizhou is 800,000 mu, and the task of planting rapeseed is 8.
37 million mu
.
The science and technology team guided local technicians to carry out rapeseed blanket seedlings in the early stage, explored the mechanized transplanting technology of rapeseed blanket seedlings suitable for local rapeseed blanket seedlings with high emergence rate, good growth and good blanket forming effect, and carried out large-scale promotion and application
in the local area.

From September 26th to September 29th, members of the Ewan Area of the Science and Technology Team went to Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, to carry out research, technical guidance and training on mechanized sowing of rapeseed with the Xiangyang Academy of Agricultural Sciences
.
In view of the specific problems such as high ground wheel slip rate and difficulty in controlling the sowing depth caused by the early drought in Xiangyang area, researcher Zhang Min, captain of the Ewan area of the science and technology team, led the team members into the field to provide professional technical guidance and training to the operator in combination with the sowing equipment
.

Horizontal cooperation and vertical integration, all departments of agricultural machinery across the country work together to jointly promote the expansion of China's rapeseed by another 10 million mu and clench the "oil bottle"
of Chinese.
(Editor Li Chuang)