Spring plowing in full swing in Huanjiang

Spring plowing is currently in full swing in Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county of Hechi. While doing its best to prevent and control the novel coronavirus pneumonia, Huanjiang has been busy advancing the preparations for spring agricultural work.

The county has taken various measures, including distributing publicity materials, putting up banners, and online promotion, to strengthen spring plowing-related policy advocacy. A total of 130,000 masks were handed out to farmers to urge them to prepare for the spring plowing.

It has released this year's spring plowing plan, with the plantation area of grain in the county reaching 320,000 mu (21,333.33 hectares). The cultivation area of corn should exceed 121,200 mu in this year's spring plowing, while that of soybeans is planned to be 14,100 mu and sweet potatoes will be 19,000 mu.

The newly planted area of mulberries in the county in this year's spring plowing should be 0.3 mu, while that of tea-oil trees is 30,000 mu.

A technician teaches the planting techniques of tea-oil trees to farmers in Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county of Hechi to prepare for this year's spring plowing. [Photo/Hechi Daily]

Detailed plans to promote the high yield of grain and oil in 2020 have also been made by the county. It is scheduled to build a county-level demonstration base for selenium-rich rice production of more than 300 mu and two township-level demonstration bases for selenium-rich agricultural products of over 100 mu.

Huanjiang has also decided to invest 60 million yuan ($8.47 million) in the eight projects to build irrigation ditches of a total length of 55,000 meters.

The county has also carried out comprehensive maintenance of farm machinery to ensure high quality spring plowing. To date, more than 2,300 of the over 7,000 farm machinery in service in the county have been examined and maintained.

Agricultural resources, such as rice and corn seeds, as well as organic fertilizers, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides have been well prepared in the county.

By March 22, the county has prepared 141 metric tons of hybrid corn seeds and 102 tons of hybrid rice seeds, as well as 31,070 tons of chemical fertilizers, 20,030 tons of organic fertilizers, and 49 tons of pesticides.

Farmers in Huanjiang harvest sugar cane. [Photo/Hechi Daily]

In addition, the county also issued incentive policies to solve the problems of unsalable agricultural products.

A total of 3 million yuan has been taken out by the county government to give subsidies to businesses that help farmers sell more than 20 tons of oranges or over 1,000 poultry.

To date, the county has received traveling merchants from Beijing and Chongqing, as well as the provinces of Liaoning, Fujian, Yunnan, Shandong, Guangdong, Henan, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Jilin, and Hunan, which have purchased a total of 5.88 million jin (half a kilogram) of oranges and 76,000 poultry.

Through online platforms, a total of more than 10,000 jin of oranges and over 200 poultry have been sold.