Grain Harvesting Leads the High-Quality Development of the Corn Industry

Maize is the grain crop with the largest planting area and the largest total output in my country. Properly focusing on corn production plays an important role in ensuring my country’s grain self-sufficiency and national food security. At present, the mechanical harvesting of corn kernels is the "last mile" that restricts the entire mechanization of corn production in my country. Harvesting is the most arduous part of manual labor in the corn production process, accounting for about 50%-60% of the labor input in the entire corn planting process. The development of mechanized corn harvesting can greatly improve production efficiency.

Good seeds, good techniques and good opportunities are the three pillars of mechanical corn harvesting. Reducing the moisture content of corn kernels, mechanical harvesting crushing rate and field loss rate are the key technologies for corn mechanical harvesting. Wang Tianyu, a researcher at the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that machine harvesting of corn grains has special requirements for varieties. Generally, varieties with tolerance to density, lodging resistance, and rapid dehydration in the later stage are selected. The sum of discount rates is below 5%, and the yield is equivalent to that of the main local varieties. In recent years, specialized varieties suitable for machine harvesting of corn grains have continuously emerged. As of 2019, a total of 34 nationally approved corn varieties suitable for machine harvesting of corn grains have been accumulatively approved. The first batch of nationally approved varieties "Jingnongke 728" that are suitable for grain harvesting has reached 6.88 million mu nationwide in 2017-2019. The promotion and application of machine-harvested varieties such as "Jingnongke 728", "Zhengyuanyu 432", and "Fengde Cunyu No. 10" have laid a solid foundation for technology promotion.

Experts believe that to promote the harvest of corn kernels, more concerted efforts should be made. For example, the formation of a production model of "agricultural materials + agricultural machinery + finance + planting" of different scales and different operating modes, a collection, storage and transportation model of drying, processing, storage, and sales, and the introduction of new formats such as "grain banks" to promote corn production Large-scale and industrialized operations, further rationalize the needs of each link before, during and after production, and explore production models and development mechanisms under different scale operations.