Recently, drought has occurred in many places in my country due to multiple factors such as insufficient precipitation. There are severe and above meteorological droughts in Shaanxi, Henan and other provinces. Among them, there are particularly droughts in southwestern Shaanxi and other places.
It is currently a critical period for wheat production, and spring irrigation is the key to ensuring stable production and supply of grain and important agricultural products in summer and even throughout the year. How to solve the problem of water use in summer grain? How to ensure grain production?
On May 14, The Paper learned from the Rural Water Conservancy and Hydropower Department of the Ministry of Water Resources that thanks to the early planning and early deployment, the total water storage volume of 9,520 key reservoirs across the country exceeds 440 billion cubic meters, which is nearly 10% more than the same period in previous years, which can effectively ensure the use of water for spring irrigation.
"The fundamental solution to the problem of relying on the weather is to promote farmland water conservancy." Xu Dezhi, deputy director of the Rural Water Conservancy and Hydropower Department, said that my country's irrigation and drainage engineering system has been gradually improved, and its ability to withstand droughts and floods has been effectively improved, which has laid a solid foundation for ensuring national food security.
The northern grain-producing provinces encountered special drought
The Central Meteorological Observatory continued to issue a yellow warning for meteorological drought at 18:00 on May 13: According to real-time meteorological drought monitoring, there are severe and above meteorological droughts in provinces such as Shaanxi, Henan, and Gansu, among which there are particularly droughts in southwestern Shaanxi and southwestern Henan.
On May 14, the Central Meteorological Observatory predicts that from now to the 19th, there will be no effective precipitation in central and western Huanghuai, southern North my country, and Guanzhong, Shaanxi, etc., and the daily maximum temperature will be above 32℃, of which will exceed 35℃ from the 16th, 18th to the 19th, and locally it can reach above 37℃.
In April, the Shaanxi Provincial Meteorological Bureau issued an early warning that the precipitation in Shaanxi Province was relatively low this spring and drought appeared. Especially since late March, the average precipitation in the province was the least in the same period since 1961, and the average temperature was the third highest in the same period since 1961.
On May 12, the special report of the Drought Situation of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Water Resources showed that multiple departments of the Provincial Department of Water Resources discussed to maintain the emergency response of Level IV in the Drought Defense in Shaanxi Province.
The water conservancy department has dispatched spring irrigation water in advance
Since this year, due to the "La Nina" state, the national precipitation has been reduced by nearly 30% compared with the same period last year. It is the critical period of summer grain production, how to ensure water for grain production?
Xu Dezhi told The Paper that the Ministry of Water Resources has always planned the spring irrigation work for the next year when the reservoir is stored in water after the autumn. All river basin management agencies have strengthened water allocation to ensure irrigation water in the basin. Starting from February 19, the drainage flow of the Dalangdi Reservoir will be up to 1,100 cubic meters per second; starting from April 8, the Three Gorges Reservoir will be implemented for spring irrigation and water replenishment. At the same time, we guide local governments to actively understand their assets, fully tap the storage capacity and water supply potential of existing water conservancy engineering facilities, and accumulate sufficient irrigation water sources.
At the engineering level, accelerate the filling of shortcomings in irrigation and drainage facilities. After the video conference on winter and spring farmland water conservancy and high-standard farmland construction last year, the Ministry of Water Resources seized the implementation of the spirit of the meeting, urged and guided all localities to seize the opportunity to carry out winter and spring repairs, solve the problems of poor water supply through channels and bottlenecks, and accelerate the completion of the irrigation area construction and renovation projects and the restoration of disaster-destroying irrigation and drainage projects; guided all localities to accelerate the preliminary work of the "two-fold" construction projects in the water conservancy field, and plan to start a number of new modernization construction and renovation projects of large and medium-sized irrigation areas.
At the management level, guide the implementation of scientific irrigation. Adhere to the control of the total amount of irrigation water and the management of quota, guide farmers to irrigate scientifically and reasonably according to the irrigation method, and inform them when and how much water will be irrigated at a time. Make full use of the results of the digital twin irrigation area to achieve precise irrigation through information monitoring and perception, optimize the allocation of water resources.
For example, Jiangxi Ganfu Plain Irrigation Zone has achieved a 5-minute irrigation allocation plan for the next 10 days, and the water release dispatch time has been greatly shortened. The irrigation area of the Shule River Basin in Gansu has formed an integrated irrigation model of "reservoir + backbone channels + digital twins + high-standard farmland", achieving timely and appropriate amounts of automatic and precise irrigation as needed, and the average irrigation water per mu can be saved by more than 5%.
Large and medium-sized irrigation areas play the role of the main force in food security
As the impact of global climate change intensifies, the climate has become increasingly unstable in recent years. For food production, how to solve the problem of relying on the weather to make a living?
"The agricultural proverb has the saying that 'Whether there is harvest or not depends on water, and more harvest or less harvest depends on fertilizer'." Xu Dezhi said that irrigation areas can play a main role in ensuring grain production. Data shows that in 2024, the grain output produced on the irrigation area of arable land accounts for about 80% of the total national output.
Xu Dezhi explained that the proportion of grain output in irrigation area changes dynamically, which is closely related to the climatic conditions and irrigation water supply situation in each year. In the first two years, it was 76% and 77%. Last year, the major grain-producing areas such as North China and Huanghuai encountered spring drought. Rain-raising agriculture outside the irrigation area decreased production, and the proportion of grain production produced on the irrigation area of arable land further increased. In addition, the irrigation area of arable land has continued to increase in recent years. Last year, the central government increased its investment and supported the modernization construction and transformation of more than 1,000 irrigation areas. The irrigation area of arable land has grown to more than 1.08 billion mu, the irrigation conditions have been greatly improved, and the replanting index has been improved. The average yield of irrigation areas has reached 1.5 to 2 times the national average, and 2.5 to 3 times the dry land.
"It is precisely based on the role of irrigation areas as the main force in ensuring grain production that the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Water Resources continue to promote the modernization construction and transformation of large and medium-sized irrigation areas." Xu Dezhi said that this year, the country has included the modernization construction and transformation of large and medium-sized irrigation areas in the "two-fold" implementation plan in the water conservancy field for key support. The goal of developing arable land irrigation area to about 1.2 billion mu by 2035 is expected to be accelerated, and the role of the main force in food security in large and medium-sized irrigation areas will be further played.
