As the weather is becoming warm, people are busy doing spring plowing. Currently, it is the season of spring plowing. Various areas in Chongming are seizing the agricultural season and making every effort to promote spring plowing preparation work such as turning green manure into spring mud to better protect the rice, laying a solid foundation for increasing rice production and harvests throughout the year, and building a solid bottom line for food security.

At the Bainong Rice Planting Base of Chongming Rice Industry Group in Tongji Village, Miaozhen Town, two rotary tillers are operating at full power, plowing back and forth. Accompanied by the roaring sound of machines, acres of promising broad bean green manure was plowed, crushed, and returned to the field, injecting fertility into the soil. Agricultural machinery galloping and plowing, birds chasing and foraging, a unique picture of spring plowing is presented.

Feng Jiagen, Deputy Director of the Chongming District Agricultural Technology Promotion Center, told that broad bean is a high-quality green fertilizer with the good nitrogen fixation ability. In 2022, there are varieties of autumn sown green manure in Chongming, including broad beans, rapeseed, and purple milkvetch, with planting areas of 123,600 mu, 4,500 mu, and 1,100 mu, respectively. Green manure is a pure natural organic fertilizer that is rich in various nutrients necessary for plant growth, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. After returning green manure to the field, it can reduce the application of chemical fertilizers to the next batch of crop, reduce chemical fertilizers and increase efficiency, help promote the high-quality development of green agriculture, and promote the green development of rice industry.

Planting and utilizing green manure is an important means to improve the quality of arable land and achieve increased production and income. It plays a unique role in ensuring food security and achieving rural revitalization. To continuously improve farmers' enthusiasm for planting green manure, Chongming implements a unified supply model for green manure seeds. Last autumn, Chongming distributed 1,115.76 tons of broad bean seeds, 2.77 tons of purple milkvetch seeds, and 4.25 tons of rapeseed seeds for free. Besides, this year, the agricultural department of Chongming increased the subsidy for green manure to farmers from RMB330 to RMB360 per acre, further benefiting farmers.

It is learnt that about 130,000 acres of green manure in the entire region are currently being plowed in an orderly manner according to the plan. After the completion of grass cultivation and mechanical leveling, it is expected to start rice planting and machine transplanting operations in mid to late May. Chongming will resolutely implement the strategy of storing grain in the ground and storing grain in technology in the next step, carry out in-depth technical publicity and training on green manure planting, mobilize farmers to plant green manure and make good use of the new round of green manure subsidy policies, so that green manure can truly play its ecological and economic benefits, and promote the better development of Chongming agriculture.