WITH the start of the summer wheat harvest in eastern China’s Anhui Province, the provincial authorities have emphasized the need to minimize grain losses at every stage of the process. About 200,000 harvesters are expected to participate in the summer harvest across Anhui, which is home to about 2.87 million hectares of wheat fields. Anhui has boosted efforts to improve its harvesting operations and achieved solid results in recent years. The province achieved a wheat harvest loss rate of less than 2% last year. Various activities aimed at reducing grain losses were held across the province. Wang Guang, a skilled farm machinery operator, won a wheat machinery harvesting competition held in the city of Fuyang, boasting an impressively low wheat loss rate of only 0.33%. “It is crucial to thoroughly inspect and maintain your harvester before heading to the farm, replacing any vulnerable parts in time. During the harvesting process, one must adjust the speed appropriately based on the thinness of the wheat,” Wang said. “We have organized 29 grain-loss reduction activities, including publicity campaigns and training sessions, with more than 5,600 farm machinery operators participating,” said Wu Jing, director of Fuyang’s agricultural machinery development center. Through those activities, farmers have learned how to choose better tools and the best harvesting time. They have also paid more attention to the crop height and the reaping speed. All of those factors can help reduce the grain losses, Wu said. The loss rate of machine harvesting in Fuyang is currently controlled at about 1%, which is expected to lead to a reduction in grain losses of more than 35 million kg, Wu said. (Xinhua) | 