20 days left for the remaining 13.3 million hectares, 1,792 regional emergency centres, 280,000 crawler combines and 70,000 dryers

As reported by CCTV+, winter wheat harvesting in China has exceeded 40 percent. A total of 9.53 million hectares has been collected. Authorities are stepping up the deployment of emergency machinery to ensure a record harvest, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Wednesday.

Harvesting in southwestern and central China’s Hubei province has already been completed. In the main producing Huang-Huai-Hai region, the harvest has now peaked. Mechanised harvesting exceeds 1.33 million hectares per day for two consecutive days.

In Henan province, 4 million sets of agricultural machinery have been mobilised to ensure timely wheat collection and avoid delays in summer planting. In Anhui province, 792 emergency harvesting teams have been coordinated, forming a one-hour response network across the province.

More than 4 million hectares of winter wheat in eastern China’s Shandong province is gradually ripening. Although more than 80 percent of the local wheat was sown late in autumn due to floods that caused poor seedling emergence, timely field management has resulted in better-than-expected growth. A record harvest is now in sight.

In Tancheng County, the area has been divided into 13 operational zones for phased harvesting. This guarantees that all 45,300 hectares of wheat will be collected during the optimal harvest window.

Xu Jie, director of the Agricultural Machinery Technology Promotion Centre of Tancheng County’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, explained: “This year, our county mobilised more than 11,000 sets of agricultural machinery for the ‘Three Summers’ production period (summer harvest, summer planting and summer field management). With possible rainy weather in mind, we have prepared emergency equipment, including crawler combines and dryers.”

In the main Huang-Huai-Hai production region, 1,792 regional agricultural emergency assistance centres and 4,976 regular emergency response teams have been organised. More than 280,000 crawler combines and over 70,000 dryers of various types have been mobilised. All these resources are aimed at ensuring timely harvesting and thorough drying of the ripe wheat.

Wang Jiayun, deputy director of the Agricultural Mechanisation Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, stated: “In the event of natural disasters during the summer harvest period, we will immediately activate the inter-provincial mutual aid and cooperation mechanism to coordinate emergency responses. Currently, wheat harvesting is proceeding efficiently and orderly. We aim to complete the remaining task of harvesting more than 13.3 million hectares of wheat in about 20 days.”

The Huang-Huai-Hai region is China’s largest agricultural area, covering Henan, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, where the bulk of the country’s winter wheat is produced.

Forty percent is behind. Ahead — 13.3 million hectares and 20 days. The numbers are huge. But the main thing is readiness. Four million machines, 1,792 emergency centres, 280,000 combines. Everything works as a single mechanism to ensure not a single grain is lost. The weather may fail, the soil may deceive, but people have prepared. Emergency teams, dryers, crawler combines — all on standby. Chinese bread does not tolerate haste. It demands precision. And when the last ear is harvested, it will become clear: a record harvest is not luck. It is a system. One that works even under rain.