Original title: full! The "last centimeter" of corn cob tip

Recently, in a thousand mu of fertile land in Sihe Village, Zhaijia Town, Linyi County, Dezhou City, Shandong Province, a sign with the words "One ton and a half grain" is standing nearby. Although the corn will be harvested soon, its stems and leaves are still green. "The living stalks are ripe, and the experts have measured that the weight of a single ear has increased by an average of two liang. This corn is well produced!" As an "old master" of farming, Sun Jingmao, secretary of the Party branch of Sihe Village, has seen the bumper harvest.

The weight gain of a single ear is two liang, which seems not obvious from the size of corn. Sun Jingmao took off a corn cob, peeled off the layers of skin and pulled off the corn whiskers. There was no bald tip or missing grain on the cob. The tip of the cob was full of golden and plump corn grains. This year, this kind of "full corn" accounted for about 80% of the core area of "ton and half grain" production capacity in Zhaijia Town. "In the past, it was very common to lack or not have a grain at 1-3 cm of the tip of the stick. It would be good if half of the corn could 'fill the stick'. So if we want to increase production, we must try to 'fill' the last centimeter of the tip of the stick." Sun Jingmao said.

How to "fill the tip"? Zhang Jiwang, a professor of Shandong Agricultural University and an expert in the national corn industry technology system, is responsible for guiding the pilot field. Some of the pilot fields are in Sihe Village, and all the growth nodes of corn are under their guidance to complete key field management. "The seeds are selected from 'Denghai 1996', which are resistant to lodging and dense planting. The seeds are plump. When sowing, the population structure is reasonable, which can ensure pollination." He said that there are good seeds and good laws, and they need to be implemented, so "secretaries at all levels pay attention to food" is crucial.

As Zhang Jiwang said, "filling the tip of the stick" and "secretary grasping food" played an important role. Encouraged by Zhang Wanli, Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhaijia Town, the Sihe Village Party Branch led the cooperative to increase efforts to create "one ton and half grain". "If Secretary Zhang hadn't encouraged and urged me, I might not have dared to transfer 700 mu of arable land, nor would I be so interested in management." Sun Jingmao said that at the beginning of the establishment of "half a ton of grain" last year, the party branch secretaries of 52 villages in the town all made a military order that "the output of demonstration fields per mu must exceed 3000 kg".

At some key production nodes, village party branch secretaries and other village cadres have to take the lead. During the critical period of maize pest control, some farmers, due to lack of human resources and awareness, sprayed little or no medicine to prevent and control pests. Village cadres mobilized door to door to promote scientific spraying. "There are thousands of moves, but if we don't implement them, there will be no move. The branch is responsible for producing half a ton of grain per mu," said Zhang Wanli.

It is reported that Linyi County has invited agricultural experts at all levels to carry out special training for more than 200 village party branch secretaries and business entity heads, and has established 12 technical guidance groups to carry out technical services by region, link and situation. Since 2019, Linyi County has implemented high standard farmland construction projects for four consecutive years, with a total investment of 394 million yuan and a benefit area of 239000 mu; This year, we will strive for a project fund of 189.15 million yuan to build 97000 mu of high standard farmland.

In addition, Linyi County plans to integrate 100 million yuan of funds for infrastructure construction in the core area of "ton and half grain" production capacity creation. Up to now, a total of 134 kilometers of roads, 55 kilometers of ditch slope lining, 142 kilometers of river channel dredging, 98 bridges and gates, and more than 30000 trees have been built, realizing the goal of "fields forming a square, forests forming a network, canals connecting, and roads connecting". At the same time, Linyi County launched the "2022 Grain Green, High Quality and High Efficiency Action", invested 4.5 million yuan to build 20 key research areas and 5 demonstration areas in 10 towns and villages of the county, radiating and driving the income and efficiency increase of more than 100000 mu of grain in the county; 541 new types of business entities were developed in the core area of "ton and half grain" production capacity creation. The area of land trusteeship and half trusteeship reached 78000 mu, accounting for 78% of the total area of the core area.