Where can you find the “Wind Blowing Wheat Waves”? You will know after reading this article!

"Golden waves of wheat are surging under the blue sky in the distance..." The beautiful scenery described in the lyrics has attracted many people. Wheat has a long history of cultivation in my country. When the breeze blows, the wheat waves roll, and it has been swaying for more than 7,000 years. So where can we most easily see the flourishing scene of "wind-blown wheat waves" today? This starts with the planting distribution of wheat in my country.

Photo by Guangming Daily reporter Cheng Xuehu/Guangming Pictures

Wheat is widely distributed in China, from Hainan Island in the south to Mohe in the north, from Xinjiang in the west to the coast and Taiwan Island in the east, all over the country. From basins to hills, from low plains below 10m above sea level to the Tibetan Plateau above 4000m above sea level, from the cold zone at 53° north latitude to the tropical zone at 18° north latitude, wheat is grown. At present, except for Hainan Province, where there is very little planting and no official statistics on the area, other provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) have different degrees of planting area. Among them, Henan Province has the largest planting area and the highest total output.

my country has a vast territory and diverse geographical and climatic environments, and can grow both winter and spring wheat. At present, my country's wheat natural areas are divided into 4 main areas and 10 sub-areas. The cultivated wheat is mainly winter wheat (autumn and winter sowing), and the planting area and total output account for more than 90% of the total annual wheat area and total output in the country. The rest is spring (sowing) wheat. The average yield of winter wheat is higher than that of spring wheat.

Winter wheat is mainly planted in the main wheat producing areas of China, with the planting area in 11 provinces (regions) including Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei, Sichuan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Shanxi and Gansu, accounting for about 95% of the total winter wheat area in China. The main provinces (regions) for cultivating spring wheat are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Heilongjiang, Ningxia, Tianjin, Hebei and Tibet, with Inner Mongolia having the largest area and Tibet having the highest yield, followed by Xinjiang.

Due to differences in natural conditions in different places, the sowing and maturity periods of wheat are not the same. The shortest growth period is about 80 days, and the longest is more than 350 days. Wheat matures earliest in Guangdong, Yunnan and other places. Some are harvested in early March, and then harvested from south to north in July and August. However, most winter wheat in the main wheat-producing areas matures in May and June, while the Linzhi area of ​​the Tibet Plateau can be delayed to late September. It is the latest area in China for wheat to mature, and its autumn-sown wheat takes nearly a year from planting to harvesting. Wheat in Taiwan Province is generally sown in mid-to-late October and harvested in March of the following year. The varieties used are winter (autumn) sown spring wheat varieties. Therefore, in our country, wheat is sown or harvested in different regions in every season of the year.

Produced by: Popular Science in China to Benefit Farmers

Scientific Advisor: Zhao Guangcai/PhD Researcher Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Co-ordinators: Liao Danfeng, Zheng Fengmao, Wang Changhai, Zhang Ruijie

Planning: Wu Yuetong and Lin Jiaxin

Editor: Meng Hanlei (internship)