A natural enemy factory located in Manan Village, Shou'an Township, Pujiang County.
Staff placed predator boxes containing pollinating bumblebees in greenhouses.
Crews collect wild predators in the fields.
Today's topic
The secret of predator prevention and control
Manan Village, Shou'an Township, Pujiang County, about 60 kilometers from downtown Chengdu, doesn't seem to be much different from ordinary villages, but it hides a "secret" - here is the first natural enemy factory in the central and western regions, which can produce 2 billion red-eyed bees and 9 billion predator mites per year.
"We specialize in producing natural enemy insects that eat crop pests to achieve the purpose of treating insects with insects." On the morning of November 26, Ai Pan, general manager of Sichuan Weinong Modern Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sichuan Weinong"), the undertaking unit of the Sichuan Natural Enemy Factory Project, told reporters.
How do predator factories produce predator insects? What role do natural enemy insects play in agricultural production? What is the market outlook? The reporter found out on the spot.
□ reporter Zhang Minghai
A
Insect osamu:
Replacing chemical control with biological control can reduce the use of pesticides
What is a Predator Factory? This has to start with natural enemies insects.
"Predator insects are a type of insect that parasitizes or preys on other insects, and they exist in large quantities in nature, which plays a restrictive role in the occurrence and occurrence of certain pests and disasters, and is conducive to the balance and stability of the ecosystem." Zheng Li, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced.
Yin Yong, director of the Plant Protection Station of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Sichuan Province, introduced that the natural enemy factory specializes in the production of natural enemy insects, such as rice borer red-eyed bees (referred to as red-eyed bees), pasteur-based blunt mites (commonly known as predatory mites), lily aphid bees, ladybirds and so on.
Taking the most widely used natural enemy insect star in biological control, the red-eyed wasp, as an example, it has a good control effect on lepidoptera pests such as rice dimorphic borer. "Because it is a pest egg mass that parasitizes, the effect of the red-eyed bee in controlling the pest is very significant – the pest has not hatched, it has been eaten by the larvae of the red-eyed bee." Ai Pan introduced.
The natural enemy factory has been developed in developed countries in Europe and the United States for many years. Zheng Li introduced that at present, there are about 500 commercial predator companies around the world, producing 350 kinds of natural enemies. Founded in 1967, The Netherlands Coppert Biosystems Co., Ltd. (Koppert) is the largest natural enemy company, with annual sales of 1.6 billion yuan.
According to the statistics of the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center from 2007 to 2016, China's dependence on chemical pesticides to control crop pests still accounts for about 90%. The use of pesticides is large and the number of drugs is used, which not only pollutes the environment, kills natural enemies, but also leads to excessive pesticide residues in agricultural products and improved pest resistance.
In Yin Yong's view, it is the trend of the times to treat insects with insects and replace chemical control with biological control. On the other hand, the people's requirements for the quality and quality of agricultural products are getting higher and higher, "the promotion of natural enemy prevention and control technology, to a certain extent, can be said to be the 'correction' of excessive use of pesticides, which is of great significance to promoting high-quality and green development of agriculture."
Will the use of predator control technology lead to a reduction in crop yields? Yin Yong denied, "The effect of natural enemy control is comparable to chemical control, not only will it not affect crop yields, but it can increase biodiversity, protect the ecological environment, and improve the quality and safety of agricultural products."
But at the same time, Zhang Chen, a scientific researcher at the Sichuan Weinong Natural Enemy Factory, stressed that the prevention and control of natural enemies also has two sides, which can achieve the desired effect within the controllable range, and if it exceeds the control range, it may also have certain side effects on the ecological environment. At the same time, ecosystems have the ability to regulate themselves and can recover on their own to a certain extent."
B
What a factory is like
Natural enemies are collected from the wild and bred at constant temperature and humidity
On November 26, the reporter walked into the 3500 square meters of natural enemy factory plant area, rice moth breeding workshop, red-eyed bee inoculation workshop, predator mite breeding workshop, packaging workshop, cold storage, food disinfection room, seed preservation room, etc. Are readily available, and scientific researchers complete the entire process from breeding, inoculation, expansion, packaging to refrigeration here.
Lu Lin is a scientific researcher at the Predator Factory, mainly responsible for the collection, identification, seed preservation, cultivation and release of predators. "We use predators adapted to local agro-ecosystems, and the sources of natural enemies are collected from the wild." Lu Lin introduced that taking the red-eyed bee as an example, May to October is the most suitable peak season for collecting red-eyed bees, "this bee is only about 0.6 mm long, generally invisible to the naked eye, and can only be observed with a microscope."
"We generally collect red-eyed bees in two ways." According to Lu Lin, one is to use the egg card placed in the field to provide a parasitic environment for the red-eyed bee to lure the red-eyed bee, and the other is to collect the borer egg mass directly in the field - the red-eyed bee parasitizes in the egg blocks of these borers.
After the collection is returned, the indoor expansion is carried out. "We provide constant temperature and humidity breeding conditions for natural enemies such as the red-eyed bee. Red-eyed wasps reproduce quickly, breeding in just 10 days, and each mating female produces more than 30 eggs. Yin Yong figuratively called this process "raising baby pandas", "Giant pandas are originally wild species, because the number is scarce, we increase the number of giant pandas through artificial breeding, and then release it into the wild." The same is true of the expansion of predators."
Talking about the process of establishing the factory of natural enemies, Ai Pan was deeply impressed. "During the meeting of the Provincial Plant Protection Society in 2015, plant protection experts proposed that there are already natural enemy factories in the coastal and northeastern regions, but the central and western regions are still blank, which makes me very touched. After inspecting the natural enemy factories and scientific research institutes in other parts of the country, we felt that it was imperative to build a natural enemy factory in Sichuan. ”
Yin Yong introduced that in 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission announced the "National Animal and Plant Protection Engineering Capacity Improvement Project Plan", which plans to build three natural enemy factories in Sichuan, Beijing and Shandong. The cumulative investment in the Sichuan Natural Enemy Factory project is nearly 30 million yuan, of which the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs provide 6 million yuan of support funds, and Sichuan Weinong self-financing funds exceed 20 million yuan. The factory introduced experts such as Zang Liansheng, member of the Biological Control Professional Committee of the Entomological Society of China and researcher of Jilin Agricultural University, Zhang Gecheng, researcher of citrus research institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as chief scientific and technological consultants, and carried out full cooperation with school-enterprise and institute-enterprise cooperation with Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chongqing University, Southwest University, etc., and has reached an annual production capacity of 2 billion red-eyed bees and 9 billion predatory mites.
C
How to deliver
Cold chain logistics is transported to the drop-off site, where predators are mixed with food and fed into the field
Using natural enemy prevention and control, Tang Chaobing, the head of the Guofeng Jinsui Grain Planting Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Anzhou District, Mianyang City, was "the first person to eat crabs." Tang Dynasty soldiers planted about 2,000 acres of rice fields, plus other members, the cooperative has a total of more than 3,000 acres of rice, adopting a rice-duck co-cultivation model, can not play pesticides, "pesticides, ducks can not be stopped." ”
In July this year, Tang Dynasty soldiers contacted Sichuan Weinong and used 200 acres to conduct biological prevention and control experiments on natural enemies. "We compared the experimental plots with the ordinary plots and found that the proportion of rice second-generation borers was very low, and the growth of ducks was not affected in any way." Tang Chaobing said that this year the cooperative will promote the prevention and control of natural enemies to 3,000 acres of rice fields.
The red-eyed bee used by the Tang Dynasty soldiers was tested in practice. "We do two to three years of trials before we launch a product, and then we factory produce it when the technology is mature, and then we put it on the market." Ai Pan introduced that at present, the factory has launched two main products of red-eyed bees and predatory mites, the former is mainly used in rice borer control, and the latter is mainly used in the control of red spiders in citrus, tea, kiwifruit, strawberries and other cash crops. ”
How are these predator insects released? "Predators generally hatch quickly and need to be released into the field as soon as possible. This is also the reason why natural enemies in other places do not necessarily adapt to the local ecological environment and are difficult to promote on a large scale. Ai Pan introduced that the company is equipped with two cold chain logistics vehicles, "through the cold chain transportation of natural enemies insect eggs, at present, only we have done it in the country." "From the factory to the field, you can reach any drop-off site in the province within 36 hours.
How do I do this when it comes to delivery? "It's all about mixing predators with predators. For red-eyed bees, plant protection drones are used to drop release balls containing insect eggs; predator mites are bagged and sprinkled directly on the surface of the crop. Lu Lin said that in general, an acre of rice into 3 red-eyed bee release balls will hatch more than 10,000 red-eyed bees, and the entire growing season will be put into 3 times, with a total cost of about 50 yuan; an acre of tea garden puts 50 bags of predatory mites, each bag is not less than 1500 heads, and the cost is about 150 yuan.
There are also technical requirements for launching. "It is best to release the pest during the peak period, which requires the local plant protection station to accurately predict the occurrence and control time of the pest." Ai Pan said.
D
Prospects for prevention and control
The cost is high but the quality improvement is obvious, which needs to be guided by the government and promoted by the market
"The cost of natural enemy prevention and control is higher than that of chemical control, and it is generally 20%-30% higher per mu." Yin Yong introduced to reporters and asked rhetorically: "But why are more and more growers willing to use natural enemy prevention and control technology?" ”
Yin Yong analyzed that on the surface, the cost of natural enemy prevention and control is higher, but compared with chemical control, it has the effect of continuous pest control, and after two or three years of continuous prevention and control of natural enemies, the occurrence of pests has decreased year by year. On the other hand, the prevention and control of natural enemies brings good output effects, "mainly reflected in the improvement of the quality and safety level of agricultural products, the use of pesticides is less, agricultural products are safe, and the price will go up." As a result, growers are becoming more and more receptive. ”
Liu Fucheng, director of the Pujiang County Agricultural and Rural Bureau, introduced that the application effect of natural enemy prevention and control in the county this year is obvious, "There is a company that uses natural enemy prevention and control technology, sugar oranges have not yet been listed on the market by supermarket reservations, the land price sold to 6 yuan / jin, twice the price of general sugar oranges." ”
However, at present, biological prevention and control in our province, including natural enemy prevention and control technology, only accounts for about 10% of the area of pest control, and the national situation is not optimistic. Zheng Li introduced: "China's natural enemy industrialization has progressed rapidly, there are more than 20 enterprises, most of which are born from scientific research units, but the scale is small, the technical force is weak, the lack of funds, the level of industrialization is low, and the overall is in its infancy. ”
To promote the sustainable development of natural enemy factories, Yin Yong said that the guidance of the government and the market is indispensable.
Zheng Li introduced that Jilin Province has been purchasing red-eyed bees through government procurement for more than a decade in a row; Beijing has invested 30 million yuan in financial funds every year since 2017 to subsidize agricultural entities that use natural enemies and pollinator insect products.
Yin Yong introduced that starting next year, Sichuan will launch a biological control alternative chemical control strategy. "We will focus on the construction of the '10+ 3' modern agricultural industry system, focus on the modern agricultural demonstration park, carry out biological control alternative chemical control demonstration, and give certain subsidies to biological control, including the input of natural enemies."
Pujiang County is more active in promotion because it is closer to the natural enemy factory. "This year, we have carried out demonstration and promotion of natural enemy prevention and control of more than 10,000 mu of citrus, tea and kiwifruit in the form of government purchases, and will further expand the scope next year."
The promotion of marketization must also keep up. "Relying solely on government subsidies is not enough, government guidance can only be exemplary, more or rely on enterprises to expand." Yin Yong said.
As the first natural enemy production enterprise in the central and western regions, Ai Pan introduced that after market testing, the confidence of the factory is more sufficient, and it has now promoted 70,000 mu of socialized services including natural enemy prevention and control technology in Chengdu, Mianyang, Nanchong, Yibin, Zigong, Luzhou and other places.
Sichuan Weinong has also gained a lot of fame in the agricultural "circle of friends" in the central and western regions. When the reporter visited, it coincided with a group of people from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Guizhou Province who came to inspect and issued an invitation to Sichuan Weinong on the spot, hoping to go to Guizhou to inspect and build a natural enemy factory.