The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has deployed measures to guard against widespread cold weather.

　The meteorological authorities forecast several widespread cold spells in the mid-to-late March, with temperatures in the Huanghuaihai, Jiangnan, South China, and Southwest regions expected to drop by 4–10°C on March 16–17. At present, northern winter… Wheat Crops have fully greened up, and by late March they will gradually enter the jointing stage. Rapeseed and fruit trees are successively flowering, while vegetables are being widely transplanted after seedling raising. As a result, their cold resistance has declined, making them more susceptible to frost damage. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has attached great importance to this situation and, on March 14, issued a notice instructing agricultural and rural departments at all levels to take effective measures to guard against falling temperatures, implement proactive disaster prevention and scientifically sound response strategies, strive to mitigate the impacts of adverse weather, and ensure the safety of agricultural production.
　　Strengthen the implementation of responsibilities. Agricultural and rural departments at all levels must, with a focus on weathering disasters and securing a bumper harvest, consciously regard preventing low-temperature frost damage as a key task for current agricultural production. They should conduct sound assessments, provide robust guidance, and make early arrangements to ensure that responsibilities, supplies, and technical support are fully in place, striving for a good yield of summer grain and oil crops as well as other important agricultural and sideline products, thereby laying a solid foundation for achieving a bountiful grain harvest for the year and ensuring the stable development of agricultural production.
　　Strengthen monitoring and early warning. Enhance communication and joint consultations with meteorological authorities, closely track weather changes, and, based on the growth and development stages of crops—particularly winter… Wheat During the jointing stage, conduct region‑specific, crop‑condition‑based, and crop‑type‑specific assessments of the impact of temperature drops; issue timely warnings and implement preventive measures well in advance. Develop and refine targeted frost‑protection and cold‑resistance plans, and provide guidance on the implementation of key technical practices. Strengthen emergency standby arrangements, enhance disaster‑situation coordination, ensure early detection, accurate assessment, prompt verification, consolidation, and reporting, thereby guaranteeing the timeliness and accuracy of information dissemination.
　　Scientific disaster prevention and mitigation. In the winter wheat-growing regions of northern China, farmers should be organized to apply topdressing and irrigate according to local conditions, carry out hoeing and soil compaction, and spray growth regulators to promote the transformation and upgrading of seedling conditions and enhance cold‑resistance and frost‑tolerance. Before temperatures drop, fields with insufficient soil moisture should be promptly irrigated to regulate the microclimate near the surface and mitigate the impact of the cold snap on wheat fields. Following frost damage, nitrogen fertilizer should be applied promptly, along with foliar sprays of fertilizers and growth regulators, to encourage tillers to catch up with larger ones and ensure that more of the larger tillers form productive spikes, thereby reducing the severity of the damage. In southern regions, rice seedling management must be strengthened to prevent seed rot and seedling damping-off caused by low temperatures and prolonged rainy weather; rapeseed field management should also be intensified, with timely applications of boron, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers to improve stress resistance. For fields with standing water, drainage ditches should be cleared and soil conditions improved without delay to reduce waterlogging and salinization. Early implementation of frost‑protection measures for open‑field vegetables and fruit trees is essential, including reinforcing greenhouses and plastic tunnels; after a temperature drop, timely topdressing and hilling should be carried out to facilitate crop recovery and regrowth.
　　Precision guidance services. Early formulation and refinement of technical guidelines for managing crops to prevent low-temperature frost damage, with full utilization of radio, television, newspapers, mobile phones, and the internet to publicize preventive measures. Mobilizing cadres and technical personnel to go directly into the fields, providing targeted, category-specific guidance, and helping farmers implement key frost‑protection and cold‑resistance measures tailored to local conditions, timing, and crop varieties. Ensuring that services reach every household and measures are applied in the fields. Strengthening disaster relief efforts. seed (Miao), Fertilizer 、 Pesticide Arrange and dispatch production materials to meet the needs of disaster relief supplies.

Source: News Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Author: News Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs