“Saving grain and reducing losses is equivalent to boosting production and securing supply, and safeguarding national food security. Yet much remains to be done to reduce post-harvest losses,” said Wu Jiejun, a deputy to National People’s Congress (NPC) and chief engineer of Hunan Chenzhou Grain and Oil Machinery Co., Ltd. in an interview on March 6.

With over 30 years of research in grain machinery, Wu has found through research and analysis that there are still some problems in drying, storage, processing, logistics and other links after grain harvest.

Fast harvesting outpaces the drying speed, compromising grain quality. High cold-chain logistics expenses and a lack of specialized grain transport equipment drive heavy losses. Manual inspection during grain intake and dispatch introduces inconsistencies. Aging equipment and obsolete technologies at some grain storage and processing enterprises lead to high grain losses, and low yields.

While “preserving every single grain” remains the basic goal of grain storage, “preserving every single grain in its fresh state” is the upgraded target for the entire post-harvest chain.

Wu Jiejun proposed embedding a “preserving freshness" across grain drying, storage, processing, and logistics, and leveraging big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things to reconstruct the grain industry’s full-chain ecosystem. This shift, he said, will foster new productive forces, and promote the transition of grain technology from “extensive storage” to “refined preservation”.

Wu Jiejun called for “rapid fresh grain drying, low temperature, high-efficiency, high-quality drying, and green energy-saving drying” principles.

He urged wider application of low-temperature, high-efficiency batch-type grain dryers to match the fast speed of modern harvesters, ensuring grains are dried promptly to avoid spoilage while preserving quality and cutting energy use.  

As for grain intake and dispatch, Wu Jiejun suggested replacing manual grain quality checks with automated systems to minimize human error, promoting large-capacity cleaners with self-cleaning screens for stable, eco-friendly, and efficient operations, and upgrading vertical elevators to flexible, self-cleaning models to lower breakage and residue rates. He also recommended flexible loading equipment for squat silo to reduce grain damage, mitigate impurities segregation, and cut grain leveling workload.

Furthermore, to cope with insufficient R&D investment by some grain equipment manufacturing enterprises, Wu Jiejun proposed strengthening policy support for scientific and technological innovation, building a collaborative innovation system, optimizing the industrial development environment, supporting breakthroughs in  core technologies and providing clear guidance for enterprise innovation to enhance global competitiveness.

Chinese source: