Why has the north become China’s main grain-producing area due to lack of water resources?

First of all, the most basic condition for becoming a major grain-producing area is not water resources, but topography. The reason why the north has become the main grain-producing area is mainly because the cultivated land area in the north is relatively large, and the cultivated land is based on plain terrain. In this regard, the north has inherent advantages, such as the North China Plain, the Northeast Plain, the Guanzhong Plain, the Huangshan Plain, and the Yellow River Plain. Medium and large plains such as Huai Plain and Jiao Lai Plain are basically located in the north.

Although there are many plains in the south, such as the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain, the Chengdu Plain, and the Xuanyu Plain, the area of ??these plains is simply incomparable to the area of ??the northern plains.

For example, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain is the largest plain in the south. In fact, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain is the collective name of 6 non-connected plains. The largest one is the Jianghan Plain, covering an area of ??46,000 square kilometers, but The Jianghan Plain is not as large as the Guanzhong Plain in the north, and the Guanzhong Plain can only be considered medium-sized in the north.

To give another more obvious example, Fujian has four major plains, Putian Plain, Zhangzhou Plain, Fuzhou Plain, and Quanzhou Plain. The largest plain is the Zhangzhou Plain, covering an area of ??566 square kilometers, but the Zhangzhou Plain If you move to the north, you may not even think of it as a plain, but only as a "corridor" or "basin". Therefore, based on the absolute terrain area, water resources cannot be the decisive factor in the main food-producing areas.

In addition, another reason why the north can become the main food-producing area is also related to the nature of planting. The cultivated land culture in the north is more inclined to "dryland farming", while the south is more inclined to paddy fields, that is, rice. Planting. In contrast, dryland farming has more diverse crop types, such as wheat, corn, peanuts, soybeans, sorghum, millet, etc., which can be widely grown in the north and yield good harvests.

The main food in the south is rice. Although the yield per mu of rice is getting higher and higher, it is definitely not as good as the total food in the north. If potatoes and sweet potatoes are also counted as food, the production data in the south is even worse than that in the north.

Of course, the lack of water resources in the north will indeed affect the growth of grain. Especially in the Hebei and Henan regions of the North China Plain, rainfall has been low in recent years and grain yield per mu has declined. , but it cannot stand that the northern plains are too widely distributed. "The east is not bright and the west is bright." Hebei and Henan are droughty, as well as Shandong, and the three major plains in Northeast China also belong to the north. Therefore, the decrease in grain yield per mu caused by drought in some areas of North China is harmful to The impact on overall grain production across the North was minimal. To sum up, the north will always be my country's main food-producing area, whether in the past, present or future.