自上世纪80年代以来，由于籼型杂交水稻品种、水稻旱育稀植技术、水稻薄膜育秧技术、水稻机插秧技术、“籼改粳”技术的大面积推广应用以及近年再生稻的研发，豫南水稻播期发生了巨大变化，由过去的4月中下旬扩展到3月上中旬至6月上中旬，播时历期由20多d延长到90多d。其中，籼稻播期集中在4月，粳稻集中在5月，再生稻集中在3月上中旬。播期的演变满足了水稻不同品种类型和生产方式对播期的需要，一定程度上缓解了种田大户的季节矛盾，有利于提高稻田复种指数、优化豫南稻麦耕作制度，但也存在籼稻粳稻播期混淆，局部地区籼稻播期偏早、温室育秧导致品种高产潜力下降等问题。籼稻播期偏早不仅会导致高温热害，造成结实率下降，产量和品质降低，而且还加剧稻麦耕作制度退化，冬闲田面积增加。增强农民科技意识，推进技术转型升级，促进土地流转速度和规模化生产是优化豫南稻区水稻播期的基本途径。

Great changes have taken place in sowing date of rice in south of Henan province since 1980s, due to the extensive application of indica hybrid rice variety, dry-raising and sparse-planting, rice film planting, rice mechanical transplanting, “indica rice to japonica rice” and the development of ratoon rice. The sowing date of indica rice and japonica rice are in April and May respectively. The sowing date of ratoon rice is in March. The prolonged sowing date meet the needs of the different type of rice and different cultivation methods, alleviated the seasonal contradiction of large farmers. It is beneficial to increase the cropping index of rice and to optimize the farming system of rice and wheat in south of Henan province. However, there were also some problems such as confusion of sowing date of indica rice and japonica rice, early sowing date of indica rice, decrease of high yield potential caused by greenhouse seedling raising. Especially, early sowing date of indica rice in some areas not only resulted in high temperature damage, but also resulted in the decrease of seed setting rate, yield and grain quality. Which also aggravate the deterioration of the rice and wheat farming system and increase the area of winter fallow fields. Enhancing farmers’ awareness of science and technology, promoting technological transformation and upgrading, improving the land circulation speed and large-scale production are the basic way to optimize rice sowing date in south of Henan province.