editor’s note
The rapid development of agricultural mechanization is making the cornerstone of an agricultural power more stable. The comprehensive advancement of rural revitalization and the accelerated pace of agricultural and rural modernization have created a surging demand for agricultural mechanization in the vast countryside, and the blessing of a new generation of information technology has accelerated the application of intelligent agricultural machinery products and greatly improved production efficiency. Under the joint force of the two-wheel drive, various new technologies, new products, and new models are constantly emerging, and new scenarios for the application of large-scale agricultural machinery are gradually unfolding, accelerating the improvement of the comprehensive strength of my country’s agriculture.
Around the Spring Festival, a cold wave swept across the land of the south of the Yangtze River, but in the vast wilderness of the Hunan countryside, the overwintering rapeseed is like a verdant ocean, dotted with the first-blooming cauliflower, and the ground is full of spring.
In Fuzheng Village, Jinsou Township, Xiangxiang City, Hunan Province, Li Junde, who has been a major grain grower for more than 20 years, and Tong Hujun, the deputy head of the village, who came to check on the farming situation, both showed joy after carefully looking at the rapeseed that was bolting. “The more than 500 mu of rapeseed I planted this year is growing well. After the rapeseed is harvested, I will plant high-quality rice, and I will make money!” Li Junde said.
The reporter recently visited the plains and hills of central Hunan, and also went deep into the hinterland of Dongting Lake, and found that many rice and rapeseed production counties are full of “winter leisurely and busy” scenes. Many “new farmers” like Li Junde have the posture of doing a big job in the Year of the Rabbit. One of the “confidence” that makes them full of confidence is those agricultural machines with different shapes that show their prowess in the countryside.
Produce “capable people” into agricultural machinery “masters”
In the homes of Li Junde and Shu Gangju, a large grain grower in Quantang Town, Xiangxiang City, the reporter found that their houses were not big, but the “machine room” was huge. In the “computer room”, various equipment such as rotary tillers, rice transplanters, harvesters, dryers, and drones are “armed to the teeth”. Shu Gangju said with a smile that modern agricultural machinery is now the “darling baby” of large grain growers.
Li Junde took the reporter into the “computer room” of his home, and the two drones were very eye-catching. “These two drones with a load of 10 kilograms are good at spraying pesticides and applying foliar fertilizers. The flight time for a full charge is about 15 minutes, and the electricity cost is only a few yuan. The work efficiency is several times higher than that of manpower. I will buy it first. I bought a manual operation with a price of more than 10,000 yuan, and the effect is good. After earning money, I bought another 36,000 yuan last year. It has functions such as automatic obstacle avoidance, operation, and return flight. The plant protection ability has improved a lot at once. .”
“In the past spring plowing relied on buffaloes and cattle, but now ground farming relies on ‘iron cattle’, and aerial spraying of foliar fertilizers and pesticides relies on ‘flying cattle’ (drones). Agricultural mechanization has greatly improved efficiency and reduced costs,” said the family. It is becoming more and more common for farms to plant hundreds of acres of land.” Tong Hujun said, “Many large grain growers buy agricultural machinery after earning money, not only to meet their own needs, but also to contract operations of machine sowing, machine harvesting, and drone plant protection. , industrial seedling raising, grain drying, straw recycling and processing, and other social services, the profits are increasing year by year, and the input and output are forming a virtuous circle.”
Last year, Hunan experienced the worst meteorological and hydrological drought since the complete meteorological records were available in 1961. Many major grain-producing areas relied on agricultural mechanization to tide over the difficulties.
Facing the scorching sun, State Grid Xiangxiang City Power Supply Company innovated the traditional electric power irrigation method, installed photovoltaic panels in the flat area near the water source, and after using solar energy to generate electricity, the photovoltaic pumping controller drives the water pump to draw water. The agricultural photovoltaic irrigation and drought resistance system they developed can pump 40 cubic meters of water per day, which can meet the irrigation needs of 150 mu of paddy fields.
“Sunshine” has turned into “rain and dew”. Many villages in Fanjiang Town, Yueshan Town, Quantang Town and other places in Xiangxiang City have not only solved their drinking and water difficulties, but also preserved a lot of agricultural harvests. When the locals talk about it now, they still smile and give a thumbs up.
Peng Dinggen, chairman of the National People’s Congress in Jinshi Township, Xiangxiang City, who is in charge of agriculture, said with deep emotion that in recent years, Hunan has encountered natural disasters such as low temperature and rain, summer and autumn droughts, and factors such as rising prices of agricultural materials and restrictions on demand and circulation due to the epidemic. The objective conditions for the development of grain and oil production and operation are not good. However, relying on the country’s good policies such as stabilizing grain and oil market prices, strengthening infrastructure construction such as water conservancy, and continuing to provide funds and project support, the economic benefits of grain and oil production have improved year by year. What is particularly important is that relying on new agricultural production technologies, especially agricultural mechanization, the couple and a few odd jobs during the busy farming season can make a moderately large-scale family farm of 300 to 500 mu more prosperous. With economic benefits, “new farmers” are becoming more and more motivated to develop grain and oil production.
The reporter found that the “capable people” in rural grain and oil production are often “experts” in the use of agricultural machinery.
In Anxiang County, located in the hinterland of Dongting Lake, the agricultural machinery cooperative headed by Ye Qiu, a big planter, serves farmers with a planting area of 6,000 mu. Crops, “optimized” fertilization box – saving time and fertilizer costs… Li Junde and others control the flight speed, height, route, and the means of coping with complex terrain and meteorological conditions, which are not inferior to many other industries and are “worshiped” Shu Gangju and more than 20 partners all love to study agricultural machinery. From the formation of agricultural machinery maintenance and social service “technical alliance” to the establishment of agricultural cooperatives, the agricultural machinery bond has “knotted” into a farmland operation The main body of new grain and oil production with an area of over 10,000 mu.
“I planted thousands of acres of rapeseed this year, and I don’t need to pay land rent.” Liu Guochang of the Guochang Rapeseed Planting Professional Cooperative in Jinshi Town, Xiangxiang City was able to transfer land with “zero rent” thanks to his use of agricultural machinery to harvest mid-season rice for farmers free of charge. Then use the idle farmland after the autumn harvest for free to plant rapeseed, and return the field to farmers to grow mid-season rice after the rapeseed is harvested next year, and so on.
Relying on agricultural mechanization, a large number of socialized services for grain and oil production have appeared in rural areas, and to a large extent, it has solved the problem of low enthusiasm of “single households” in some villages to farm.
At the winter water conservancy repair site in Fenshui Village, Fenshui Township, Xiangtan County, Zuo Xinjun, secretary of the village party branch, told reporters that the village has many mountains, scattered cultivated land, labor shortage, high cost of growing grain, and low income. In the past two years, under the guidance of the agricultural departments of Xiangtan City and the county, the village has implemented “unified agricultural machinery and technical services, unified supply of agricultural materials, and unified recycling of straw”, and the cooperative operation model of “combination of centralization and division” benefiting farmers through decentralized management and management, “Who will farm the fields in Fenshui Village?” This difficult question in the past now has an answer. “‘Separation of the Three Unifications’, together with the support of project funds, straw recycling and other benefits, can reduce the planting cost by nearly 500 yuan per mu of rice field. Production costs less wasted money, farmers earn more hard money, and the confidence of Fenshui villagers in farming is growing. This year, I signed a 1,200-mu grain planting order with the company in one go.”
Agricultural mechanization becomes “ballast stone”
According to Huang Feng, director of Xiangxiang Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, the total power of agricultural machinery in this county-level city has reached 1.08 million kilowatts, and the comprehensive mechanization rate of rice cultivation and harvesting has reached 85%. Among them, the machine tillage rate and machine yield rate are above 99%. The mechanization of plant protection is developing in the direction of high quality and high efficiency. There are 140 remote-controlled plant protection drones in the city, and the “drone team” takes the lead to make the level of plant protection mechanization reach 87.3%.
Liu Liangfeng, director of Xiangtan Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, said that as one of the most important rice and rapeseed production areas in Hunan Province, the comprehensive mechanization rate of rice farming and harvesting in the area is as high as 83%. “Last year, the number of agricultural machinery cooperatives in the city grew rapidly to 405, not only serving local farmland, but also cross-regional operation area reached 975,000 mu, and the income from agricultural machinery services reached 1.187 billion yuan. Many ‘operators’ and ‘pilots’ made money.”
Statistics show that the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting in my country has increased from 57.2% in 2012 to 72% in 2021, and the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress has increased from 54.5% to more than 61%. The three major staple foods have basically been mechanized, and agricultural mechanization has made great progress.
The “2021 National Agricultural Mechanization Development Statistical Bulletin” data shows that in 2021, the total power of China’s agricultural machinery will reach 1.078 billion kilowatts, and intelligent agricultural machinery equipment supported by Beidou, 5G and other information technologies will enter the production line, and tractors equipped with Beidou satellite navigation , More than 600,000 combine harvesters, and 97,931 plant protection drones, a year-on-year increase of 39.22%.
After the Spring Festival, the busiest place in rural Hunan, besides the market, is also the “machine market”. All kinds of agricultural machinery fairs in counties and towns have attracted people to come and buy agricultural machinery.
“We are starting to build a new industrial seedling shed with an area of more than 3,000 square meters and purchase supporting machinery and equipment. We also plan to buy 10 dryers to build a comprehensive service integrating grain drying, storage, straw recycling and rice processing. Center.” Shu Gangju said.
“My family has rice transplanters, harvesters, and rotary tillers… A lot of the money earned from farming these years has been used to buy ‘iron cattle’. In the past, the reliability, durability, and operating effect of imported goods were far better than domestic machines. , but the price is too expensive. In recent years, the quality of some brands and categories of domestic products has improved, and some well-known brands have appeared with relatively high cost performance. This is the good news for our farmers.” Li Junde said.
Nowadays, with the comprehensive advancement of rural revitalization and the accelerated pace of agricultural and rural modernization, the demand for agricultural mechanization in rural areas is more urgent, which brings new development opportunities for agricultural mechanization.
In Wuhu City, Anhui Province, Kaifeng City, Henan Province, and Changde City, Hunan Province, in Zoomlion’s agricultural machinery production parks, new agricultural machinery products rolled off the production line one after another, and then were loaded and sent to agricultural machinery sales markets across the country without stopping. Meet the steady stream of new orders this year.
According to Guo Gang, the joint general manager of Zoomlion Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd., the company’s agricultural machinery products cover four major series: northern dry field operation machinery, southern paddy field operation machinery, economic crop machinery, and post-harvest processing machinery. At present, the company is continuously promoting technological progress in terms of engine power, fuel consumption and matching optimization and upgrading of the complete machine transmission, seeking competitive advantages in such aspects as strong power, high reliability, green environmental protection, and comfortable driving. With the emergence of products with better performance and better damage reduction capabilities, the company not only consolidates and expands the domestic market, but also competes with Western world-class agricultural machinery brands in overseas markets such as Southeast Asia and Latin America, and continues to harvest orders.
Liu Liangfeng believes that as my country has become a big country in the application and manufacture of agricultural machinery, agricultural mechanization plays a role of “ballast stone” in my country’s agricultural production, especially grain and oil production and supply guarantee. “Agricultural mechanization has improved the efficiency of agricultural production and management and the comprehensive agricultural production capacity. The wide application of agricultural machinery has solved the problem of rural labor force shortage. , intensive, and mechanized operations. In addition, in recent years, with the widespread use of green and environmentally friendly machinery and technologies, it has effectively reduced agricultural non-point source pollution and improved the quality and safety of agricultural products.”
Manufacturing and application “dual drive”
Xie Fangping, dean of the College of Engineering of Hunan Agricultural University, believes that the development of my country’s agricultural machinery industry has begun to shift from emphasizing quantity to emphasizing effects. Agricultural modernization relies not only on advanced hardware equipment, but also on supporting software measures, otherwise it will not be possible to maximize the potential of the machine.
Huang Feng said that in the field of agriculture and rural areas, there are “three hopes” for the development of agricultural mechanization: the first hope is that the quality of agricultural machinery will be more reliable. Looking forward to strengthening support for innovation and research and development of local agricultural machinery enterprises, reducing the cost of agricultural machinery production and manufacturing, and developing and producing good agricultural machinery with more reliable quality and more affordable prices; secondly, we hope that the purchase subsidy policy will be more precise. Include the machinery and tools needed in the weak links of agricultural production into the purchase subsidy scope, increase the cumulative local subsidy for the machinery and tools needed in the weak links of agricultural production, and further reduce the burden on farmers to purchase machines; Sanhope’s after-sales maintenance service will be more high-quality. Rationally arrange agricultural machinery maintenance outlets, create regional agricultural machinery maintenance points, improve the response speed of after-sales service and the uniform standardization of spare parts between brands, and provide farmers with efficient, high-quality and affordable after-sales maintenance services.
2023 is the first year after the switch from “National III” to “National IV” emission standards for non-road mobile machinery, and the domestic agricultural machinery industry will accelerate its reshuffle. Industry insiders believe that the “National IV” upgrade is not just about changing the engine, but also tests the systematic supporting capabilities of agricultural machinery manufacturers in product research and development, manufacturing technology, marketing, and service guarantee. Facing the new era of “National Four” of agricultural machinery, it is necessary to deepen the cutting-edge technology and increase the intensity of intelligent, digital, and green transformation and upgrading of agricultural machinery.
“The development level of my country’s agricultural machinery is almost the same as the situation before the ‘take-off’ of construction machinery – the main products are available, but there is still room for improvement in terms of comfort, reliability, energy saving, and environmental protection; a deep understanding of technology needs to be developed. Deepen. The level of production and supply chain needs to be improved.” According to industry insiders, the current supply side is self-sufficient around high-horsepower tractors, grain combine harvesters, large-feed harvesters, and agricultural machinery electrification and intelligent core components. And so on to carry out research, and strive to make up for the shortcomings of domestic agricultural machinery “from big to strong”.
Many industry experts believe that from the perspective of creating a good industrial ecology of my country’s agricultural machinery manufacturing industry, in the future, it is necessary to optimize the industrial environment and strengthen intellectual property protection, optimize access conditions and technical standards; it is necessary to strengthen the control of agricultural machinery core components, key materials, and sensors. Industrial planning, policy guidance and R&D support; it is necessary to strengthen support for enterprises to promote the upgrading of traditional agricultural machinery technology, and to independently innovate for the shortcomings and weak links of agricultural machinery; it is necessary to clarify the agricultural machinery subsidy policy orientation of “excellent machinery and excellent subsidies” to guide users to use advanced and applicable agricultural machinery Products drive technological progress in the industry.
“It costs more than 2,300 yuan to replace a pair of crawlers, and more than 10,000 yuan to repair the main board of the drone. The damage to the agricultural machinery delays the farming time, and the loss is also great!” Liu Guochang and Li Junde talked about being stuck, blocked, or even “knocked” by narrow machine farming roads and high bank ridges. When it comes to the “iron cows” who were “injured” and the “flying cows” who were entangled and even “exploded” by the “network” (all kinds of wire poles) in the field, everyone has a hard-to-read “scripture”.
“We suggest increasing land rectification and infrastructure construction such as machine farming roads, effectively improving the operating conditions and environment of agricultural machinery in rural areas, especially hilly and mountainous areas, helping farmers improve the scope and efficiency of agricultural machinery operations, and reducing the cost and risk of using agricultural machinery.” Liu Liangfeng said, ” Only with the ‘dual drive’ of agricultural machinery manufacturing and application, can the good situation of high grain and oil production and continuous abundance have a stronger ‘acceleration’.”
“Economic Information Daily” layoutSource: Economic Information Daily