Can Joint Farming and Joint Planting Drive a New Leap for Chinese Agriculture?
A full 10 mu of rice paddy, and a 67-year-old man - how does he harvest it?
Squinting at the golden rice fields, Dai Qilou looks completely relaxed: "I can harvest it all by myself, this old man."
Old Dai is a farmer in Sanhe Village, Haihe Town, Sheyang County, Jiangsu Province. Two years ago, whenever the harvest season came, Old Dai would start worrying: his son and daughter-in-law worked away from home, and his wife was in poor health. Not only did he have to run around alone finding people to help with the harvest, but what troubled him even more was where to pile all the straw. "That year, a neighbor burned straw in the field, just across a small ditch, and it almost burned down my rice paddy." Old Dai still feels a lingering fear when he thinks about it now.
This year is better. Not only is the harvest easier, but the straw no longer needs to be burned. That is because, starting last year, Old Dai's village began practicing "joint farming and joint planting."
Sheyang's "joint farming and joint planting" has solved a common dilemma in rural China: groups of people in their fifties and sixties busy harvesting in each household's few scattered mu of cornfields and rice paddies, while their children and grandchildren have long since left the land and are working in distant cities to earn money...
How should the land be farmed?
There are roughly two paths before farmers: one is the long-standing household-based scattered operation, which at most can rely on small farm machinery; the other is transferring land to large operators or enterprises for scale operation, while collecting rent themselves.
Developing modern agriculture must seek competitiveness through scale, and the second path has naturally become the main channel for transforming the agricultural development model in many places.
However, the attachment to land accumulated in farmers' hearts over thousands of years has caused many farmers, especially middle-aged and older farmers, to be reluctant to part with their land. In addition, the impact of some cases in land transfer that harmed farmers' interests has meant that many farmers still cling to the traditional model of scattered operation. In Sheyang, a major agricultural county, of 1.6 million mu of arable land, only 250,000 mu had been transferred over the years.
Is there a third path that allows farmers to avoid transferring land while still sharing in the benefits of scale operation?
Sheyang County explored this for 3 years and developed the "joint farming and joint planting" model: scattered plots of land from each household are connected after removing the ridges between fields, and large farm machinery is used jointly, basically achieving scale operation in another sense.
Behind this seemingly simple practice is a major breakthrough in China's rural land management from "scattered" to "unified."
He Xuefeng, an expert on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, commented: "Sheyang's joint farming and joint planting has realized agricultural modernization with scattered farmers as the main body. It will drive a new leap for Chinese agriculture!"
A relevant person in charge of the Central Rural Work Leading Group Office said: joint farming and joint planting retains the core of household operation for tens of millions of farmers while gaining the benefits of cooperation among farming households. It effectively gives play to the advantages of land scale and intensification, and provides referable experience for China's 620 million mu of flat, arable land.
An Accidental Discovery
Liu Gucheng and the others never expected that their small innovation would attract the attention of the county agricultural committee
Similar to the "household contracting" in Xiaogang Village, Fengyang, Anhui back then, Sheyang's joint farming and joint planting also originated from farmers' creativity. Liu Gucheng, a 54-year-old farmer in Qinghua Village, Xingqiao Town, was a participant in this reform.
Liu Gucheng's family had two contracted plots, and in earlier years it was "one family, two systems": one plot of only about 1 mu was transferred out, "the plot was small, time-consuming and labor-intensive, not worthwhile"; the other 5.7 mu was still farmed by himself, "I couldn't bear to let it go. Although transferring it out would bring three or four thousand yuan in rent, what would the family eat?" In the end, Old Liu still could not bear to give up the land.
But these more than 5 mu of land left Old Liu very torn. More than 30 years had passed since land was allocated to households, and in recent years not only had yields not increased much, but farming was not easy at all! Watching the large farm machinery running in the fields of the state-owned Xinyang Farm east of the village, Old Liu envied them from the bottom of his heart: look at how easily they farm! Could we also put large farm machinery to use and truly achieve mechanization?
"Each household has seven or eight mu, and the land is divided into five or six plots." Because contracted land was divided equally according to soil fertility and distance, the "fragmentation" of farmers' contracted plots was very common in Sheyang. Large farm machinery could not even turn around, so how could it really be used? Liu Gucheng and some villagers with the same idea discussed whether they could mobilize dozens of households with adjacent plots in the village to join together, remove the ridges between their fields, and let large farm machinery run in the fields.
In the autumn of 2012, large farm machinery rumbled to the fields of Group 4 in Qinghua Village. More than 300 mu of land was plowed in a day and a half. Liu Gucheng and his neighbors smiled with relief while busily burying hidden stakes at the edges of their own fields. "The ridges were removed, but the boundaries still had to be clearly marked. No household could suffer a loss!"
Large machinery operations not only made farming easier for Liu Gucheng and the others, but also brought good harvests. In the summer harvest of 2013, Liu Gucheng's family got more than 1,000 jin of wheat per mu, while in previous years it was at most around 800 jin. "Large machinery can plow deeply, and returning straw to the field increases fertility, so the wheat is also less likely to freeze in winter." Liu Gucheng analyzed the reasons for the bumper harvest.
This spontaneous production innovation by the farmers of Qinghua Village won everyone's support with one season of good harvest. Although this innovation initially had no name, it was simply farmers' plain desire for large machinery operations.
Liu Gucheng and the others never expected that their small innovation would quickly attract the attention of the Sheyang County Agricultural Committee - the committee first saw the value of this production method in solving the problem of "returning straw to the field."
Straw, for thousands of years, was farmers' fuel, but now it has become a huge rural problem. "A jin of grain means a jin of straw!" said Dai Yasheng, director of the Sheyang County Agricultural Committee. To harvest a jin of rice, you harvest a jin of straw. Since so much straw is no longer used for cooking or feeding cattle, the simplest way for farmers to deal with it is burning. Burning causes pollution; banning burning leaves the question of where so much straw should go. Dai Yasheng had worked in townships for many years and was deeply aware of how grassroots cadres guarded the fields day and night to enforce the burning ban. "Strictly guarding and defending!"
No matter how strictly the burning ban was enforced, it ultimately could not solve the problem of where the straw should go. At worst, farmers pushed the straw to the field edges, ditches, ponds and rivers and let it slowly decay in the wind and rain.
Why couldn't straw be returned to the field? "In the past, with small machinery, the soil was turned only a few centimeters deep, and there was no way to ensure the quality of straw return. Returning straw to the field ultimately depends on deep plowing with large machinery, but how could the small, fragmented plots of each household accommodate large machinery?" Dai Yasheng pointed out the awkward difficulty of returning straw to the field.
In the summer harvest of 2013, that stretch of land in Qinghua Village made Dai Yasheng and the others see something striking: the ridges between households had been removed, the scattered land was connected into one piece, large machinery could get in, and all the straw could be returned to the field!
That autumn, Sheyang piloted and promoted this practice of scattered farmers joining their land together for cultivation in 42 villages, and named it "joint farming and joint planting." "To put it plainly, it means that, according to farmers' voluntary choice, adjacent plots belonging to different households are joined together for unified cultivation. The land is still one's own land, but cultivation achieves scale." Dai Yasheng explained.
A Deliberate Effort
You can farm the land with your hands tucked in your sleeves. What the agricultural committee says is "good," farmers naturally accept
Do farmers really accept what the agricultural committee says is "good"?
Whether farmers accept it or not, the area under joint farming and joint planting is the best answer.
Piloting began in the autumn of 2013. In 2014, the area under joint farming and joint planting for wheat reached 40% of the county's planting area, and this year the area under joint farming and joint planting for rice accounted for more than 1/3 of the county's total. The largest single stretch of land under joint farming and joint planting in Haihe Town reached 32,000 mu.
Why was the promotion of joint farming and joint planting so smooth?
"I've lived this long, and farming has never been this easy." Hu Jianhua, 78, of Sanhe Village, Haihe Town, is especially happy when talking about joint farming and joint planting. "Take rice. From plowing to raising seedlings, transplanting, and finally harvesting, the whole process is mechanized. You can farm the land well with your hands tucked in your sleeves!"
Hu Wangcheng of the same village described another kind of ease: "Don't look at me so leisurely now. In the past, who dared to be like this? I had to busy myself pulling weeds in the fields! In the past, small machinery turned the soil only about a handspan deep, straw could not be turned in, and there were many weeds. Just pulling weeds took three or four rounds. Now large machinery plows deeply, and the active soil layer is almost knee-deep. How can weeds grow? Now we don't pull weeds, and people can go out to work!"
Besides making farming easier, joint farming and joint planting has also brought increased grain output and lower costs.
Statistics from the Sheyang County Agricultural Committee show that on land under joint farming and joint planting, grain output per mu increased by more than 200 jin, equivalent to an income increase of more than 250 yuan, while costs decreased by about 300 yuan. This increase and decrease are tangible "real gold and silver" for farmers.
Le Daoxue, 69, of Sanzhong Village, Changdang Town, at first looked down on the mechanical seedling transplanting technique used in joint farming and joint planting. "How can this work? The seedlings are so far apart, and the gap in between is wide enough for a pig to run through. Output definitely won't go up!" Doubtful, Le Daoxue went to his own fields whenever he had time to check the rice growth, and the more he looked, the more convinced he became: "Look at how beautiful this seedling field is, straight, well ventilated, letting in light, and it doesn't lodge! Calculating it, mechanical transplanting also saves seeds. In the past, direct-seeded rice needed more than 20 jin of seeds per mu, but now ten-plus jin is enough." After the autumn harvest, his family's rice output reached around 1,400 jin per mu, and old Le truly "beamed" with joy: "For farming, modern technology is still better!"
Du Liangyang, a farmer in Changdang Town and leader of an agricultural machinery cooperative, compared before and after the implementation of joint farming and joint planting: "In the past, the plots were small and we had to move frequently. The time spent traveling on the road was more than the time working in the fields. Now the fields are all in one big piece, saving time and diesel. Once machinery costs go down, both farming households and machinery operators save money!"
The advantages of scale production have let every household feel truly tangible benefits from it.
Dai Yasheng said: "Farming households benefit, and society benefits too. Implementing scale operation reduces the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and reduces the plastic film used in traditional seedling raising, which is very good for improving the rural ecological environment. Returning all straw to the field has a far-reaching impact on improving soil quality. In addition, joint farming and joint planting removes field ridges, and the area of arable land has also increased quite a bit."
With such low-threshold, high-benefit scale operation, local governments began promoting it vigorously. Yancheng City, where Sheyang County is located, promoted 4 million mu across the city over two years.
A Reassurance
No matter how "joint" the land becomes, it is still our own land. Do not let "bosses" squeeze out the interests of "fellow villagers"
Farmers support joint farming and joint planting for deeper reasons as well.
During interviews in rural Sheyang, the reporter found that among those still farming, the vast majority were over 50 years old, and many were in their sixties or seventies. These farmers, who 30 years ago rejoiced in "contracting everything to households" and farming independently, have not weakened in their dependence on land. "With joint farming and joint planting, no matter how 'joint' the land becomes, it is still our own land!" said Gu Baoshi, a 70-year-old farmer in Xinnan Village, Siming Town, expressing the sense of security in farmers' hearts.
With joint farming and joint planting, land contracting rights and management rights remain in one's own hands. This is farmers' greatest reassurance.
"If I'm going to be fooled, it will only be for this one season. If it doesn't work, I'll withdraw next year!" When joint farming and joint planting was piloted in 2013, these words that Xinnan Village farmer Gu Baode threw to village Party branch secretary Liu Jinghua revealed the farmers' detachment: the land is in their own hands anyway, and if joint farming and joint planting does not work, then they can just go back to farming independently!
After researching Sheyang's joint farming and joint planting, Dang Guoying, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believed: farming households psychologically feel that the land is still their own, and land management rights have not been transferred. This model is very easily welcomed by farming households.
"There is a way back!" Dai Yasheng said. Joint farming and joint planting is entirely voluntary among the people, and the land remains in farmers' hands the whole time. They can choose to join or choose not to join. For farmers who like to leave themselves a way out, this is much more reassuring.
In fact, farmers have a scale in their hearts. Their approval of joint farming and joint planting comes from privately comparing it with the popular land transfer.
"With land transfer, the land is all transferred to large operators. What do we farmers rely on to eat?" Dai Qilou had also heard plenty about places where land transfer went against farmers' wishes, forcibly transferring land to large operators or enterprises at low prices. Farmers not only received little money, but also lost the right to use the land they relied on for a living.
Dai Qilou had calculated according to Sheyang's market conditions: transferring land to a large operator, including rent and subsidies, would bring at most eight or nine hundred yuan per mu a year; now, by participating in joint farming and joint planting, one mu yields a net income of more than 1,300 yuan a year. The difference is quite large!
"With land transfer, you work for a boss; with joint farming and joint planting, you work for yourself. It's different!" Dai Qilou said with a chuckle.
Joint farming and joint planting avoids the situation in land transfer where "bosses" squeeze out the interests of "fellow villagers."
Because the land is still one's own, joint farming and joint planting produces better results than land transfer.
Du Liangyang is not only the leader of an agricultural machinery cooperative, but also runs a family farm of more than 2,000 mu. By all logic, having his own large machinery and such a large area of land, his scale operation could be described as "whatever wind he wants, whatever rain he wants." But Du Liangyang admitted that his own family farm was not managed as well as joint farming and joint planting.
"If you ask why, one reason is that in racing against the farming season, the farming households under joint farming and joint planting all watch very closely, and the machinery cooperative definitely has to give them priority. Another reason is field management. Farmers are certainly more dedicated to their own fields. On this point, hired workers on a family farm definitely cannot compare!" Du Liangyang said.