Agricultural equipment provides strong support for agricultural development

The agricultural and rural economy has maintained a sustained and sound momentum, becoming a resounding movement in the variations of China's economic transformation, and within this, agricultural mechanization work has also lived up to expectations.

This year, the national level of machine transplanting of rice and machine sowing of corn increased by 1-2 percentage points over the previous year; the level of machine harvesting of wheat during the "three summer" period exceeded 92%, and the machine harvesting loss rate was kept within the standard range of 3%; the "one-stop" operation mode of machine harvesting, land preparation and machine sowing was widely promoted, winning the initiative in farming season for autumn grain production; against the backdrop of a generally sluggish manufacturing industry, the agricultural machinery industry bucked the market trend and performed impressively...

It is understood that this year the national comprehensive mechanization level of cultivation and harvesting is expected to exceed 62%, providing stronger equipment support for ensuring national food security and enhancing comprehensive agricultural production capacity.

Reform and innovation of agricultural machinery subsidy policy benefit more farmers and stimulate market vitality

The small details reveal the big picture quite convincingly. At the Xintiandi Modern Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Beilin District, Suihua, Heilongjiang, various large agricultural machines are neatly arranged as if awaiting inspection. Chairman Xu Deshun said: "Without purchase subsidies, how could we afford so many big machines." At present, the cooperative has cumulatively received 3 million yuan each in purchase subsidies from the national finance and provincial finance.

For a full 12 years, the agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy has equipped the confidence of a major agricultural mechanization country, while the dream of becoming an agricultural mechanization powerhouse requires deepening reform to be brought into reality.

History chose 2015, and the purchase subsidy reform headed straight into deep waters. At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Implementation of Agricultural Machinery Purchase Subsidies for 2015-2017," with clearer policy direction, precision and inclusiveness:

Further narrow the scope of subsidized machinery, focusing subsidies on machinery needed for key links in the production of grain, cotton, oil and sugar crops; select machinery for key weak links for open subsidies, and decouple the qualifications of subsidized machinery from the support and promotion catalog - between tightening and loosening, the wisdom of reform is reflected;

Implement "purchase machinery first, then apply for subsidies" and "one-stop" processing services; increase penalties against enterprises that violate laws and regulations - in tempering severity with leniency, the direction of reform is clarified;

Respond to grassroots concerns and carry out pilot projects for central government fiscal fund purchase subsidies for new products - "act boldly on what is certain, actively experiment on what is uncertain," demonstrating the courage of reform.

It is the reform, innovation and streamlining of administration and delegation of power in the policy that further mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for purchasing machinery, stimulated the vitality of the agricultural machinery market, and brought the effects of industrial policy into fuller play. In contrast to the overall sluggishness of the manufacturing industry, this year the national total agricultural machinery power is expected to increase by 4.1% year on year; from January to July, the main business revenue of agricultural machinery industrial enterprises above designated size reached 245.4 billion yuan, up 7.13% year on year.

Full-process mechanization expands and speeds up, fully unleashing the effectiveness of agricultural machinery

9 high-speed rice transplanters, 34 hand-held rice transplanters, 43 rotary tillers, 47 harvesters, 9 sets of dryers, 1 unmanned plant protection drone, more than 100 stretcher-type plant protection machines, one automatic seed germination greenhouse... These are all the "hard assets" of Peng Shuiping, chairman of the Chunjing Rice Planting Professional Cooperative in Xiangtan County, Hunan Province. Relying on them, in just the first 9 months of this year, agricultural machinery services were provided to surrounding farmers for 35,800 mu, covering all links of the full-process mechanized production of rice.

To integrate technology, save costs and increase efficiency, and promote scale operation, these functions of agricultural machinery must be fully unleashed, so that there are more "Peng Shuiping" figures and at a higher level, and full-process mechanization must expand and speed up. Taking wheat as an example, under the same production conditions, full-process mechanization can achieve a comprehensive yield increase capacity of about 30 kg per mu through seed saving, yield increase and loss reduction. At the same time, the amount of straw crushing and returning to the field increases greatly, which can also provide an answer to the world's difficult problem of "Chinese-style burning ban."

Therefore, the action to advance full-process mechanization of major crop production was launched this year. A total of 48 demonstration project counties for full-process mechanization of major crop production were built nationwide, striving to reach a national comprehensive mechanization level of crop cultivation and harvesting of 68% by 2020.

Combining agricultural machinery and agronomy shows power, taps new potential for increasing yield, and promotes sustainable development

The tightening constraints of resources and the environment are becoming ever more severe, and the space for increasing production through inputs of land, water, fertilizer and other factors has been severely squeezed. Instead, this has made the combination of agricultural machinery and agronomy a prominent highlight for tapping new potential for grain yield increases and promoting sustainable agricultural development.

For example, subsoiling can effectively enhance the soil's capacity to store water and conserve moisture and to resist drought and prevent waterlogging, improve the basic production strength of crops, and plots after subsoiling planted with crops such as wheat and corn can generally increase yield by about 10%.

Guided by subsidy policy and promoted through demonstration trials, subsoiling and land preparation are being recognized by more and more farmers. In October, Hebei carried out subsoiling on wheat fields, and Sun Renzhong, chairman of the Renzhong Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Shenzhou City, had previously bought another 6 subsoilers, bringing the total to more than 40. Even so, he estimated it would not be enough, as farmers without signed contracts kept coming to him on their own initiative, asking for their plots to be subsoiled.

Including subsoiling, the Ministry of Agriculture formulated and released 12 main agricultural mechanization technologies for promotion in 2015, implemented a major action for agricultural mechanization education and training, and accelerated the promotion of advanced and applicable technologies.

Focusing on tackling weak links, focusing on adjusting and optimizing the structural layout of agricultural machinery and equipment, and focusing on resolving the problem of unbalanced regional development, the train of agricultural mechanization with Chinese characteristics shifted gears and accelerated in 2015, racing at full speed toward a new era of an agricultural machinery powerhouse featuring "full process, comprehensive, high quality and high efficiency"!