Finding a Stable Home for Farm Machinery Is Hard; Money and Land Shortages Remain Unsolved
Fujian, which has the least arable land per capita in the country, has about 500 farm machinery professional cooperatives, with 14,000 cooperative members, an annual operational service area of 2.65 million mu, and serving 2.1 million farming households. In recent years, farm machinery cooperatives have developed rapidly and now own 25,000 units (sets) of farm machinery, with service scale continuously expanding. Personnel of farm machinery professional cooperatives account for about 70 percent of the province's farm mechanization operational service organization personnel, with annual operating income reaching 500 million yuan.
“In recent years, the assets of the province's farm machinery cooperatives have grown increasingly substantial, and the importance of machine shed construction has become increasingly prominent.” said Yang Bin, a researcher at the Agricultural Mechanization Management Division of the Provincial Department of Agriculture. In order to increase the rate of machinery being stored indoors, extend the service life of farm machinery, and save fiscal funds, starting in 2012, Fujian began promoting the construction of farm machinery sheds, effectively alleviating the prominent problems of “difficulty in parking machinery and difficulty in repairing farm machinery.”
“Homeless” farm machinery has a persistently high damage rate
Lu Yiqian, a daring and hardworking man, is the chairman of the Yiyu Farm Machinery Professional Cooperative in Shaxian, Fujian. Encouraged by farm machinery subsidy policies, the cooperative purchased more than 40 units (sets) of farm machinery one after another, mainly for rice, serving more than 10,000 mu of paddy fields nearby. Just as he was thinking of “going all out,” a difficult problem left him increasingly conflicted: “These machines worth more than 2 million yuan, where on earth should they be placed?”
“There was really no other way, so we had to find a temporary open space, cover it with oilcloth, and change it once a quarter; some were simply left piled in the open air.” Watching the “homeless” machinery exposed to wind, sun, and rain, with depreciation and damage rates remaining high, Lu Yiqian grew increasingly anxious: “Those are all the ‘treasured darlings’ of the members.”
“Old Lu's dilemma is not an isolated phenomenon.” Yang Bin said that in recent years cooperatives have been enthusiastic about buying machinery, with more and more purchasing several, dozens, or even several hundred units (sets). Because the rate of being stored indoors is low, batch after batch of farm machinery “dies young” and “passes away in its prime,” with service life far below normal.
“From a certain perspective, accelerating machine shed construction is more urgent in Fujian than in other provinces.” Yang Bin believes that Fujian belongs to a subtropical monsoon climate, with many hills and mountains and frequent typhoons and rainstorms. Whenever natural disasters such as typhoons, rainstorms, mountain floods, and mudslides occur, the simple machine sheds built by farmers collapse and farm machinery is damaged, and these are not isolated cases. For farm machinery stored in the open air, the “injury rate” is even more persistently high.
Subsidies spark enthusiasm for “building houses”
What is damaged is the machinery, and what hurts is the members. To solve the cooperatives' “difficulty in parking machinery” and improve cooperatives' production capacity and service level, starting in 2012, Fujian began trying to subsidize cooperative machine shed construction. That year a total of 24 farm machinery cooperatives received fiscal subsidies, about 80,000 yuan each, totaling 1.92 million yuan.
The machine shed construction project received a positive response from cooperatives. After accumulating preliminary experience, in 2014, the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture and Department of Finance, following the approach of “strong support to lay the foundation, grasping standards to promote development,” made full use of the provincial Party committee and provincial government's policy of “supporting specialized farm machinery service organizations,” and formally issued a notice to strengthen farm machinery shed construction, encouraging cooperatives to build farm machinery sheds through the method of “build first, subsidize later.”
The project construction requires sheds to use steel or concrete structures, equipped with basic facilities such as machine sheds, repair rooms, parts warehouses, and grain drying rooms. Machine sheds are divided into three categories by area: 800 sq m or more as Category One, 500-800 sq m as Category Two, and 300-500 sq m as Category Three, with fiscal subsidies of 250,000 yuan, 200,000 yuan, and 150,000 yuan respectively. After application level by level, screening layer by layer, and strict review, another 94 farm machinery professional cooperatives received provincial fiscal subsidy funds totaling 20.6 million yuan.
“The government's 250,000 yuan subsidy is a truly timely rain, giving our farm machinery its own home.” Lu Yiqian said. Driven by the machine shed construction policy, Yiyu Cooperative rented about 6 mu of land from the village at an annual rent of 8,000 yuan and built a machine shed of more than 1,000 sq m. After more than 40 units (sets) of farm machinery were placed in the machine shed where they are not exposed to wind, sun, or rain, the cooperative organized members to increase maintenance and strengthen care of the machinery, which will greatly increase the service life of the farm machinery.
Money and land shortages remain to be solved
“First, a shortage of funds; second, a shortage of land. Objectively speaking, machine shed construction is still in its initial stage, with a heavy task and a long way to go.” Although Fujian's farm machinery cooperative machine shed construction is quite distinctive nationwide, when talking about his feelings, Lan Hengting, deputy researcher at the Agricultural Mechanization Management Division of the Provincial Department of Agriculture, had his own judgment.
Many cooperatives are small in scale, weak in foundation, and tight in funds, and cannot increase investment in machine shed construction on their own. Jinjiang Xiandai Shidai Farm Machinery Professional Cooperative has more than 20 units (sets) of farm machinery and is a fairly typical small and medium-sized cooperative. With fiscal fund subsidies, last year it steeled itself to spend several hundred thousand yuan to build a standard concrete-structured machine shed. Chairman Lin Hejie told reporters: “Although we make money every year and the benefits are good, the money we earn is all invested in buying new machinery. Without fund subsidies, it would be very hard to have money to build machine sheds.”
“Of all the difficulties, finding land is still the hardest.” In the view of Wang Ziwang, chairman of the Benfu Farm Machinery Professional Cooperative in Pucheng County, the hardest part of machine shed construction is solving the land problem. Speaking of finding land, he was full of complaints: “County and city leaders all showed concern, but in the end it still could not be well solved.” With no way out, he finally rented a hillside plot of more than 5 mu, with a lease term of 70 years, and built a 1,200 sq m machine shed in the first phase.
“The machine shed has been built, but it is only temporary. In the long run, the area is still far from enough.” Wang Ziwang's new worry is also the new anxiety of cooperative leaders such as Lu Yiqian and Lin Hejie: “Once we have money and land, we will immediately have to expand the shed. Relying on the cooperative's own strength, there are still many difficulties. We hope the government can continue to give support.” (Reporter Cai Maokai)