Both grow more grain and earn more money, increasing income through farming without neglecting either

The modern agricultural machinery cooperative in Anquan Village, Changsheng Township, Kedong County, Heilongjiang, has more than 32,000 mu of arable land. "In 2012, the grain-growing profit rate reached 30%, and in 2014 it fell to 19%." said He Yongdong, head of the cooperative. "Rising land rent is one of the important factors pushing up the cost of growing grain. In 2012, the land rent per mu was 200 yuan to 250 yuan, and in 2014 it rose to more than 400 yuan. There is limited room for grain prices to rise, so grain-growing returns naturally decline."

At present, large-scale land management in China is developing rapidly, and a large number of family farms, large growers and farmers' cooperatives have emerged. However, in recent years the cost of growing grain has continued to rise, and some new types of agricultural business entities have fallen into a situation of large scale but low efficiency. How can new types of agricultural business entities grow more grain while also earning more money?

Keep planting costs down

Promoting appropriately scaled land management is not simply the expansion of the land management scale of new types of agricultural business entities; it can take many forms of realization

Wuchang Jin, chairman of the Changqian Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Fuli Town, Yongqiao District, Suzhou City, Anhui, rented more than 500 mu of land to grow wheat and corn. Because it is located on the outskirts of the city, the land rent per mu reached 1,000 yuan to 1,200 yuan, and last year the net income from growing grain was only more than 50,000 yuan. Zhou Yanwu, owner of the Dalan Family Farm in Halaha Village, Zhuchengzi Town, Dehui City, Jilin, rented more than 4,400 mu of land, and last year his net income was more than 600,000 yuan. In recent years, local land rent has risen rapidly, from more than 500 yuan per mu in 2013 to more than 700 yuan this year. In order to reduce risks, Zhou Yanwu decided to cut the planted area by more than 2,000 mu this year.

So how can new types of agricultural business entities overcome the operating pressure brought by rising land rent and other factors? As a new type of professional farmer who understands management and technology, Lu Jianping, a large grain grower in Shizhuang Township, Chongren County, Jiangxi, told reporters that he will continuously improve his grain production and operation capacity, optimize agricultural machinery and equipment, and use high-performance machinery to reduce labor input and save costs. "By continuously negotiating with farmers and inviting farmers to join with their fields as shares, we have not only achieved scaled operation but also ensured farmers' interests, finding a stable, long-term way of land transfer."

Rising land rent helps increase farmers' property income from land, but it also brings considerable operating risks to new types of agricultural business entities. In fact, promoting appropriately scaled land management is not simply the expansion of the land management scale of new types of agricultural business entities. In some places, appropriately scaled land management has been achieved through land share cooperation, land trusteeship and other methods; in others, the effect of scaled operation has also been achieved through order-based cooperation between leading enterprises and farmers or cooperatives.

Expand the scope of services

New types of agricultural business entities use their own resource advantages to actively provide socialized services to surrounding farmers, broadening the space for improving economic efficiency

It is understood that some large grain growers are now both entities engaged in scaled operation and entities providing socialized services such as agricultural machinery operations. They use their own resource advantages and sales channel advantages to provide farmers with socialized services such as agricultural machinery operations, production management and product sales.

Although Zhou Yanwu greatly reduced the planted area this year, he used his own agricultural machinery to provide machinery services to surrounding farmers, with an operated area of more than 7,500 mu, effectively making up for the losses caused by the shrinking scale of land operation. Liang Jiaxiang, chairman of the Xiangfa Agricultural Machinery Service Professional Cooperative in Sanhe Town, Hongze County, Jiangsu, told reporters that the cooperative now transfers more than 15,000 mu of land and also cultivates on behalf of farmers for more than 5,000 mu, and last year the cooperative's net profit reached more than 6 million yuan. Yuan Dongsheng, a large grain grower in Jianshang Village, Xiangshan Town, Chongren County, Jiangxi, planted more than 500 mu of rice this year. As chairman of the Fengxiang Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, he also effectively integrated local machinery operators and idle agricultural machinery to provide services to surrounding farmers.

However, in recent years the benefits of agricultural machinery operations have been gradually declining, which requires new types of agricultural business entities to optimize the structure of agricultural machinery and equipment and expand the services they provide from the single field of cultivation and harvesting to multiple links before, during and after production. At present, farmers have strong demand for agricultural machinery services such as deep soil loosening, straw return to the field, field plant protection and grain drying, and this should become an important focus for new types of agricultural business entities to increase returns.

Extend the industrial chain

For new types of agricultural business entities, extending the industrial chain helps them grasp the initiative in all links of grain production and maximize grain-growing returns

Lei Xiuchun, chairman of the Chunyu Cooperative in Fuli Town, Yongqiao District, Suzhou City, Anhui, is a local large grain grower who rents more than 1,000 mu of land. In 2013, according to development needs, Lei Xiuchun established an agricultural machinery cooperative, purchased more than 70 sets of agricultural machinery, and engaged in socialized agricultural machinery services. In order to obtain better economic returns, he purchased farmers' corn stalks to make feed, and before this year's Spring Festival he also raised 500 fattening sheep. At the same time, Lei Xiuchun adjusted the corn planting structure, planted white waxy corn, and sold the white waxy corn after boiling and vacuum packaging, which was very popular in the market. It is understood that they have registered the "Huichunyuan" trademark and plan to expand the planting scale of white waxy corn this year.

Today, Xue Yaohui, chairman of the Wanxin Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Gongzhuling City, Jilin, is also trying to build a circular agriculture industrial chain. Using the advantage of abundant corn resources, the Wanxin Cooperative has developed cattle raising, and this year raised more than 200 cows. It is estimated that the net profit per cow is about 8,000 yuan. The cooperative ferments cattle manure into organic fertilizer and applies it back to the farmland to develop organic agriculture. In order to solve the local corn sales problem, they also cooperated with CP Group to establish a joint-stock company and build an industrial chain for corn production, processing and sales.

For new types of agricultural business entities, extending the industrial chain helps them grasp the initiative in all links of grain production and maximize grain-growing returns. However, new types of agricultural business entities are best at grain production, and it is also relatively easy for them to engage in socialized agricultural machinery services and breeding. Developing secondary industry, however, is comparatively difficult. The modern agricultural machinery cooperative in Kedong County, Heilongjiang, is trying to develop flour processing, and it faces two urgent problems to solve: first, it needs a large amount of funds to buy processing equipment; second, it needs to establish its own marketing channels. It is very difficult to solve these two problems by relying only on the strength of the cooperative. If the cooperative can cooperate with some grain processing enterprises with strong capital strength and rely on the capital advantages and channel advantages of large enterprises to achieve common development, that is also a very good choice.