Who is growing the grain, and how is it grown?
Editor's note: The whole year's work depends on a good start in spring. Yet how many people understand the story behind the busy spring plowing and grain production?
This is a reality that cannot be ignored: agricultural production costs are rising, and the prices of major agricultural products have hit the “ceiling.” Under this “double squeeze,” the problem of “who will farm the land” is becoming increasingly prominent. Relying on left-behind elderly people, with just three to five mu of land per household, how can they fill the rice bowls of 1.3 billion people?
This is a challenge that cannot be avoided: behind the “eleven consecutive years of bumper harvests,” the growth rate of grain cannot keep up with the growth rate of demand, and food security is far from being something we can lightly declare solved. One study shows that the urbanization process brings an increase in grain demand of about 1 billion kg per year. How will food security be safeguarded in the future?
During the spring plowing season, we walked into the fields of hope, and through the new changes and new challenges in agriculture, explored the way out for agriculture in the new era.
The new changes in Sanfen Village:
More than half of the labor force goes out to work, the cooperative farms nearly 70 percent of the land, and costs are saved by 10%—20%
Xiaobeiwang Sanfen Village is an ordinary village in Yongnian County, Handan, Hebei. Once Qingming passes, the wheat fields become busy.
With 450 households and more than 2,000 mu of cultivated land, who is now farming the land in the village?
“Most of it has been transferred to the cooperative.” Village Party secretary Hao Jiangang said that Huaxiang Grain Professional Cooperative has taken over 1,360 mu of land, and there are still three or four large grain-growing households operating on a scale of 30 to 50 mu, with the rest farmed in scattered plots by farmers.
Like many rural areas, of Sanfen Village's more than 1,700 people, nearly 800 go out to work. “Compared with working outside, farming is just not worth it.” Hao Jiangang said that wheat now sells for 1.2 yuan per jin, and this price is not low! The cost of one mu of land, including seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation, requires an input of 550 yuan. Calculating it out, the net income from one mu of wheat is only a bit more than 600 yuan. But working outside brings a monthly income of two to three thousand yuan, and those with skills can earn up to 10,000 yuan a month.
“The only ones left farming are the ‘old couple.’” The 63-year-old Hao Hongyang said: “My family has 12 mu of land. The 8 mu at the east end of the village has been transferred out, with rent of 800 yuan per mu. The 4 mu at the west end of the village is farmed by ourselves, but we also signed a contract with the cooperative for unified seed supply and fertilizer supply, and after harvest we sell to the cooperative, at one mao per jin higher than the market price.”
The chairman of Huaxiang Cooperative is 37-year-old Hao Kexiang. The cooperative was established 3 years ago and has now transferred 3,000 mu of land and also manages more than seven or eight thousand mu of surrounding cultivated land.
How is so much land farmed?
Hao Kexiang introduced that the cooperative has 5 production teams under it: a production materials management center, a supply center, a field management brigade, a agricultural machinery team, and a plant protection team, with specialized division of labor and each fulfilling its own duties. Scale shows its advantages: agricultural materials are purchased uniformly, and prices can be 10%—15% cheaper; the costs of agricultural machinery and plant protection are also more than 20% lower than those of ordinary farmers. For example, integrated plowing, planting, and harvesting machinery operation costs 80 yuan/mu, while the cost for farmers is 140 yuan/mu; mechanical harvesting costs 35 yuan/mu, while for farmers it is 60 yuan/mu. In addition, the cooperative grows seed fields, and the purchase price can be about 10% higher.
With two seasons of wheat and corn planted in one year, after deducting dividends and management fees, the cooperative had a surplus of 300,000 yuan last year.
Li Chunbo, deputy director of the Handan Municipal Agriculture Bureau, said that the new changes in Sanfen Village reflect a trend: scattered planting is concentrating toward new types of business entities. Research shows that, calculating by the average ordinary farmer household having 6 mu of land, with two seasons of wheat and corn planted in one year, the maximum annual income is about ten thousand yuan, which is very hard to retain some farmers who have the ability and opportunity to go out to work. If it is a large-scale operator, calculating by 200 mu, a husband and wife can have an annual income of about 100,000 yuan, which is still very attractive. At present, the city's land transfer area has reached 2.058 million mu, with a transfer rate of 23.2%.
“New weapons” in the fields:
Water-saving irrigation and deep loosening and deep application machinery have been introduced, and mechanized operations have basically been achieved
In the wheat fields of Liu Jun of Liuying Village, Yongnian County, a large grain-growing household, rows of mobile sprinkler irrigation equipment were spraying water around, and misty droplets were evenly sprinkled onto the green wheat fields. “In the past, when irrigation was done by flooding, only 6 mu could be irrigated in a day. Now one sprinkler head rotates in a circle covering 30 m, and a group of 10 sprinkler heads can irrigate about 10 mu of land, not only saving labor but also saving half the water.” Liu Jun said that in fact this kind of equipment is not expensive, amounting to just over 40 yuan per mu, but ordinary farmers rarely use it.
“Look at these plots, they are all connected in whole sections. Ordinary farmers have only three to five mu of land, not enough for scale, so how can they use it?” Liu Jun said that originally every household farmed in scattered plots, and the fields had large ridges interspersed with small ridges. Now the ridges have all been leveled out, which not only facilitates mechanized farming but also increases the land. “3 large ridges make one mu of land!”
At the edge of another field, a tractor was working with a “chug chug chug.” “The most important thing in spring management is irrigation and topdressing. This is a deep fertilizer applicator. One pass handles several mu of land, and the fertilizer is spread evenly and precisely. In a day it can work more than 130 mu of land.” Liu Jun said that he had transferred 600 mu of land in Liuying Village and used agricultural machinery to finish topdressing in a few days. If topdressing were done manually, one person could sow at most 3 mu of land a day.
Li Chunbo introduced that Handan was the first in Hebei to build a “ton-grain city” and is now moving toward a “super ton-grain city.” “The key among this is to guide 300 grain professional cooperatives, large grain-growing households, family farms, and other new types of business entities to participate in high-yield creation, ensuring that all key yield-increasing technologies are implemented.”
Duan Meisheng, director of the Handan Municipal Agricultural Technology Extension Station, said that compared with ordinary farmers, large-scale grain-growing households apply new technologies such as water-saving irrigation and formula fertilization more quickly. Last year, the city's wheat deep loosening and plowing area reached 4.41 million mu, with a deep loosening and plowing rate of 77%, promoting roots to penetrate more than 10 cm deeper. At present, wheat has basically achieved mechanized operations, corn mechanical sowing has reached more than 90%, and the average yield per mu of high-standard wheat demonstration plots is 596 kg.
Services are more convenient. At the Qifang Agricultural Materials Wholesale Department in Dabeiwang Town, person in charge Jin Zhipeng said: “This year agricultural materials prices have generally fallen. Fertilizer is 10 yuan cheaper than last year, and a bundle of plastic film is also 10 yuan cheaper. Now in selling agricultural materials, if you cannot hold on to large customers, you cannot do business. Half of the agricultural materials here are sold to large customers. They make a phone call and I deliver the fertilizer to the edge of the field, and I also give a rebate of 5—10 yuan per bag.”
The growing pains of new types of entities:
Loans, storage, and drying yards face difficulties, and they hope for more targeted support policies
New types of entities also face growing pains.
Liu Jun said that over these 5 years, the land area he has transferred has increased year by year, from 100 mu to 300 mu, and then to 2,600 mu. “Basically, the money earned in the previous year is all invested in the next year. Especially before spring plowing and summer harvest each year, the funding gap is the biggest problem. In all these years, the money I could borrow can be counted on five fingers. The largest single loan was 200,000 yuan lent to me by the postal service.”
Storage and drying yard difficulties are also problems commonly reported by many large households. “After wheat is harvested it can be sold directly, but corn must be dried for 20 days. One mu of land yields 1,500 jin of corn, and several hundred mu means several hundred thousand jin of corn. Every year, drying is a major problem.” Wu Yanping of Liubei Village, Liuhan Township, said that in the past two years many farmers still wanted to transfer their land to him to farm, but he did not dare take it. “According to my current planting and management level, farming several hundred more mu would be no problem, but harvesting and drying have become the bottleneck for development.”
“One year, 400 mu of corn had nowhere to be put, so we borrowed the playground of the village primary school to dry corn. Unexpectedly, it rained for 7 days in a row, and the corn underneath sprouted, so we had to throw it all away.” Hao Kexiang said that in the past two years they had all been thinking about getting a corn dryer. “I heard that drying one jin of corn adds only 5 fen to the cost, but one dryer is very expensive, costing more than 2 million yuan, and we cannot afford to invest in it on our own. Besides, the site problem is still not easy to solve.”
Zhao Jianbin, deputy director of the Yongnian County Agriculture Bureau, told reporters that if post-production drying and storage can keep up, farmers' grain-growing benefits will be greatly improved. “When corn is first harvested it is 1.3 yuan/jin, and later the price slowly falls to about 1 yuan/jin. If there were drying equipment, corn could be sold right after harvest, which would both reduce losses and increase income by at least two or three hundred yuan per mu.”
Hao Kexiang has another worry. “We only earn profit from the link of growing grain. If the industrial chain could be extended, we would earn more profit.” Hao Kexiang made many attempts. He wanted to process distinctive black wheat, black mung beans, and other products into goods for direct sale. But applying for a trademark alone took more than a year, and entering supermarkets also required paying substantial counter fees. “We also talked with a large food company about cooperation, but they required a supply period of 8 months a year and a daily supply volume of 50,000 jin. That would require building a black wheat planting base of 10,000—20,000 mu, which is not something our cooperative can accomplish. It still requires government support and guidance.”