What do grain business entities hope for? Listen to their voices
Recently, the "Hundred Villages, Ten Thousand Households" Hebei survey team held a discussion with 15 large grain growers, family farms, farmer professional cooperatives, agricultural enterprises and other large-scale grain business entities in Sijiazhuang Town, Luquan District, Shijiazhuang City. Everyone shared some of their own experiences and thoughts.
The continuous rise in land transfer prices year after year has become a heavy burden weighing on large-scale grain business entities. Ma Yanbin, a post-80s farmer from Chungu Cooperative, counted on his fingers and did the math for the survey team: “The contract signed with farmers earlier was 800 jin of wheat per mu, about just over 1000 yuan. Now, because the government provides subsidies for land transferred and planted with trees on both sides of the highway, the land rent has also risen to 1200 yuan. Growing grain simply does not make money. Once there is a disaster, not only is the work wasted, but you also lose money.” Everyone also generally reported that the government should reasonably guide land transfer prices in order to protect the enthusiasm of large-scale grain business entities for growing grain.
Zhang Baoshu from the Shijiazhuang Danong Space Breeding Research Center took over the conversation: “At present, the soil nutrients in this area are very unbalanced, and fertilizer application during planting also appears rather blind. For example, returning straw to the field has already made the soil rich in potassium, but potassium fertilizer is still being applied in large amounts.” He suggested that the agricultural department should innovate its working methods and provide large-scale business entities with one-on-one, precise, targeted soil testing and formula fertilization services and follow-up solutions, so that they can truly benefit.
“There are 11 seeders, 3 high-power tractors, 2 small tractors and so on, 22 agricultural machines in total, and there is nowhere to put them, so they can only be placed half in the open in a friend's yard. If the supporting land cannot be approved, we can only consider selling them.” Large grain grower Shi Zhiliang complained to the survey team that, as the planting scale expands, grain storage and the storage of agricultural machinery have become major problems troubling him. After a bumper grain harvest, there is likewise nowhere to dry and store it, so it can only be sold to small traders and peddlers at a low price. “If the wheat is harvested and stored for about a month, each jin can sell for 0.1 yuan more. Last year I harvested 300,000 jin in total. If there were storage facilities, I could earn 30,000 yuan more.”
When they heard the survey team explain that in September 2014 the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued the "Notice on Further Supporting the Healthy Development of Facility Agriculture," setting out the latest regulations on construction land for supporting facilities for large-scale grain production entities, everyone expressed welcome and hoped that these policies could be implemented as soon as possible so that they could engage in large-scale grain production with peace of mind.
“At present, it is difficult to obtain loans. Bank loans usually require someone who draws a government salary to act as guarantor, and the procedures are extremely complicated, while private lending has high interest rates and the cost is hard to bear.” Xu Yongke from Lenong Cooperative proposed that the state should provide interest-free or subsidized-interest loans for large grain growers like him to purchase agricultural machinery. Hearing the issue of subsidies, Ma Yanbin cut in again. At present, the agricultural insurance subsidized by the state uses contracted farmer households as the policyholders. If disaster losses occur after land transfer, the compensation funds are still paid to the contracted farmer households rather than to the large-scale grain business entities. “We hope the state will introduce an agricultural insurance project specifically for large-scale grain business entities as soon as possible, so that those who truly grow grain can be protected.”
The afternoon passed quickly. Large grain grower Wei Jianghua said with emotion: “This symposium I attended this time broadened my horizons and increased my knowledge. I hope more such exchanges and professional training can be organized in the future to improve my own production and management level.” Everyone also generally said that by meeting together and discussing matters this time, the information each of them had was also exchanged, and solutions were found for some of the usual difficult problems and issues. They hoped a long-term mechanism could be established to provide large-scale grain business entities with more opportunities for exchange and training.
“We also gained a lot. We learned much about agricultural production, understood the local problems and difficulties, grasped some of the real conditions of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and accumulated a large amount of first-hand material, which provides reference and guidance for future work.” Members of the survey team generally reported.