China's agricultural mechanization level reaches 61%, achieving the 12th Five-Year Plan target ahead of schedule
A 61% mechanization rate means that China's agricultural production methods have achieved a historic leap from being dominated by human and animal power to being dominated by mechanical operations. However, problems such as the structural imbalance in the development of agricultural mechanization and poor infrastructure conditions for agricultural machinery use still exist. Only by solving these problems can farmers be ensured the ability to “afford to buy, use well, and benefit effectively.”
At the National Agricultural Mechanization Work Conference held on January 14, Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin said that in 2014, China's total agricultural machinery power reached 1.076 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 3.57%; the mechanization level reached over 61%, achieving the “12th Five-Year Plan” target one year ahead of schedule. The cumulative area of deep loosening and land preparation operations completed throughout the year reached 150 million mu, exceeding the 100 million mu target proposed in the 2014 Government Work Report.
10 years outperforming 35 years
A 61% mechanization rate means that China's agricultural production methods have achieved a historic leap from being dominated by human and animal power to being dominated by mechanical operations. At the end of 2004, the first law in the history of China's agricultural mechanization development, the Law on the Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization, was officially implemented. Since then, agricultural mechanization development entered a golden decade. Central government subsidies for agricultural machinery purchases totaled over 120 billion yuan over 10 years, subsidizing more than 35 million units (sets) of agricultural machinery. The increase in mechanization level exceeded the total of the 35 years before the law was implemented, and the total output value of the agricultural machinery industry increased from 85.4 billion yuan to 357.1 billion yuan.
At present, China's agricultural machinery industry clusters have taken initial shape, and major agricultural machinery products can already meet more than 90% of domestic demand. China's agricultural machinery market has not only avoided being monopolized by foreign brands, but has also cultivated a group of leading enterprises with strong competitiveness. “The company has continued to increase investment in product research and development, achieving in-house production of core components such as engines, gearboxes, and front and rear axles, with cumulative R&D investment of 5 billion yuan, focusing on breakthroughs in high-end new products, producing nearly 1 million large and medium-sized tractors and harvesting machinery products.” said Wang Guimin, Chairman of Foton Lovol Heavy Industry. Over the past 10 years, the company's agricultural equipment sales revenue grew from nearly 2 billion yuan in 2004 to 10.9 billion yuan in 2013, with an average annual compound growth rate exceeding 18%.
Whether in the United States with large-scale agriculture or in Japan and South Korea with small and medium-scale operations, the common feature of their agricultural mechanization is being capital- and technology-intensive, with farmers purchasing agricultural machinery mainly for their own use. However, Chinese farmers have an average of only 7.6 mu of arable land per household, and in the central and eastern regions, the per-household land is even less. How exactly is the coordination between large-scale mechanized production and smallholder operations achieved? Agricultural machinery cooperatives and cross-regional agricultural machinery operations are the answer.
Zhang Taolin said that with the aging of farmers and the acceleration of land transfers, agricultural mechanization has great potential for solving the question of “who will farm the land.” At present, the prices of major agricultural products are inverted between domestic and international markets. To reduce China's agricultural production costs and improve market competitiveness, developing mechanization is particularly urgent. Farmers' cooperatives and agricultural machinery service organizations are increasingly becoming new entities in agricultural mechanization application, with strong demand for supporting and diversified agricultural machinery equipment and services.
Structural imbalance prominent
However, the structure of agricultural mechanization development is still unbalanced. In terms of regions, currently only 9 provinces nationwide have a mechanization level above 70%, while 4 provinces are below 40%, with Guizhou below 20%; in terms of crops, among the three major staple grains, wheat has basically achieved full-process mechanization, while the level of mechanical transplanting in double-cropping rice areas, and mechanization in major sugarcane production areas, cotton production areas, and rapeseed production areas has been relatively slow to improve, with many links in economic crop mechanization still blank. Mechanization in drying, efficient plant protection, and primary processing links has also just started.
Luo Xiwen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has devoted his entire life to agricultural machinery research. In his view, China's agricultural equipment technology still has many shortcomings, even blanks, and high-efficiency, multi-functional, precision agricultural machinery equipment suitable for large-scale agricultural production is still relatively lacking, which has become a bottleneck restricting industrial development. “The difficulties currently encountered by the sugarcane and cotton industries are mainly due to the lack of advanced and suitable operating machinery, resulting in high labor use, high production costs, and weak industrial competitiveness.”
Although the number of agricultural machinery equipment has increased significantly, the phenomena of a large proportion of low-grade machinery and poor infrastructure conditions for agricultural machinery use still exist. Although new entities such as agricultural machinery cooperatives have developed considerably, the overall degree of organization is low and skilled talent is scarce, with over 70% of drivers aged 50 or above, and skilled operators and high-quality cooperative leaders in short supply. Although the output value of the agricultural machinery industry ranks first in the world, the capacity for independent technological innovation is weak, the supply of new products with high technological content is insufficient, and the external dependence on some key machinery and core components is high.
Industrial upgrading is key
Wang Guimin said that the overall upgrading of the agricultural machinery industry requires enormous investment. At present, domestic agricultural machinery products are mainly mid-to-low-end, and it is difficult to break through core technologies and high-end products in the short term by relying on enterprise independent development models. He suggested that the state list the agricultural machinery autonomization project as a national major special project and provide special funding support. Key support should be given to research and development of basic common technologies in the industry, and support should be given to independent-brand agricultural machinery enterprises to improve high-end product development and industrialization capabilities. At the same time, capable independent-brand agricultural machinery enterprises should be supported in implementing overseas mergers and acquisitions.
Agricultural machinery research and development has a long cycle. If investment in key common technology research is insufficient, it will become a shortcoming restricting the progress of China's agricultural equipment level, and it will be difficult to escape the situation of high-end products and core components being controlled by others.
“We emphasize the need to give play to the principal role of enterprises in independent innovation, but at present China's agricultural machinery industry has low concentration and generally small enterprise scale. Enterprise research and development mainly focuses on structural design, and it is still difficult for them to undertake the important task of major agricultural machinery product innovation.” Luo Xiwen suggested that the state's support for developing agricultural mechanization must not be reduced, the pace of agricultural machinery technological innovation must be accelerated, and our own agricultural machinery equipment must be used to produce our grain, so that our rice bowl can be held more steadily.
Li Weiguo, Director of the Agricultural Mechanization Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, believes that to promote the development of agricultural mechanization, it is necessary to ensure that farmers can “afford to buy, use well, and benefit effectively.” “Afford to buy” means implementing fiscal subsidy policies well, solving the problem of farmers' purchasing power, and at the same time guiding enterprises to focus on developing and producing advanced and suitable machinery that matches farmers' purchasing power; “use well” means solving the problems of reliability, adaptability, and safety in agricultural machinery use, so that farmers can use them safely and with confidence; “benefit effectively” means cultivating the operation market, strengthening market entities, and when necessary supplementing with fuel subsidies and operation subsidies to improve the economic benefits of users.