What opportunities and challenges does the upsizing of agricultural machinery bring?
I. The trend toward larger agricultural machinery is becoming increasingly obvious
⟦NL> According to statistics from the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association on 21 major tractor enterprises (accounting for more than 85% of the tractor industry's output and output value) and 18 major harvesting machinery enterprises (accounting for more than 80% of the harvester industry's output value and output), from January to May, sales of tractors below 110 horsepower showed a relatively large negative growth, while sales of tractors above 110 horsepower were relatively good, among which tractors in the 110-119 horsepower range increased by 26.2% year on year, and those in the 120-139 horsepower range increased by 141.18% year on year; wheeled self-propelled grain combine harvesters below 5 kg/s showed negative year-on-year growth, while sales of wheeled self-propelled grain combine harvesters above 5 kg/s were relatively good. The market prosperity of large agricultural machinery was clearly higher than that of small and medium-sized machinery.
II. The upsizing of agricultural machinery marks the transformation and upgrading of agricultural production
First, it marks the development of agricultural production from a quantity-oriented model to a quality-oriented one. Agricultural production has moved from simply completing the task in the past to paying more attention to the quality of task completion.
Second, it marks the upgrading of agricultural production from a traditional model to a science and technology-based one. The emergence of high-horsepower tractors and combine harvesters with large feeding capacity has made it possible to popularize and apply new agricultural mechanization technologies such as simultaneous corn mechanical harvesting and straw crushing and returning to the field, and the integration of deep loosening and no-till sowing with layered fertilization.
Third, it marks the shift of agricultural production from focusing on cost to focusing on comprehensive benefits. In the purchasing stage, farmers mainly looked at price in the past; now, although they still look at price, they pay more attention to agricultural machinery brand and performance. In the operation stage, the price difference per mu for machinery of 90 horsepower and 100 horsepower is about 10 yuan; farmers would rather pay 10 yuan more to use high-horsepower, large-feeding-capacity machinery. Because large machinery has good performance, harvests grain cleanly and crushes straw finely, and also has high operating efficiency, farmers and agricultural machinery operators are paying increasing attention to calculating the account of comprehensive benefits.
III. The upsizing of agricultural machinery brings important development opportunities for agricultural mechanization and the agricultural machinery industry
On the one hand, the upsizing of agricultural machinery provides favorable opportunities for changing the development mode and adjusting the structure of agricultural mechanization. At present, the main contradiction in the development of agricultural mechanization is the urgent demand for agricultural mechanization and insufficient effective supply, which is first reflected in the structural contradiction of agricultural machinery and equipment, namely more small machinery and less large machinery, more low-end machinery and less high-end machinery, and more old machinery and less new machinery. The upsizing of agricultural machinery, through “replacing small with large and replacing old with new,” has created an opportunity to reverse this traditional backward situation.
On the other hand, the upsizing of agricultural machinery provides favorable opportunities for optimizing and upgrading the layout of the agricultural machinery industry. The upsizing of agricultural machinery is conducive to raising the market access threshold and promoting the survival of the fittest in the agricultural machinery industry, creating a good opportunity for optimizing the layout of the agricultural machinery industry and catching up with the world level.
IV. The upsizing of agricultural machinery brings new challenges and new requirements
First, agricultural machinery manufacturers should strengthen product research and development and production to meet market demand. They should fully play the role of innovation entities, further increase investment in research and development, strengthen research and development innovation, and focus on tackling common core technologies such as power shifting, continuously variable transmission and hydrostatic transmission for high-horsepower tractors, header folding for large grain harvesting machinery, efficient low-loss threshing, separation and cleaning, and intelligent monitoring, continuously improving the adaptability, reliability, safety and comfort of products to meet the ever-increasing needs of farmers and agricultural production.
Second, agricultural machinery management departments should improve management and service levels to adapt to development needs. They should conscientiously perform departmental duties, tilt policies that strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and enrich farmers, such as agricultural machinery purchase subsidies, scrapping and renewal subsidies, and deep loosening operation subsidies, toward large agricultural machinery, and focus on solving the problem of farmers being able to “afford to buy”; further improve the level of safety testing, quality appraisal, technical training and machine tool promotion, and focus on solving the problem of large agricultural machinery being “used well”; and actively promote the introduction of support policies for the construction of regional large agricultural machinery maintenance centers, machine warehouses and tractor roads, focusing on solving the problem of policies being “implemented effectively.”
Third, farmers and machine operators should keep up with the pace of development and improve their operating levels. They should actively participate in technical training organized by agricultural machinery management departments and agricultural machinery production and sales enterprises, strive to master the structural principles of large agricultural machinery, improve driving operation and maintenance skills, and promote energy conservation and emission reduction as well as cost savings and income increases.