Structural adjustment in Luobei County brings new changes to agricultural supply-side reform

Recently, Meng Fanjiang, chairman of the Hongxing Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Luobei County, has been in an especially good mood. That is because this year he converted all 800 hectares of land that grew ordinary corn last year to crops with promising market prospects through contract orders, including high-protein soybeans, green-kernel black beans, large-grain sorghum, and fresh-eating corn. This is a microcosm of Luobei County's acceleration of agricultural supply-side structural reform this year. What to plant this year? How to plant it? Where to sell it? A series of major questions that have troubled farmers in deepening agricultural supply-side structural reform have been effectively resolved in Luobei County through the advancement of several measures during spring plowing preparation. In this year's spring plowing preparation, Luobei County earnestly implemented the spirit of the provincial and municipal rural work conferences, made every effort to increase soybean planting area, reduce corn planting area, and stabilize rice planting area, and organized farmer professional cooperatives to sign orders with enterprises to solve the problem of where to sell agricultural products, giving rise to new changes in agricultural supply-side structural reform amid the optimization of planting structure adjustment and accelerating the process of modern agricultural development.

Since the beginning of the year, Luobei County has treated optimizing planting structure adjustment as a hard battle in deepening agricultural supply-side structural reform, arranging things early, deploying carefully, and advancing vigorously. To minimize corn planting area to the greatest extent, while continuing to increase efforts in "dryland-to-paddy conversion," the county also demonstratively planted 20 hectares of "dryland rice" to guide farmers in developing rice cultivation. According to technicians from the county agricultural technology extension center, corn market prices have continued to decline in the past two years, and many farmers want to develop paddy fields but cannot convert their own corn fields. "Dryland rice" means planting rice on dryland plots that are not suitable for conversion to paddy fields. This rice planting technique can eliminate the seedling-raising step; after coating the rice seeds, they can be sown directly, saving 60% of water, with low input and high efficiency. Calculated according to last year's grain market prices, planting rice in corn fields this year can yield an additional net income of 10,000 yuan per hectare.

Developing duck-rice cultivation is an effective way to shift ordinary rice toward green and specialty directions. In mid-March, the county agricultural technology extension center organized county agricultural technicians and rice farmers to visit Huanan County to study duck-rice cultivation techniques, and by funding the construction of duck houses for farmers, providing free ducklings, and helping find sales channels, it plans to trial-plant one duck-rice field in each of the county's 3 rice science and technology parks, totaling 24 hectares. Technicians told reporters that duck-rice cultivation means raising ducks in rice fields and is an ecological type of planting and breeding technique. Ducks in the rice fields eat pests and weeds and deposit duck manure into the rice fields; the duck manure becomes excellent organic fertilizer for rice growth, and raising ducks in rice fields means rice does not need pesticide spraying or fertilizer application throughout its entire growth process, not only saving grain-growing costs but also producing rice and ducks of better quality than ordinary rice and ducks, with very bright prospects for this planting and breeding model. If this year's planting succeeds, it can be promoted on a large scale.

"Before the seeds even go into the ground, the grain already has buyers" is a major highlight of Luobei County's agricultural production this year. "Planting without concern for selling, selling without concern for planting" was once a common phenomenon in agricultural production. In order to effectively connect agricultural production with the market, since the beginning of the year, led by the county agricultural technology extension center, Luobei County organized rice growers in the county to cooperate with a large grain and oil company in our city and signed a 1,000-hectare high-quality rice planting contract. After the rice matures, the enterprise's purchase price will be 0.5 yuan per kilogram higher than the market price, safeguarding farmers' interests. Speaking of agricultural orders, the most typical example in Luobei County this year should still be the county's Hongxing Agricultural Machinery Cooperative. Of the 1,053 hectares of farmland the cooperative operates this year, 253 hectares are paddy fields and 800 hectares are dryland. Before there were orders, all 800 hectares of dryland were planted with corn last year, and after settling the accounts in autumn, no money was made. This year, under the guidance of relevant county departments, the cooperative, relying on its good reputation, frequently held talks with grain and oil trading enterprises and signed a large number of orders, so that before the farmers' seeds even went into the ground, buyers had already been found. Chairman Meng Fanjiang told reporters that this year, in addition to planting 50 hectares of wheat to keep for its own processing and sales, the cooperative also signed 7 orders with grain processing and trading enterprises in Luobei County, Hegang City, and Shandong, Hebei, and other places for high-quality rice, high-protein soybeans, green-kernel black beans, large-grain sorghum, red adzuki beans, black beans, and fresh-eating corn, with a total contracted area of 1,003 hectares.

Through the advancement of a series of measures and the effective driving role of farmer planting professional cooperatives, the county's planting structure adjustment has been promoted. It is understood that among the 1.145 million mu of crops Luobei County plans to plant this year, the rice planting area increased from 329,900 mu last year to 346,500 mu (including 300 mu of dryland rice and 360 mu of rice-duck rice); the soybean area increased from 179,700 mu last year to 274,250 mu; and the corn planting area decreased from 431,400 mu last year to 123,600 mu. In addition, 750 mu of wheat and 92,700 mu of miscellaneous grains and beans, fruits and vegetables, specialty economic crops, and others were also planted, making the county's agricultural planting structure more rational. (Xu Cangyan, Reporter: Geng Xiangwen)