Large-scale grain farmer Guo Tangsheng shares his secrets to prosperity through grain farming

Guo Tangsheng inspecting the growth of his rice

"People say farming is hard, and many people, especially young people, are unwilling to do it, but I am very willing to be a farmer with my face to the soil and my back to the sky." Guo Tangsheng of Yutian Town, Suichuan County, told reporters that he returned to his hometown in his early thirties and started farming, and the land under his management now exceeds 4,000 mu, making him quite well known among local grain farmers. As for the "success" that people talk about, Guo Tangsheng modestly sums it up as "working hard and enduring hardship, farming scientifically, and increasing income to get rich."

An "outsider" becomes a true "farmer"

Guo Tangsheng, born in 1975, like most people, went out to work to make a living for his family. He worked in passenger transport for many years and saved up some money. In 2008, during a chat with a friend, Guo Tangsheng learned that fewer and fewer people in his hometown were farming, and he also saw that more and more rural young and middle-aged laborers were going out to work, causing more and more abandoned land in the village. "Thinking that running passenger transport was both tiring and dangerous, I came back, wanting to put this land to use again." In 2008, Guo Tangsheng, who did not know how to farm, put all his savings into it, transferred more than 200 mu of land from villagers, hired a technician, and began to explore the path to prosperity through grain farming.

In the first two years, because he did not understand grain farming techniques or field management, the more than 200 mu of land Guo Tangsheng had transferred not only failed to produce profits, but instead lost quite a bit. His family, who had originally been hesitant about transferring land to grow grain, also urged Guo Tangsheng to give up. Unwilling to accept defeat, Guo Tangsheng often sought out local agricultural technicians and other grain farmers to exchange ideas and reflect through comparison. The following year, having gained the "true scriptures," Guo Tangsheng finally welcomed a bumper harvest. "Attending lectures, taking further training, consulting materials myself, and exchanging experience with farmers, in scientific farming I have also gone from an 'outsider' to an entry-level agricultural technician, and I can solve ordinary problems myself now." Guo Tangsheng said with a smile.

With more than 4,000 mu of land, how does Guo Tangsheng manage to keep up? He said the era of farming with human labor and oxen pulling plows is long gone. To improve efficiency, in recent years Guo Tangsheng has self-funded the purchase of more than 20 pieces of farming machinery, including plant protection drones, rice transplanters, harvesters, and grain dryers, basically achieving mechanization from planting to harvesting, and the area of transferred land has also increased year by year.

Multiple safeguards, full of confidence

"Grain farming depends on the weather. If heaven gets angry, the whole year's work is wasted. And sometimes there are pests and diseases or quality problems with seeds and pesticides. You put in the investment, but the output is gone." Guo Tangsheng, who has farmed grain for nearly ten years, has suffered losses from technique and also taken a "disease tumble." In 2015, the weather during the rice growing period changed repeatedly, and disaster prevention techniques were still lacking. Of the more than 4,000 mu of land Guo Tangsheng had transferred, more than 300 mu of rice contracted rice blast and had a total crop failure, bringing him relatively large losses.

To change this awkward situation and improve disaster-bearing capacity, Guo Tangsheng paid premiums to an insurance company in Suichuan at 3.6 yuan per mu based on the insured area, of which the local finance department subsidized 1.8 yuan. "In addition, the county also hired experts in agriculture, meteorology, and other fields to establish an agricultural insurance expert collaboration network, sending agricultural disaster risk warning information via mobile phone. Coupled with this 'reassurance pill' of insurance, we farmers feel much more at ease."

With more than 4,000 mu of land, Guo Tangsheng's annual investment in seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, and so on is enormous. With subsidies from the government's various preferential agricultural policies, Guo Tangsheng's pressure has been reduced considerably this year. Guo Tangsheng told reporters that before the rural land confirmation policy was introduced, farmers worried that after their fields were transferred or contracted, their rights and interests could not be safeguarded, land transfer was difficult, and grain farmers also lacked the enthusiasm for long-term investment. Now that land rights have been confirmed, the government also encourages land transfer, the farmers' worries have vanished, and grain farmers are full of confidence. "Looking back on these years of grain farming, the development and changes of the past 5 years have delighted me. More and more preferential agricultural policies are truly solving our worries. Now that life is prosperous, we must work even harder so that abandoned land can also produce high benefits."