How can the low level of agricultural mechanization in the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China be overcome?
At present, China's comprehensive mechanization level for crops has exceeded 60%, but the level of agricultural mechanization in the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China is relatively low, and mechanized production for most crops is still in the stage of technical improvement and maturation or demonstration and extension. Among 11 southern provinces including Hunan, Zhejiang and Yunnan, hilly and mountainous areas account for more than 60% of arable land, making the southern region a "depression" in China's agricultural mechanization development. In 2014, among 15 southern provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions), the comprehensive mechanization level of crop cultivation, planting and harvesting in 13 was below the national average, and in 8 provinces it was below 50%. However, the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China are important production bases for grain, oil crops, sugarcane, tobacco leaves, vegetables and fruits, and fiber crops, holding a pivotal position in China's agricultural production. Therefore, agricultural production mechanization in the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China is not only the next "blue ocean" for China's agricultural mechanization development, but also a strategic choice for ensuring the supply of bulk agricultural products such as rice, rapeseed and sugarcane.
Difficulties: lacking in "favorable timing, geographical advantage and popular support"
"The complex natural conditions in the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China have constrained the pace of their agricultural mechanization development," said Hu Zhichao, deputy director of the Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture. China's hilly and mountainous areas in the south have poor natural conditions, small and scattered plots, complex planting structures and many varieties, and intercropping and relay cropping of grain and cash crops are common. Moreover, infrastructure construction is seriously backward, with narrow, rugged and uneven field roads and poor road accessibility. Agricultural machinery runs empty for a relatively long time and has a relatively short actual working time, machinery wears quickly, field transfers and cross-regional operations are more difficult, and operational reliability is poor, all of which give southern agricultural mechanization development an "innate deficiency."
According to statistics, the number of rural laborers going out to work in the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China has exceeded 52%, and people under 40 years old are basically no longer seen in rural areas, so agricultural production has become "elderly agriculture." In addition, it is still mainly based on individual household management, and the one-household-at-a-time agricultural production method is backward and low in efficiency. Coupled with farmers' low educational level, they lack the ability to analyze the comprehensive benefits of agricultural production. For relatively expensive mid- and high-end agricultural machinery, even with government subsidies, they still find it difficult to afford.
Although some domestic manufacturers have carried out research, development and improvement of small and micro machines suitable for use in hilly and mountainous areas, due to reasons such as low technical maturity, few varieties and low performance and quality, the types of agricultural machinery developed are unsuitable or not fully suitable for agricultural production in hilly and mountainous areas, resulting in a serious shortage in the supply of agricultural machinery and equipment in hilly and mountainous areas.
"At the current stage, the national machinery purchase subsidy policy gives priority to high-performance, high-efficiency, composite large and medium-sized agricultural machinery. Many small agricultural machines that suit the characteristics of hilly and mountainous areas and are urgently needed for agricultural development have either had their subsidy amounts reduced or been removed from the subsidy scope," said Ren Yaowu, director of the Hubei Provincial Agricultural Mechanization Technology Extension Station. For example, in Hubei Province, the subsidy amount for micro tillers has been reduced to 800 yuan, and a large number of machines needed in mountainous areas, such as electric sprayers, insect-killing lamps and drip irrigation equipment, have been disqualified from subsidies.
Breaking the deadlock: promote contiguous land parcels and carry out land consolidation
Mechanization depends on contiguous, large-scale land planting to generate benefits and truly be promoted widely, so the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China must change the current situation of fragmented land management. Shayang County in Hubei Province has blazed a feasible path in changing fragmented land management that is worth learning from.
Shayang County seized the opportunity of land rights confirmation and registration, vigorously promoted the "contiguous farming by household" model, and mainly used water sources, farmers' housing, each household's largest field, each household's most concentrated field, industries suitable for development, and agricultural-related project implementation as references to guide contiguity. It introduced methods for different situations, such as "each household's contracted land contracting rights remain unchanged, and contiguous farming is achieved through transferring management rights," "redistribute land with the area unchanged," and "negotiation among farmers and exchange of contracted land." At present, the county has completed 853,000 mu of contiguous farming, accounting for 89.6% of the county's arable land, agricultural production costs have been reduced by about 20%-30%, and the degree of mechanization has increased substantially.
Only when land reaches a certain scale does it have the value to be consolidated, laying the foundation for mechanization. "For flat cultivated land with a slope below 15° in hilly and mountainous areas (<2°，2°~6°)和缓坡耕地(6°~15°)适于机械化耕作与种植，是加快推进丘陵山区农业机械化的重点地区。”中国农业大学教授汪懋华说，这两年广西在发展甘蔗产业中推行的“双高基地”建设，降低坡度，进行土地平整的思路值得学习。另外，还可以学习借鉴我国台湾地区和日本的先进经验，花大力气开展农田基础设施建设。在土地利用总体规划和乡村道路建设、农田基本建设、农业综合等项目规划中安排标准梯田建设，配套建设机耕道路，改善农机作业环境和通行条件。
"With the foundation of contiguous, large-scale land management, the government can guide and support large agricultural machinery households and agricultural machinery cooperative organizations to develop and grow," said Li Anning, deputy director of the Agricultural Machinery Supervision General Station of the Ministry of Agriculture. To advance agricultural mechanization and agricultural modernization in the hilly and mountainous areas of southern China, it is difficult to achieve this by relying only on market regulation and farmers' own strength; it is necessary to develop various forms of specialized grassroots agricultural machinery service organizations. At the same time, it is necessary to expand the space for agricultural machinery operation services to increase returns, such as protected cultivation, primary processing, fresh-keeping storage and transportation, and biomass resource collection.
Path: improve policy flexibility and coordinate development between the north and the south
"In accordance with the requirement to coordinate development between the northern and southern regions, solving the problems of agricultural machinery development in the southern region should be placed in a priority position for consideration, and construction and investment should truly be tilted toward the southern region," Li Anning said. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of public infrastructure for agricultural machinery in the southern region, establish a long-term mechanism of "using the north to promote the south and having the north and south take off together," and promote balanced development between the northern and southern regions.
"The 13th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for the country's poverty alleviation campaign. Just as in schistosomiasis-endemic areas, special agricultural machinery support policies should be adopted for hilly and mountainous areas, especially impoverished mountainous areas," Wang Maohua called for. In particular, it is necessary to reform and improve the agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy, delegate the management authority of the subsidy policy, expand the selectivity of the subsidy scope and the flexibility of subsidy amount allocation, and enhance local autonomy while using information-based means to strengthen online supervision. Local governments should provide supporting support, allocate a certain amount of special funds to support the development of specialized agricultural machinery cooperative organizations, and continuously improve the scale and level of specialized agricultural machinery cooperative organizations. At the same time, pilots should be carried out in fuel subsidy and operation subsidy policies. In project construction, support should be provided through project approvals in areas such as demonstration agricultural machinery cooperatives, pilot zones for introducing new machines, bases for researching and developing new machines, and agricultural machinery e-commerce services.
"The hilly and mountainous areas of southern China have large regional differences and many crop types, making it difficult to form scale benefits and resulting in poor commercial returns. In addition, the intellectual property protection system is not yet complete enough, and the conditions for the marketization of science and technology are not yet mature enough," said Peng Kangyi, chairman of Guangdong Keliya Modern Agricultural Equipment Co., Ltd. The government should support agricultural machinery enterprises in innovatively developing a batch of small, lightweight and simplified agricultural machinery and equipment with strong adaptability, simple operation and good reliability, focusing on research and development of cultivation and harvesting and picking machinery and small livestock and aquaculture machinery for crops with hilly and mountainous characteristics, such as corn, sugarcane, potato, peanut, vegetables, citrus and tea, suitable for small-field operations in hilly and mountainous areas, so as to consolidate the equipment and technical foundation for the development of agricultural mechanization in hilly and mountainous areas.
"The integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy should be considered and emphasized in advance," Hu Zhichao said. It is necessary, according to the soil types, water and heat conditions, and farming systems of hilly and mountainous areas, to systematically investigate, analyze and compare the cultivation agronomy of major crops such as rice and wheat, rapeseed, sugarcane, corn, tuber crops and peanut, and to screen them, research and formulate high-yield and high-efficiency mechanized production agronomic standards, improve the degree of standardization, and lay the foundation for achieving organic and effective integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy as well as the development, promotion and application of agricultural machinery and tools in hilly and mountainous areas.