After corn acreage was reduced, what did agricultural structure adjustment increase the planting of?
"After a year of hard work, many large growers still couldn't get a good price for their corn, and it really is a struggle!" said Huang Jintai, a large grain grower in Wujiazi Village, Xinzhan Town, Jiaohe City, Jilin Province. Agricultural product prices are the baton for agricultural structure adjustment. Last year, the temporary storage price for corn in Northeast China was adjusted to 1 yuan per jin, and the market price was only around 8 mao, so many large growers and farmers lost money. According to the Ministry of Agriculture plan, this year China will reduce corn acreage in the "sickle bend" region by 10 million mu, and at the National Agricultural Structure Adjustment Conference held not long ago, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said that by 2020 China will stabilize corn planting area at 500 million mu and reduce it by 50 million mu. How should major corn-producing areas respond to this painful yet necessary supply-side structural reform of agriculture?
Adjust varieties, from lower output to higher output
Corn acreage came down, while "soybeans, cash crops and feed crops" went up
Corn is the pride of Jilin agriculture. Jilin Province is located in the world-renowned "golden corn belt," and the province's comprehensive grain production capacity is stable at 65 billion jin. Last year, total grain output was 72.94 billion jin, of which corn output was 56.11 billion jin, ranking second in the country. "According to the plan, Jilin Province will reduce grain corn by 3.328 million mu this year, and the pressure is indeed considerable," said Li Guoqiang, director of the Jilin Provincial Agricultural Commission.
Although reluctant to give up large-scale corn planting, Jilin is steadily advancing the reduction of corn planting area. Where should the adjustment be made? The overall consideration is to stabilize and improve the central part of the province, protect and tap potential in the west, transform and increase efficiency in the east, and upgrade the quality of suburban areas; the main direction is to reduce grain corn planting area in the drought-prone western region and the cold eastern region. Who should make the adjustment? Give play to the leading role of leading enterprises and new types of business entities, implement contract farming and contract breeding, and integrate production, processing and sales, so as to drive farmers to participate voluntarily. What should be adjusted? Reduce grain corn and switch to soybeans, rice, cash crops, feed crops, fresh-eating corn, vegetables and edible fungi. How should the adjustment be made? Adhere to government guidance, market orientation, farmers' voluntariness and social participation, and help farmers find markets, sign contracts, receive technology and get support.
In structural adjustment, farmers' principal position must not be shaken. As his name suggests, Huang Jintai's family farm is called "Jintai Farm." He said: "I also hope the corn price can stay at 1.2 yuan, but it can't, so it must be adjusted." Old Huang transferred 200 hectares of cultivated land in earlier years, reduced it by 1/4 last year, and still has 150 hectares. Old Huang thought it over carefully and adjusted within the corn structure itself, planting half waxy corn and half feed corn. "One is for fresh eating, one is for feed, so I planted only a little grain corn."
Affected by the decline in corn prices, income was not entirely satisfactory, but structural adjustment still brought Old Huang considerable benefits. Old Huang explained that fresh-eating corn output is close to 1 ton per large mu (1000 sq m). A single machine may not finish harvesting before it snows, and after frost only half a day of work can be done each day, and the harvested corn will be damaged, so when calculated, the income from planting grain corn cannot compare with waxy corn.
Feed corn was in strong demand and gave Old Huang a taste of sweet success. Last year, each large mu produced an average of 3 tons of silage corn, at 230 yuan per ton, all sold to nearby cattle and sheep farms. At the end of the year, after reckoning the overall accounts, Old Huang's gross income from waxy corn last year was 3 million yuan, and gross income from straw was 3 million yuan; after deducting production costs and labor of 2.3 million yuan, Old Huang's family farm income was 3.7 million yuan. Truly remarkable!
Corn acreage came down, while "soybeans, cash crops and feed crops" went up. Liu Zejin, director of the Planting Industry Division of the Jilin City Agricultural Commission, said that this year Jilin City reduced corn by 195,000 mu, accounting for 2 percent of corn sown area, and switched to 49,000 mu of waxy corn, 41,000 mu of rice, 87,000 mu of soybeans, and 18,000 mu of grains and other crops.
Adjust land, from scattered operations to large-scale management
Let the land produce, and even more let the land produce well
Jilin Province, the famous "home of black soil," currently has 86.98 million mu of cultivated land, or 3.16 mu per capita. Modern agriculture has injected structural adjustment into the land, allowing it to produce while also producing well.
"Great wasteland, the land is not wasted; beside the floor-to-ceiling windows, rice flowers are fragrant." This is a jingle circulated in Dahuangdi Village. Rice was also planted in the past, but now Dahuangdi Village in Gudiantzi Town, Changyi District, Jilin City, through large-scale planting, has actually turned ordinary rice into "golden rice." In structural adjustment, Dahuangdi Village is a mirror.
Whether structural adjustment is effective depends on whether there are distinctive products that suit market demand.
When talking about rice in Dahuangdi Village, Liu Yandong, secretary of the village Party committee, is an old hand: this place is located at 43 degrees north latitude, a globally recognized golden rice belt, with a frost-free period of 130-140 days and rainfall of 600-650 mm; rain and heat occur together, temperatures are high in the early stage of rice growth, and the temperature difference between day and night is large in the later stage, providing the best growing environment for rice. The annual effective accumulated temperature is 2800-3100 degrees Celsius, which helps rice accumulate nutrients during the grain-filling stage. During the rice growth period, there are as many as 13-16 hours of sunshine per day, and the ample sunshine time enables the rice to produce more organic matter, making the rice taste sweeter and more fragrant.
"In the past, rice and corn were planted extensively, and Dahuangdi Village really was a wasteland." With the agreement of the village two committees and all villagers, Liu Yandong's Dongfu Group and Dahuangdi Village achieved village-enterprise integration, taking rice as the main direction of planting structure adjustment. Relying precisely on rice planting, processing and sales, Dongfu Group has developed into a modern agricultural group with total assets of nearly 2 billion yuan and annual sales revenue of 570 million yuan.
From seedling raising and transplanting to field management, mechanization, standardization and smart management have been achieved, and the rice base here has been rated as a "National Green Rice Standardization Demonstration Zone." At present, Dahuangdi Village has an advanced intelligent refined rice production line, and "Dahuangdi Brand" green high-quality rice and organic rice have been rated as China Well-Known Trademarks. Dahuangdi Village also used rice husks and straw to build a 20,000-ton carbon rod production line, with fuel ash residue used to produce fertilizer. Rice bran is converted into feed for raising pigs and chickens, and livestock and poultry manure and straw are used to build a 50,000-ton organic fertilizer production line for green and organic rice planting. Broken rice is used to build an organic rice wine production line with an annual output of 500 tons. Liu Yandong said that the reuse of agricultural waste alone created economic benefits of 20 million yuan for Dahuangdi Village.
The guarantee for structural adjustment is large-scale and intensive use of land.
"We only plant one season here; apart from chemical fertilizers, seeds and farm machinery, working the land ourselves can earn only seven or eight hundred yuan per mu." Villager Qiao Mingru said, "The land of all 3 people in the family has been transferred, with a transfer fee of 15,500 yuan per hectare, and the contract is signed once every 5 years, with payment given every year after New Year's Day. It saves worry!"
Once land is concentrated and fields are consolidated, simply leveling field ridges can increase cultivated land by 2 percent per hectare. Liu Yandong said: "Concentrated and contiguous land is the most basic precondition for modern agriculture."
At present, the land of all 920 households in Dahuangdi Village has been transferred to the enterprise. Look, these fields are all Dongfu's rice bases, concentrated and contiguous, able to be irrigated in drought and drained in floods, specially planting green and organic rice to supply markets across the country. We have more than 2000 hectares of bases like this.
The result of structural adjustment is an increase in farmers' income. Now, more than 90 percent of the rural surplus labor force in Dahuangdi Village works at Dongfu, with per capita annual income above 20,000 yuan. Among them, 350 villagers are engaged in rice planting and livestock and poultry breeding, with per capita annual income of 20,000 yuan. Another 260 people have entered rice processing employment, with per capita annual income of 24,000 yuan. At the same time, Dongfu gives play to the demonstration role of a leading enterprise, driving 15 cooperatives and family farms in the village and surrounding towns and villages, and driving 6625 contract growers, increasing income by 4700 yuan per household per year.
Row upon row, Dahuangdi Village has built 31 new farmers' residences, with supporting facilities such as a hospital, school and elderly apartments, and villagers have achieved the "five without leaving the village" of employment, medical care, schooling, elderly care and shopping. Dongfu salesperson Piao Yan graduated from an aviation college in the south; she gave up the big city and happily returned to Dahuangdi Village for employment.
Strengthen science and technology, and distinctive agriculture shows its prowess
Agricultural science and technology have given wings to new types of business entities
In structural adjustment, the support of agricultural science and technology is crucial.
The first is adjusting to plant distinctive products. Although the farming season is tight and farm work is busy, Old Huang has never delayed adjusting the planting structure, and "Northeast soft jujube" is his farm's latest plan.
The big black dog kept barking, and Old Huang mysteriously took a plastic bottle out of the cellar at home and poured out some juice. "Taste it and see what flavor it is." It turned out that this was soft jujube juice made by Old Huang himself last year. This kind of soft jujube is actually hardy kiwifruit, a food with high nutritional value; the fruit can be eaten raw and can also be made into jam, candied fruit, canned food and wine; the flowers are a nectar source and can also be used to extract aromatic oil.
One of Old Huang's relatives is a doctor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Yanbian University, engaged in research on soft jujube breeding. From him, Old Huang systematically learned about the planting and market situation of soft jujube, and tried planting some last year. "This is a perennial plant and will enter full fruit period after 5 years, with net income of more than 20,000 yuan per mu, far better than planting corn." This year, Old Huang planted 10 hectares. At present, the land transfer fee in Jiaohe City is 500 yuan per large mu. Considering the good economic benefits of planting soft jujube, Old Huang plans to raise the land transfer fee to 1000 yuan per large mu. He said, "I still want to leave something good for my fellow villagers."
Finding an account book from a stack of materials, it was the detailed list of land transfers this year by Old Huang and his family farm: a total of 150 hectares transferred, including 40 hectares of Chinese medicinal herbs, 10 hectares of soft jujube, 70 hectares of waxy corn and 10 hectares of dry corn. Next year he plans to transfer another 250 hectares, so he can plant more feed corn and sweet sorghum. "Now the sweet sorghum market is good, and the price for silage reaches 330 yuan per ton."
The second is adjusting to plant organic varieties. Shuangrui Agricultural Park, located in Gaojiawazi Village, Jiangmifeng Town, Longtan District, Jilin City, is an excellent variety breeding base of the National Space Breeding Achievement Transformation Center. It has 18 modern solar greenhouses, and crops planted in the park include 5 major categories and 60 varieties, such as space pumpkin, space gourd, space yellow diamond, Hangzhou pepper and Hangzhou eggplant. The soilless cultivation, substrate cultivation and hydroponics here leave a deep impression. Company general manager Wen Penghui introduced that the base began construction in October last year, and so far business revenue has reached 15 million yuan and profit has reached 3 million yuan, fully demonstrating that structural adjustment has enormous potential.
The new farm-style agriculture is pregnant with new sales models. At Shuangrui, two procedural contracts are very novel. One is a membership delivery agreement, meaning that after joining the company's membership, space fruits and vegetables will be delivered on schedule. The other is an agricultural plot claiming contract, meaning that after claiming, members can come to plant and manage, and the returns belong to the claimant. Liu Zejin analyzed, "In essence, these both belong to private customization of agriculture. As people's living standards improve, the demand for private customization of agriculture will also grow."
At present, the contribution rate of China's agricultural science and technology progress has reached 56 percent, and agricultural science and technology are helping agricultural economic structural adjustment in various ways. When talking about this issue, Han Changfu said that in economic structural adjustment, the transformation of agricultural production methods should be promoted with a focus on cost saving and efficiency improvement. It is necessary to combine cost saving and efficiency improvement with green development, and carry out scientific and technological innovation and integrated application in high-quality and high-yield varieties, simplified mechanization, and high-value processing and utilization.