Family farmer Fan Haibao believes new farmers need new ideas

After the rainstorm, dark clouds slowly gathered again in the sky. This was somewhat like Fan Haibao's current mood. He had planted nearly 3000 mu of wheat and had just harvested less than half of it. A heavy rain had turned the fields into mud, the combine harvesters could not get in, and in the hot and humid weather some wheat grains had even begun to sprout. The weather forecast said there would be more rain in the coming days. What was he supposed to do?

On the morning of June 6, the reporter arrived at Sanxing Family Farm in Chenbao Village, Dakuai Town, Fengquan District, Xinxiang City, Henan Province. Fan Haibao was busy calling machine operators for help: "Come on! Come on! We can get into the fields in a little while. If we can't, I'll play Dou Dizhu with you!" He turned around and smiled bitterly at us. "What can I do? They still have clients in other counties, and it isn't raining over there!"

Fan Haibao originally ran a fireworks and firecracker business. As environmental issues drew more and more public attention, he decided to transform his business and invest in agriculture. In 2013, he signed a 15-year land transfer contract with Chenbao Village and began operating more than 3000 mu of land. He had originally been a layman at farming, but his experience of weathering ups and downs in business still gave him plenty of confidence. He kept visiting veteran farmers and went to local agricultural research institutes and universities to consult experts. Gradually, he not only became an expert at farming, but his farm also became an experimental base for Henan Institute of Science and Technology. New varieties and new technologies were prioritized here, and many researchers also brought students here for internships and guidance.

Speaking of the experiences of recent years, Fan Haibao had a great deal to say. He believed that new farmers needed new ideas, had to trust science and learn technology. Many farmers today still had outdated ideas and were too slow to accept new things; many technologies from the 1970s and 1980s had still not been applied. "You can't succeed if you are unwilling to invest. Take seed coating agents, for example. A good-quality one does not add much to the per-mu cost, but the harvest is much higher. Then there are varieties: the expensive ones really are different. Now I won't even look at corn seed below 35 yuan (per mu). If it costs ten or eight yuan more, as long as the crops do not lodge, that little bit of money comes back many times over." In recent years, the wheat varieties he chose were also Xinong 979 and Zhengmai 9203, both good options recommended by experts.

To go into detail, the quality of the cultivated land in Chenbao was really not very good. There was only a 10 to 40 cm layer of loess, and beneath it was "shibengdi" rocky soil. Local farmers said: "When wet it turns to mud, when dry it turns hard, and when it is neither wet nor dry you can't work it. Fertilizer and water leak away fast!" In some places the soil was cracked, and the gaps could fit a shovel. But Fan Haibao had a solution. "You say it leaks fast? Then I use self-propelled sprinkler irrigation machines, spray just enough and then stop, so you have no water to leak. If the crops are still not satisfied, I feed them small meals more often. What used to take two rounds of irrigation, I now spray four times." In this way, not only did the water not leak away, but the fertilizer was retained as well. Combined with fertilizers formulated by experts based on soil testing, over several years the amount of water and fertilizer used was greatly reduced. As for water, he used only 1/3 of the previous amount, and the groundwater level rose from 20 m to 9 m.

Pests and diseases are the great enemies of farmers. Applying too little pesticide does not work, while applying too much not only pollutes the environment but also makes food safety worrying.

Fan Haibao said: "Actually, solving this problem is not difficult either. The key lies in 'prevention.' Nowadays the emphasis is on 'one spray, three preventions,' preventing trouble before it happens. First, when sowing, I use seed dressing, preventing problems from the root up. Second, experts will tell you what pests and diseases will appear and when, so I spray pesticide in advance and nip them in the cradle. Also, spraying pesticide is itself a technical job. The old way of carrying a sprayer and spraying all the way along just does not work. If the insects hide under the leaves, what do you do? I bought two unmanned plant protection drones. The propellers blow the leaves into a complete flurry, and at that moment the pesticide sprinkles down like mist. Where can they run?!" In this way, several aspects benefited. First, the seed emergence rate was high. Other people used forty or fifty jin of seed per mu, while he used only twenty jin. Pesticide use also dropped a lot; one spraying was enough to do the job. Who would want to spend more money spraying more?

Now the state's support for agriculture is strong. For his drones, sprinkler irrigation machines and drying equipment alone, the state subsidized several hundred thousand yuan! Fan Haibao planned to go all out. "As a new-type farmer managing thousands of mu of farmland, old ideas and no technology really will not do now." Standing at the edge of the field, Fan Haibao said that after the summer harvest he planned to go to agricultural skills training classes to recharge and improve his level, so that in the future he could develop in a diversified direction.