Wheat Harvest Embraces Internet Plus, Smartphones Become a Good Helper
Original title: "Digital Wheat Harvest" in Henan: Mobile Phones Take On Crop Work
On June 3, at the 16th Branch of the Henan Huangfanqu Farm in Xihua County, Zhoukou City, a combine harvester was operating in a wheat field. On June 4, the reporter learned from the Henan Provincial Agricultural Machinery Bureau that as of 17:00 on June 4, more than half of the province's wheat harvest had been completed, with 42.09 million mu of wheat harvested, of which 41.38 million mu was harvested by machine, a machine-harvest rate of 98%. On June 4 alone, 110,000 combine harvesters were deployed, harvesting 9.84 million mu of wheat in a single day. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Bo
"Times have really changed. Mobile phones can even do crop work now!" What should have been a wheat harvest season so busy that "your hair stands on end," Zhang Xiaomei, a farmer in her 60s from Mengzhuang Village, Dancheng County, Henan, sat leisurely at her doorstep playing with her mobile phone. The phone was a newly replaced one, all because of this year's wheat harvest.
Two days earlier, just like in previous years, Zhang Xiaomei had calculated the date precisely and called her husband, who worked away from home, back to harvest the wheat. But while he was still on the road, dark clouds rolled in overhead, and it looked like rain was imminent. "In the past, my husband always arranged everything. I don't understand anything, so what should I do." Seeing Zhang Xiaomei pacing anxiously at the edge of the field, the village cadre took out a mobile phone and called out in a WeChat group, "Mengzhuang has wheat to harvest. Whoever is nearby, please help." In less than 20 minutes, a harvester drove into the wheat field.
After rushing through the wheat harvest, Zhang Xiaomei still could not smile. "I'm just an old woman. I can't carry or lift anything, so how can I take it to sell." Again she called out in the WeChat group, and before long a grain collection truck drove to the edge of the field. While selling grain on one side, she was contacting a seeder on the other. In less than two hours, the 4.2 mu of land had been both harvested and sown. "It's really amazing!" Zhang Xiaomei, a "veteran hand" who had farmed for decades, genuinely came to admire the new technology, and even specially switched to a smartphone.
The WeChat group that left Zhang Xiaomei marveling was the "Shicao Agricultural Machinery Operation Service Platform" WeChat group established by Shicao Town, Dancheng County, to serve the "Three Summer" period. Among the 61 people in the group were village cadres, agricultural machinery operators, heads of agricultural cooperatives, grain purchasers, and straw purchasers. Sun Zihao, Party Secretary of Shicao Town, said that through the WeChat group, not only could harvesters be dispatched in real time, but grain purchasing, corn sowing, and straw recycling could also be contacted immediately. "The town's wheat harvest has been shortened from the past 7 to 10 days to within 3 days, and efficiency is 3 times what it was before," Sun Zihao said.
In the Central Plains, "Internet Plus" technology has turned the wheat harvest, once the "top priority" for farmers, into a small matter "at your fingertips." Farmers in Ningling County can scan with their mobile phones to download the "Nongjitong" client and book a harvester in one minute; the Shenqiu County agricultural machinery cooperative has used the Internet to achieve order-based harvesting. With one click of the mouse, information on operation demand is clear at a glance.
"In the past, finding work wore out your legs, like stumbling around blindfolded, wasting labor and fuel. Now before even leaving home, everything is arranged. We can also 'plan strategies within a tent to win victories a thousand miles away,'" said Wu Weimin, chairman of the Henan Weimin Cooperative. This year's wheat harvest, through Internet technology, Wu Weimin and more than 40 agricultural machinery cooperatives across the country exchanged information with each other, and one person could dispatch and direct more than 120 harvesters for cross-regional operations.
Cheng Shuangjin, deputy director of the Henan Provincial Agricultural Machinery Bureau, introduced that by using Internet technology, Henan Province can currently grasp in real time the province's agricultural machinery dynamics and market demand information, achieving rapid cross-regional dispatch. During the wheat harvest period, Henan Province also publishes information daily through the information platform on wheat harvest progress, agricultural machinery dispatch, and meteorological services. The wheat harvest has entered the Internet era.
"I walk in the wild, where the wheat grows lush." In today's rapidly developing Internet technology, "digital wheat harvest" is merely a microcosm of "Internet Plus agriculture." In the agricultural industry chain, including agricultural planting and agricultural product sales, the presence of Internet technology can be seen everywhere.
In 2015, when Henan Peikang Planting Professional Cooperative decided what crops to plant, it learned about the planting structure of the Huang-Huai-Hai region through the Internet. After big data analysis, it decided to plant potatoes. This year, the market price of potatoes rose by 0.3 yuan per jin, and on average each mu of land earned more than 300 yuan in additional profit.
Yu Peikang, chairman of Peikang Planting Professional Cooperative, said: "'Internet Plus' has made us stretch our ears and open our eyes wide. A technological wind is sweeping through agriculture, and it has entered the information age, bringing us more development opportunities and allowing us to accomplish great things in the vast fields." (Xinhua News Agency, Zhengzhou, June 5 dispatch, Xinhua News Agency reporter Song Xiaodong)