Mechanized garlic sowing and harvesting: no more worries about planting

Recently, at an agricultural machinery exhibition held in Lanling County, Shandong Province, there were many pieces of agricultural machinery related to garlic, but what caught the reporter's attention most was the garlic seeder exhibited by Linyi Huaxiangxin Agricultural Machinery Technology Co., Ltd.

Because planting garlic is a troublesome business: it is not simply a matter of putting it into the ground, you also have to make sure the garlic sprouts point upward, which relies heavily on manual labor and is a real headache during the busy farming season. So can garlic sowing also be mechanized? Xu Zhen, the company's general manager, pointed to a machine nearly half a person tall and told the reporter: “This uses the physics principle of gravity. Through 13 steps including conveying, adjusting and positioning, it can ultimately adjust the garlic so the sprouts point upward, and when planted in the ground it is the same as manual planting. Don't underestimate this thing: it can sow 3 mu per hour, about 30 mu a day. But one person can only do 3 fen of land a day, so this efficiency is 100 times that of manual labor!” Xu Zhen said this machine has already been granted a patent, and now that testing has succeeded, it is preparing to go on the market in autumn, priced at 42,000 yuan per unit, but nearly 50 units have already been ordered.

Compared with garlic sowing, there are more types of agricultural machinery for mechanized garlic harvesting. Garlic harvesting is likewise a troublesome business: digging, removing soil, cutting stems, sorting and so on all require very high labor costs. Mechanical harvesting is more convenient, but there are worries that the garlic may be damaged during mechanical harvesting; usually it cannot be seen on the first day, but by the second day the wounds are obvious. Han Wen, the person in charge of Shandong Huashuo Jinrun Machinery Co., Ltd., told the reporter: “A garlic harvester can harvest one mu of land in one hour, but with manual labor, three or four people can only harvest one mu a day. Harvesting garlic alone can save a sum of money every year!”

Our reporters Lü Bingbing and Yang Ruixue