Professional farmer Liu Lingjun puts a living face on the business of growing grain

"Being able to get rich by farming these past few years comes down to three key tricks: scaled-up development, scientific planting, and strong-strong partnerships." On March 22, in a wheat field north of Cuilou Village, Huiting Town, Xiayi County, the reporter met Liu Lingjun, a new-type professional farmer who was inspecting the growth of the wheat. When the conversation turned to his story of getting rich by farming, the normally taciturn Old Liu suddenly opened up.

"Only scaled-up planting can lower costs." This is Old Liu's first "true scripture." According to Old Liu, his family now has more than 560 mu of transferred land, all rented from other farmers at a price of 900 yuan per mu per year. "Actually, renting other farmers' land is a win-win choice. Because with your family having 3 mu and his family 5 mu, not only are the farming costs high, but it also isn't farmed well. By renting their land, not only can I make money myself, but the farmers don't lose out either, and the land's output efficiency is also higher." Because he has a lot of land, Liu Lingjun is fully equipped with machinery such as combine harvesters, large rotary tillers, fertilizer spreaders, and seeders. "Renting someone else's machinery to harvest and plant wheat costs more than 100 yuan per mu, while using my own machinery costs less than 40 yuan in fuel, so the cost is much lower."

Old Liu's second piece of experience in farming is scientific planting. Every year he takes soil samples from different plots and sends them to the agricultural technology department for testing, and based on soil fertility and combined with yield expectations, he carries out formula fertilization. "In this way, the crops neither get 'overnutrition' nor go 'hungry,' and it doesn't cause fertilizer waste either, so the yield naturally goes up," Old Liu said. In addition, in the process of growing grain, he is also promoting new agricultural technologies such as rapid straw decomposition and return to the field and deep soil loosening, all of which have laid the foundation for increasing grain output.

Strong-strong partnerships are Old Liu's third piece of experience in farming. As a major grain grower, Old Liu is also somewhat well known in seed breeding circles. In recent years, Liu Lingjun has successively cooperated with many seed companies and research institutions, including Henan Liqi Seed Company, Gansu Dunhuang Seed Industry Co., Ltd., and the Corn Research Office of the Shangqiu Academy of Agricultural Sciences. "Take the 560 mu of wheat I planted this year. The wheat seed is all breeding material provided free of charge by Liqi Seed Company. After the wheat is harvested, it becomes improved wheat seed, and the company will buy it back at a price 0.3 yuan per kg higher than commercial wheat. From this one item alone, counting increased income plus saved expenses, I can earn more than 100,000 yuan extra." After the wheat harvest, when planting corn, Old Liu will cooperate with units such as Dunhuang Seed Industry and the Corn Research Office of the Shangqiu Academy of Agricultural Sciences to carry out trial planting of new corn varieties in order to observe the yield performance of the new varieties. For this, the seed companies will pay Old Liu some trial-planting fees, or provide seeds and fertilizer free of charge, which can also reduce quite a lot of expenses.

"Everyone says growing grain brings low income and isn't worthwhile, but I think that for new-type professional farmers, growing grain has prospects, profits, and a future. I will keep walking down this road." When the reporter said goodbye to Liu Lingjun, he said firmly.