Chaonong Wu Dexian: A New Farmer Who Brings New Tricks to Farming
Wu Dexian shows his high-quality rice to guests.
In Dahuashulinzi Village, Yanjiang Township, Sunwu County, Heilongjiang Province, there is a farmer who set up the Hualin Modern Agricultural Machinery Cooperative. In less than ten years, its total assets reached 96 million yuan, driving 402 farming households to increase their incomes and become prosperous. "I am a farmer, and everything I think and do is to make everyone's wallets fatter." He is Wu Dexian, chairman of the Hualin Modern Agricultural Machinery Cooperative.
In 2006, seeing the government's related policies supporting the development of agricultural machinery modernization, 40-year-old Wu Dexian had the idea of starting a business through a modern agricultural machinery cooperative.
"If we build one, we build the best cooperative!" Wu Dexian brought in Sun Shi'an and Liu Xumin from the same village, mobilized 15 households in the village to set up the cooperative together, and purchased 18 units (sets) of agricultural machinery and equipment. The cooperative lowered the price charged for machine operations, making the operation price per hectare 20 yuan cheaper than others. Through contracted farming on behalf of members, the number of members gradually grew to 132 households, with 18,000 mu of land brought into the cooperative.
"With so much land, what to plant requires careful thought." With large-scale, standardized operations, the cooperative's planting standards rose and soybean yields increased. In just 3 years, production rose by 22%. However, constrained by factors such as climate and continuous cropping, there was little room left to increase income through soybean planting. As more and more farmers joined the cooperative with land as shares, in 2011 Wu Dexian began leading members in trial planting of corn and high-cold rice, with unified seed selection, fertilization, management and application of new technologies. Output and prices rose year after year. In 2014, net income per mu reached 800 yuan and 600 yuan respectively.
"The key is how to make it bigger and stronger." In 2013, the cooperative invested 1.9 million yuan to build a fully automatic rice production line with a daily processing capacity of 60 tons of rice, registered the "Haobei" brand rice trademark, and established the Hualin Product Direct Sales Store. "Selling rice grain, it's only about 1.5 yuan per jin. If it's milled into rice, it can sell for 3 yuan per jin. One jin of rice grain can produce 60% polished rice. Do the math and you'll see how much more money that is! To maximize the benefits of the land, we must make the industrial chain refined and detailed. The next step is to add informatization and use information platforms to sell our good products." Wu Dexian said.
"Without land, the cooperative cannot survive, but relying only on farming, the cooperative cannot become rich. Wu Dexian's thinking is always very advanced. He leads the cooperative to follow national policies and follow the market." said He Yubin, deputy county magistrate of Sunwu County.
Heilongjiang has a lot of rain and snow, and corn has high moisture content and is hard to store, so Wu Dexian and everyone else invested in building 3 drying towers, which can drive the drying and value appreciation of corn in surrounding areas by 15 million yuan each year; built 5 storage warehouses and 7 round granaries, storing 60,000 tons of grain on behalf of the state, realizing "storage built at the edge of the fields"; established the Tiancheng Animal Husbandry Production Professional Cooperative, attracting more than 100 village households to develop the breeding industry, linking planting and breeding for circular development; and is currently planning to build a 3,000 sq m fruit and vegetable preservation and livestock product quick-freezing warehouse, developing livestock slaughtering and cutting, fine processing of meat products, dehydrated vegetable processing and grain brewing industries.
"We cannot just make a fuss in the soil. To develop modern agriculture, we also have to develop the industry!" Standing on the black soil covered with white snow, Wu Dexian gazes into the distance, still calculating in his heart.