When farming, how much scale can be considered "moderate"?

Although new agricultural operators such as family farms and professional cooperatives have gradually become the climate, Zhang Baohua, a farmer in Zhangqiu City, has reduced the area of growing grain on a large scale this year. It makes people ponder how much area the new type of agricultural operators operate in order to be considered "moderate".

The area is smaller.

Is it more profitable to beat more grain?

Zhang Baohua, 64, is a big grain grower in Taiping Village, Xiuhui Town, Zhangqiu. He has planted 182 mu of wheat this year. Since 2000, he began to contract land that nearby villagers do not want to work, and in 2013, he expanded the contracted land to 670 mu, involving five surrounding natural villages: because the scale is too large, he has no time to care about it, and needs to hire a lot of labor. Without subsidies, you can't make much money.

After the Central Committee document No. 1 in 2013 encouraged the development of a new type of agricultural main body, Zhang Baohua, who was "shrewd" in the eyes of the villagers, successfully received a subsidy of 230 yuan per mu for large grain growers in the province, totaling more than 100,000 yuan, but the yield per mu declined instead of rising after the scale was large.

"in the past, when the scale was small, the yield per mu of wheat could reach 900jin and the yield of corn per mu could reach 1100 jin. However, of the more than 670 mu operated in the past two years, only some of the better managed plots met or exceeded this standard, while others had very low output due to poor management." Zhang Baohua said.

Zhang Baohua himself is also reflecting. He used the word "extreme" to describe the change in land size and yield. "it seems that less land is cultivated, but the yield can be increased." I am now more than 100 mu, each mu can have a profit of 500 yuan, before there can be 200 yuan, 300 yuan, or even low. "

How big is the farmland management?

Is the scale considered "moderate"?

Speaking of Zhang Baohua's farming, many people in the village "have some opinions."

"his large area of transferred land is not suitable for planting, it is not good for the land, and it is not conducive to the country hitting more grain." A villager said, "Last year, his field was full of grass and could not keep up with watering, and some people scolded him for wasting good land."

Taiping Village has a total of 480 households and 1789 people, with an area of 1060 mu of arable land and about 0.6 mu per capita. Gao Hengbin, secretary of the party branch of Taiping Village, said that because it is not far from Zhangqiu and Jinan, the labor force has been transferred out of the village. At present, the area cultivated by retail investors in the village accounts for about 40% of the small area within 100 mu and 30% each for more than 100 mu.

Shi Chuanhai is one of the retail investors. The 2.5 mu of land he managed had a bumper harvest last year, and the grain yields of wheat and corn per mu totaled 2400 jin; the 40 mu of land collectively contracted by the village also yielded 2000 jin per mu; and the output of the 670 mu contracted by Zhang Baohua was the lowest, only 1800 jin.

Gao Hengbin calculated an account for the reporter: whether it is 40 mu or 670 mu, the circulation fee has increased year after year, from 300 to 500 yuan per mu in the previous two years to 700 to 800 yuan or even 1000 yuan per mu now. After large-scale operation, the cost of agricultural materials and harvest costs are lower than those of retail investors. "for example, if the machine tiller collects chemical fertilizer, each mu of land can be cheaper by 10 yuan or 20 yuan." But correspondingly, the larger the scale, the higher the cost of hiring.

Among the large households with a grain growing area of more than 1000 mu tracked by reporters for a long time, pure grain crops are rare. A large family in Gaomi City, Shandong Province has contracted land for more than 20 years and now manages 3800 mu of land, including 2000 mu of field crops and 1800 mu of vegetables. "I can be regarded as experienced. One mu of farmland can only earn 100 or 200 yuan a year, but I can't make any money if I have a drought or a flood. Making money mainly depends on vegetables, and grain is used to mix crops. "

Experts say that large-scale agriculture is difficult to achieve flexible and precise agricultural production management, such as hiring labor, productivity will decline, and regulation will be a problem. The more successful exploration of grain planting family farms in Shanghai Songjiang, Zhejiang Cixi and other places also mostly have a cultivated area of about 100 mu.

Support and subsidy

Which farmers should we tilt towards?

He Xuefeng, a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said that individuals or enterprises that rent land at high rents to carry out large-scale agricultural operations have low profits and high risks because of high rents and large scale.

In he Xuefeng's view, most areas in China have a dense population and a small amount of arable land per capita. On the one hand, the level of urbanization is not high, and the transfer of labor to the secondary and tertiary industries is not stable. "in order to ensure the opportunity for farmers to return to their hometown, it is not suitable for large-scale transfer of land."

Liu Tongli, former deputy director of the Agriculture and Industry Office of the Shandong Provincial CPC Committee, said that great efforts should be made to develop family farms with few or no employees, and the scale from 10 mu to 100 mu is more suitable for the national conditions, so that the income of growing grain obtained by peasant households is higher than or equal to the "opportunity cost" of going out to work, and at the same time avoid the risks caused by uncontrollable factors such as drought and flood.

Some experts believe that in the current agricultural support policies, the new subsidies should be carefully selected and should be used for new subjects of appropriate scale to encourage food production and ensure food security. The government should focus on solving the basic conditions of agricultural production and the convenience of growing grain, improving infrastructure and improving social services.