Who is growing grain and how to grow it?

Editor's note: spring is the best time of the year. However, how many people understand the story behind spring ploughing and grain production?

This is a reality that cannot be ignored: the cost of agricultural production has risen, the prices of major agricultural products have reached the "ceiling", and the problem of "who will farm" under the "double squeeze" has become increasingly prominent. Relying on the left-behind elderly, a family of three or five acres of land, how to pick up the rice bowl of 1.3 billion people?

This is an unavoidable challenge: behind the "eleven consecutive bumper harvests", the growth rate of grain cannot keep up with the growth rate of demand, and food security is far from easy to pass. One study shows that urbanization increases food demand by about 1 billion kilograms per year. How to ensure food security in the future?

In spring ploughing season, we walk into the fields of hope and explore the agricultural outlet in the new period through new changes and challenges in agriculture.

New changes in Sanfen Village:

After half of the labor went out to work, the cooperative planted nearly 70% of the land, saving 10%-20% of the cost.

Xiaobei Wang Sanfen Village, an ordinary village in Yongnian County, Handan, Hebei Province. After the Qingming Festival, the wheat field became busy.

450 households, more than 2000 mu of cultivated land, now who is farming in the village?

"Most of them have been transferred to the cooperative." Hao Jiangang, head of the village branch, said that Huaxiang Grain Professional Cooperative transferred 1360 mu of land, there are still three or four large grain farmers with a scale of 30 mu, and the rest are scattered planting by farmers.

And many rural areas, Sanfen Village more than 1700 people, nearly 800 people go out to work. "Compared to working, farming is not cost-effective." Hao Jiangang said, now wheat sells 1.2 yuan per catty, this price is not low! The cost of one mu of land, seed, fertilizer, irrigation, to invest 550 yuan, calculated down a mu of wheat net income only 600 yuan. While working outside the monthly income of two or three thousand yuan, skilled, a month can be 10,000 yuan.

"The only ones left are the 'old couple' who farm." Hao Hongyang, 63, said: "My family has 12 acres of land, and the 8 acres at the east end of the village have been transferred out, and the rent for one mu of land is 800 yuan." The four mu of land at the west end of the village is planted by ourselves, but we have signed a contract with the cooperative to provide seed and fertilizer uniformly, and sell it to the cooperative after harvest. Each catty is 10 cents higher than the market price."

The chairman of Huaxiang Cooperative is Hao Kexiang, 37. The cooperative was established three years ago. At present, it has transferred 3000 mu of land and entrusted seven or eight thousand mu of cultivated land around it.

How can we plant so much land?

Hao Ke introduced that the cooperative has five production groups, production materials management center, supply center, field management brigade, agricultural machinery group and plant protection group, with professional division of labor and their respective duties. The scale shows advantages, the agricultural materials are purchased uniformly, the price can be 10%-15%, and the cost of agricultural machinery and plant protection is also more than 20% lower than that of ordinary farmers. For example, the integrated farming and harvesting machine operation is 80 yuan/mu, while the farmer cost is 140 yuan/mu; the machine income is 35 yuan/mu, and the farmer is 60 yuan/mu. In addition, cooperatives grow seed fields, and the purchase price can be about 10% higher.

The cooperative planted wheat and corn in two seasons a year, excluding dividends and management expenses, with a surplus of 300,000 yuan last year.

Li Chunbo, deputy director of Handan City Agriculture Bureau, said that the new changes in Sanfen Village reflect a trend of decentralized planting towards new business entities. According to the survey, according to the average household of 6 mu of land, wheat and corn are planted in two seasons a year, and the maximum income is 10,000 yuan per year. It is difficult to retain some farmers who have the ability and opportunity to work outside. If it is a large-scale business household, calculated according to 200 mu, the annual income of husband and wife is about 100,000 yuan, which is still very attractive. At present, the city's land circulation area has reached 2.058 million mu, with a circulation rate of 23.2%.

New weapons in the field:

Water-saving irrigation, deep loosening and deep fertilization machinery settled down, basically realizing mechanized operation

In the wheat field of Liu Jun, a large grain grower in Liuying Village, Yongnian County, rows of mobile sprinkler equipment are spraying around, foggy water droplets are evenly sprayed into the green wheat field. "Before the flood irrigation, only six acres of water could be poured in one day. Now, one sprinkler turn is 30 meters, and a group of 10 sprinklers can irrigate 10 mu of land. Not only does it save labor, but it also saves half of the water consumption." Liu Jun said, In fact, this kind of equipment cost is not high, Spread to 40 yuan per mu, But ordinary farmers are rarely used.

"Look at this plot of land. It's all connected together. Ordinary farmers only have three to five acres of land. It's not large. How can they use it?" Liu Jun said, Originally every household scattered farming, The field is big ridge set small ridge, Now the ridge completely leveled off, Not only convenient for mechanized farming, Also increased land,"Three big ridges have one mu of land!"

On another field, a tractor was working "suddenly". "The most important thing in spring management is watering and topdressing. This is a fertilizer deep applicator. It manages several acres of land at a time. The fertilizer is evenly and accurately spread. It can operate more than 130 mu of land in one day." Liu Jun said that he transferred 600 mu of land in Liuying Village and finished it in a few days with agricultural machinery topdressing. If artificial topdressing was used, a person could sow up to 3 mu of land a day.

Li Chunbo introduced that Handan took the lead in building a "ton grain market" in Hebei and is currently moving towards a "super ton grain market". "The key to this is to guide 300 new business entities such as specialized grain cooperatives, large grain farmers and family farms to participate in the establishment of high yield, so as to ensure the implementation of key yield-increasing technologies."

Duan Meisheng, director of Handan City Agricultural Technology Extension Station, said that compared with ordinary farmers, large-scale grain farmers apply water-saving irrigation, formula fertilization and other new technologies faster. Last year, the deep loosening area of wheat in the whole city reached 4.41 million mu, the deep loosening rate reached 77%, and the root system was promoted to be deeply rooted by more than 10 cm. At present, wheat has basically realized mechanized operation, corn mechanical sowing has reached more than 90%, and the average yield per mu of high-standard wheat demonstration square is 596 kg.

Service is more convenient. In the wholesale department of Qifang agricultural materials in Dabeiwang Town, Jin Zipeng, the person in charge, said: "The price of agricultural materials has generally dropped this year, fertilizer is 10 yuan cheaper than last year, and a bundle of plastic film is also 10 yuan cheaper. Selling agricultural materials now, we can't do it if we can't catch the big ones. Half of the agricultural materials here are sold to big families. They call me and I'll deliver the fertilizer to the land. I'll give a rebate of 5-10 yuan for each bag."

Growing pains of new subjects:

Loan, storage and sunning are facing difficulties, hoping for more targeted support policies

New subjects also face growing pains.

Liu Jun said that in the past five years, he has transferred more land area than a year, from 100 mu to 300 mu, and then to 2600 mu,"basically the money earned in the previous year is invested in the next year, especially before spring ploughing and summer harvest every year, and the funding gap is the biggest problem." I can count all the money I can borrow these years on five fingers. The most I can borrow is 200,000 yuan from the postal service."

Storage, sunburn is also difficult for many large households generally reflect the problem. "Wheat can be sold directly after harvest, corn must be dried for 20 days. One mu of land is 1500 catties of corn, and a few hundred mu of land is hundreds of thousands of catties of corn. Drying every year is a big problem." Wu Yanping of Liu Bei Village in Liu Han Township said that many farmers wanted to transfer their land to him in the past two years, but he dared not accept it. "According to my current planting management level, it's no problem to plant several hundred acres of land, but harvesting and drying has become a bottleneck for development."

"There was no place to put 400 mu of corn a year. I borrowed the playground of the village primary school to dry the corn. Unexpectedly, it rained for seven days in a row. The corn below sprouted, so I had to throw it away." Hao Ke said that in the past two years, they have been pondering the corn dryer,"I heard that the cost of drying a catty of corn only increased by 5 cents, but the price of a dryer can be high, to more than 2 million yuan, we can not afford to invest alone." Besides, the problem of the venue is still not easy to solve."

Yongnian county agriculture bureau deputy director Zhao Jianbin told reporters, If postpartum drying, Storage can keep up, Farmers 'grain benefits will be greatly improved. "When corn was just harvested, it was 1.3 yuan/catty, and the price slowly fell back in the later period, about 1 yuan/catty." If we have drying equipment, we can sell the corn after harvest. We can reduce the loss and earn at least two or three hundred yuan per mu."

Hao Ke Xiang also has another worry,"We only earned the profit of growing grain this link, if we can extend the industrial chain, earn more profits." Hao Ke Xiang made a lot of attempts, he wanted to have characteristic black wheat, black mung bean and other processing into commodities, direct sales. However, it took more than a year to apply for a trademark, and it cost a lot of counter fees to enter the supermarket. "We also talked about cooperation with a large food company, but they asked for a supply period of eight months a year and a supply of 50,000 pounds a day. About 10,000 - 20,000 mu of black wheat planting base needs to be built. This is not something that our cooperative can do. We still need government support and guidance."