Mechanical cotton picking approached where the flower pickers went.

Around the National Day, Xinjiang, the largest cotton-rich region in China, welcomed more than 600,000 cotton pickers from more than a dozen provinces and regions, including Henan, Sichuan, Shandong and Ningxia.

As in previous years, among the flower pickers gathered in all directions at the foot of Tianshan Mountain, 1ax 6 came from Ningxia.

What is different from previous years is that this year's cotton picking season has been hit by the full implementation of machine picking by the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps. For people who have relied on picking flowers to improve their lives for many years, where are their labor services going to Xinjiang in the future? What measures will the government take to deal with it? The reporter conducted an interview on this.

The general trend of mechanized cotton picking

On October 19, at Chaoyang Farm, Hongqi Township, Wusu City, Tacheng District, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, a young Hui woman from Longde County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, met the vice mayor of Guyuan City, who came to visit the flower pickers in the cotton field. "I came here on September 2. Up to now, I have collected 6.6 tons of cotton." As she spoke, she did not stop her work. There are also 520 flower pickers from poor mountainous areas of Ningxia who are picking cotton on this farm with her. The flower-picking income, which has lasted for more than ten years, has accounted for one of the top three of their average annual income.

Ouyang Deming, owner of the farm where horse grapes are located, told reporters that of the 6000 mu of cotton fields he manages, 4000 mu are used as cotton seeds, so there are higher requirements for picking, which is why more than 600 people are employed to pick flowers every year during the picking season. "on some other farms, due to the large-scale promotion of mechanized harvesting, the demand for flower pickers has decreased significantly, and their income must have been affected." Ouyang Deming said.

"in 2014, the cotton sown area of the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps was 9.0139 million mu, and the mechanized mining area exceeded 70% of the total cotton area, which is expected to exceed 6.3 million mu, a record high." Introduced by Yang Qiu of Xinjiang production and Construction Corps.

Chen Guohua, head of the propaganda section of the 124 regiment of the 7th Division of the Corps adjacent to Chaoyang Farm, made an extended interpretation of this: "it is an indisputable fact that mechanized cotton picking has an impact on traditional flower pickers."

"the 124th regiment has 60, 000 mu of cotton fields, which required 6,000 flower pickers in previous years and more than 8000 people in the most years. Since last year, more than 20, 000 mu of cotton fields have been transformed into mechanical harvesting, and the number of flower pickers has dropped to 4000. The average income of manual cotton picking is 2 yuan per kilogram, which is converted to 400 kg per mu of cotton field and 800 yuan of manual picking cost. Although the price of a cotton picker is more than 2 million yuan, it has high production efficiency, with a cost of 0.55 yuan per kilogram and only 220 yuan per mu of cotton field. Therefore, production efficiency determines that it is an inevitable trend for machine picking to gradually replace manual picking. " Chen Guohua said.

The transformation of flower pickers brings back vitality.

"in fact, cotton field management is also facing transformation and upgrading." Ouyang Deming believes that with the accelerating process of agricultural modernization, there is a great need for professional and technical personnel in the field management of cotton sowing, soil and water conservation, weeding and pesticide application. Chaoyang Farm employs 40 people all the year round, 7 of whom are professional and technical personnel, with an average annual income of more than 80,000. The 'flower picker' horse grape has been picking cotton for more than two months, and the highest income is no more than 20,000 yuan. In contrast, the export of technical labor services is not only high in income, but also stable. "

In fact, many people who go out to work for years to earn money have realized that raising their income by engaging in simple manual labor has fallen behind the times. The labor service transformation of flower-picking workers is organic, and there is no lack of successful people who seize business opportunities to achieve a "gorgeous turn".

In Huxi Village, Shanghudi Township, Shawan County, Tacheng area, Yang Yongwu, a farmer from Fengzhuang Township, Pengyang County, Ningxia, and 14 flower pickers he hired temporarily are busy harvesting cotton from his contracted land.

In 1989, Yang Yongwu came to Xinjiang under the call of the government to export labor services. over the past few years, he felt that he could not get rich just by picking flowers. "in 1997, I began to contract cotton fields. From 30 mu to 135 mu now, a dozen of my fellow villagers have achieved a stable income by contracting dozens of mu to more than 200 mu of cotton fields. Now many of us have settled down in Xinjiang, not only getting rid of poverty, but also gradually becoming rich. "

Skill training is a long-term solution

"from being a flower picker to undertaking a 1.8 million yuan electric welding project, it is the transfer of employment skills training organized by the government that has changed my life." Chen Hai, a Ningxia Xiji Hui migrant worker who has settled in Urumqi, talked about the changes in his life and was filled with emotion.

In 2004, under the guidance of the government's organized labor export, Chen Hai picked flowers in Xinjiang. In 2009, hearing that the labor department held a professional skills training course on electric welding in Xiji, Chen Hai signed up for study and got the qualification certificate of electric welder after practical operation and examination. With this certificate, he began to work as an electric welder in Urumqi and gradually opened up the market. now he is a "capable person" who leads 14 welders to contract projects together, with a stable income of more than 100,000 yuan a year.

Ma Dekui, a farmer from Shiyang Village, Touying Town, Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, Ningxia, is also a person who has benefited from skill training. "when I went to work in Xinjiang in 1996, I had to do some rough work due to lack of skills. In the winter of 2004, I participated in the skills training of my hometown organization, obtained the five-level vocational certificate of bricklayer, and my income began to increase gradually. In 2007, he participated in training in his hometown, obtained the qualification certificate of labor broker, registered and established a labor dispatch company in 2010, and became a 'boss'. Now, I contract roadbed and border ditch projects in Xinjiang. The company has more than 200 migrant workers with a per capita monthly income of more than 4000 yuan, and my annual income is about 700000 yuan. "

Ma Jie of Urumqi Xinyue Automobile Company is a Xiji "boss" who started picking up flowers and now owns 36 buses and opened up six routes from Urumqi to Yinchuan. Xinjiang has a good situation of entrepreneurship and employment. Now our company is in urgent need of 80 professional and technical personnel for automobile maintenance, but it is difficult to recruit them for the time being. I hope to train and export more skilled talents in my hometown of Ningxia. " Ma Jie said.

Yang Zhirong, director of the Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security of Guyuan City, Ningxia, said that in line with the new situation of decreasing demand for mechanized cotton pickers and flower pickers in Xinjiang, Guyuan changed the new mechanism of increasing farmers' income from "government-led" labor export to "government-led, departmental services, labor agents and brokers", highlighting the skills training for migrant workers. The construction of transfer employment bases and the construction of labor intermediary organizations and labor brokers have been strengthened. In the first nine months of this year, 306600 workers were transferred and employed in the city, with a wage income of 3.043 billion yuan.