Due to the lack of agrochemical services in traditional agriculture, what kind of professional services do modern farmers need?

With the large-scale promotion and application of water and fertilizer integration technology, fertilizer structure is facing rapid adjustment, traditional fertilizers are facing transformation and upgrading, and water-soluble fertilizers as supporting products of water and fertilizer integration technology usher in development opportunities. Compared with traditional fertilizers, water-soluble fertilizers have higher utilization rate and more comprehensive nutrients. However, water-soluble fertilizers face various challenges in the process of marketing. The reason is that many farmers in the use of water-soluble fertilizer in the process, the use of dosage is not accurate, resulting in less than expected results. The essence of agrochemical service lies in finding and solving technical problems in the process of farmers 'planting. This article combines the market experience of popularizing liquid fertilizer and shares with readers how to solve a series of technical problems in the process of fertilization through agrochemical services.

Drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation are not widely available in many fruit and vegetable growing areas in the south. For these farmers, liquid fertilizer is a noble fertilizer, not only expensive in price, but also expensive in labor costs. If the direct and indirect waste of fertilizer is caused by improper use method, the fertilizer efficiency will not be obvious, thus further increasing the comprehensive cost of farmers, and finally making farmers lose confidence in liquid fertilizer. Therefore, in order to quickly promote liquid fertilizer, the following problems must be solved: First, how to help farmers choose efficient tools to apply liquid fertilizer and reduce the cost of fertilization; Second, how to solve various problems in the process of fertilization by farmers through agrochemical services, and guide them to correctly apply liquid fertilizer; Third, how to solve the doubts in the hearts of farmers through technical training, so that they have a correct understanding of liquid fertilizer. In response to the above problems, we have taken the following measures.

1. Development and popularization of fertilizer tools

As we all know, in some large-scale planting areas, modern irrigation and fertilization equipment such as sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation are the best carriers of integrated water and fertilizer technology. However, farmers in many regions of our country are still scattered planting, the plot area is small, and traditional fertilization methods are still used. Under these conditions, it is unrealistic to install sprinkler and drip irrigation systems. In the process of popularizing liquid fertilizer, many farmers reported that the effect was good, but the efficiency of artificial fertilization was too low, slowly losing interest in applying liquid fertilizer, and finally returning to apply granular compound fertilizer. Therefore, in order to promote liquid fertilizer smoothly, we must first think about how to apply liquid fertilizer easily and efficiently for farmers, and then fertilization tools are the key factors. We want to make a set of simple, efficient and practical liquid fertilizer application tools according to farmers 'crops, terrain and fertilization habits.

1, boat irrigation fertilizer machine

There are regular ditches between fields in many fruit trees and vegetable areas in South China. Farmers usually spread compound fertilizer first and then drag boat sprinklers to spray water. This method of irrigation and fertilization is more complicated, and water and fertilizer are not supplied at the same time, so that the utilization rate is reduced. In order to make it easier for farmers to apply liquid fertilizer, we made simple improvements to the boat sprinkler in the field of farmers and made it into a boat sprinkler that can apply fertilizer (Figure 1). We only need to add a fertilizer barrel to the original boat sprinkler, which is connected to the water inlet of the boat sprinkler. When fertilizer is needed, liquid fertilizer is loaded into the fertilizer barrel, and the liquid fertilizer flows to the water suction port along the fertilizer outlet pipe. The boat sprinkler sucks up the fertilizer and water at the same time (Figure 2), and sprays them evenly to the roots of crops, making the fertilization light and efficient.

2. Knapsack type ladle mixing fertilizer device

There is sufficient water in South China. In order to irrigate conveniently, farmers will fill the furrows in the fields with water. The traditional irrigation and fertilization method is to first spread granular compound fertilizer on the ridge surface, and then use a ladle to pour water from the furrow onto the ridge surface (Figure 3). This separate fertilization and irrigation method not only increases labor costs and labor intensity, but also significantly reduces the nutrient utilization rate of fertilizer due to this asynchronous mode of water and fertilizer. In order to solve the above problems, we designed a piggyback ladle fertilizer mixer (Figure 4). Remove the medicine outlet pipe of the backpack sprayer, connect the short PE pipe with the barrel first, then connect a section of PVC pipe, and then connect a water ladle at the end of the PVC pipe. When farmers apply fertilizer, they first put liquid fertilizer into the bucket of sprayer, then output a small amount of liquid fertilizer into water ladle by manual or electric mode, and finally scoop a ladle of water from the furrow with water ladle, so that water and fertilizer can be mixed rapidly to reach the predetermined dilution concentration, and then water and fertilizer can be poured onto the ridge of crops (Figure 5). This fertilization mode completes the traditional two separate procedures of irrigation and fertilization at one time, obviously improves the fertilization efficiency, and also realizes the integration of water and fertilizer.

Fig. 3 Conventional furrow irrigation and fertilization

3. Knapsack fertilizer gun

On some crops planted with plastic film, if drip irrigation or sprinkler belt is not installed under plastic film, it is very difficult to apply fertilizer in the later stage, and the later stage is often the peak period of fertilizer demand of crops. If timely water and fertilizer supply is not obtained, it is easy to lead to deficiency and yield reduction. To solve this contradiction, we designed a piggyback fertilizer gun (Figure 6). A pesticide outlet pipe of the backpack sprayer is removed, a short PE pipe is firstly connected with a barrel, and then a section of fertilizer gun is connected, the tail end of the fertilizer gun is provided with a plurality of water outlets, and water and fertilizer can be directly inserted into a soil layer for fixed-point application, so that on one hand, the problem that top fertilizer cannot be applied in film mulching cultivation is solved, on the other hand, accurate fertilization is realized, and the utilization efficiency of water and fertilizer is greatly improved. When farmers apply fertilizer, dilute the liquid fertilizer according to a certain proportion and put it into the barrel of the sprayer, and then insert the fertilizer gun near the roots of crops for fixed-point fertilization (Figure 7).

In some fruit tree planting areas, water and fertilizer can also be applied through this tool. According to the size of the crown, several fertilizer points can be determined to inject water and fertilizer into the soil layer with dense root distribution (as shown in Figure 8). It can not only reduce the labor intensity of fertilization, but also improve the efficiency of water and fertilizer use.