Save your own lack of work! Practice and Learning Technology of "Agricultural Machinery Mutual Assistance Cooperative" of Taoyuan Qingnong Group

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"Save yourself from your own lack of work!" Taoyuan City Young Farmers 'Production Cooperative with Limited Liability (hereinafter referred to as Taoyuan Youth Farmers Cooperative), composed of a group of hot-blooded young farmers, established the first agricultural machinery mutual aid cooperative in China. In addition to learning agricultural machinery operation, it also recruited "agricultural service students" aged from 18 to 51. In addition to helping solve the seasonal shortage of agricultural work, they had the opportunity to start their own businesses after learning martial arts.

Wu Chengfu, chief instructor of the cooperative and head of Peifang Organic Farm, said,"In the cooperative, you can not only learn all kinds of agricultural techniques, but also help you think about land leasing, access roads, agricultural machinery equipment and lack of work, that is, hope to attract more young people into agriculture."

Traction Machine (Photography/Lin Peijun)

Tea garden actual agricultural machinery drill, using labor-saving agricultural machinery

The cooperative holds field education and training twice a month. At the end of last month, practical training was carried out in the experimental tea garden of the tea reform field. On that day, the focus of the lecture was on the agricultural machinery operation drill of the tea industry. Aiming at the most serious operation links of the tea industry: fertilization, mowing, pruning, harvesting, etc., the trainees were taught how to use the new-type labor-saving agricultural machinery and practiced the techniques of tea harvesting and pruning on the spot.

"You're walking too fast!" "Look back and see if you're leaning to one side!" "Everyone has a common problem. They walk faster and faster because they are afraid of cutting their feet!" Behind the rumbling mechanical sound of the "two-person tea plucking machine," lecturer Liao Junrong can still be heard lecturing in a loud voice throughout the vast tea garden.

Train novices to use agricultural machinery and train new technicians

Liao Chunrong, who runs a tea garden in Longtan, Taoyuan City, explained and demonstrated the basic standard process of fertilization and weeding in the tea garden, and then rolled up his sleeves to lead the students to operate the pruning process on the spot. He pointed out that it is difficult for novices to control the pruning force, which is easy to make the tea trees uneven, or over-pruned, affecting the germination and yield of tea trees."Good techniques all depend on practice, so if you have the opportunity, you should practice more!" He stressed that the field course is to let students repeatedly operate, familiar with movements, so as to train hand feeling, improve stability, cultivate the skills of operating agricultural machinery.

He thinks, Even is mowing, Fertilization this relatively simple and basic work, Field operation and in the classroom to see photos will feel different, Only through the actual drill, Can let students establish a sense of presence,"The first few classes let students get used to the feeling of holding the machine, So after that won't be afraid, Then let them themselves to understand the difference between good and bad cut."

In addition, he also thinks, In the teaching and interaction with the cooperative students process, Also can further find suitable for their own farm manpower, Solve their own lack of work problem,"Also like training new technicians, I teach them, They also have the ability to help later."

The ride-on harvester has only ten units, and its efficiency is increased by three times.

Wu Chengfu taught how to use agricultural machinery to harvest tea leaves in the field, led the students to be familiar with the operation of tea edging machine and ride-type tea picking machine, and accepted the learning achievements one by one after the students finished the practice.

He points to a large agricultural machine standing more than two feet high in the center of the tea plantation. It is a "riding harvester" that sells for up to 4 million yuan. There are only ten units in the whole station. The "ride-type harvesting machine" requires two people to operate at a time, and can harvest 9,000 kilograms of tea in eight hours a day. Compared with the small "two-person tea picking machine", it requires two to three people to operate at a time, and can only harvest about 3000 kilograms a day. The efficiency of large-scale agricultural machinery has increased by three times.

Agricultural machinery import needs to consider farmland type and cultivate "mechanical hand feeling"

In addition to saving labor costs, the introduction of machinery can also strengthen tea garden management. Wu Chengfu explained that the "ride-on harvester" can accurately control the height of each pruning and harvesting plant, and will not cause uneven tree crown pruning due to differences in personnel technology, habits or fatigue problems, thus affecting tea quality, even impacting the yield of tea garden in the next season, which can manage tea garden more effectively and conveniently."On the whole, introducing machinery can make the quality of tea garden more fixed." However, they still respect the working habits of hand-picked tea plantations, emphasizing that the introduction of agricultural machinery is only to meet the agricultural needs of different regions.

Although the efficiency of large-scale agricultural machinery is far higher than that of traditional manpower,"it is not easy to operate it properly. Driving a machine is like driving a car, and there are good and bad techniques. At the same time, we must consider whether the type of farmland is suitable for agricultural machinery to enter." He further explained that when operating agricultural machinery, the first priority is safety, and then rely on ordinary practice stacking experience, in order to stabilize the operation, cultivate "mechanical hand feeling", so that the quality of tea harvested by agricultural machinery is consistent, truly replace traditional manpower,"otherwise improper operation will also destroy the growth of trees."

On the other hand, he also reminded that agricultural machinery should be introduced before considering the farmland type, take tea garden as an example, traditional tea garden planting density is high, large machinery is difficult to enter, if you want to use "riding harvester" to widen the tea row spacing, plant spacing at least 1.6-1.8 meters wide; In addition, the slope of more than 15 degrees tea garden can not use this harvester,"riding harvester" is more suitable for the area of about 10 hectares of flat or gentle slope tea garden.

Taiwan tea has a competitive advantage only when solving the shortage of tea gardens

Lee Hung-hsi, director of the tea reform factory, says that Taiwan's tea industry enjoys international renown, and specialty teas such as oolong tea, packaged tea, and oriental beauty tea are Taiwan's main export products. However, the domestic tea industry has been facing problems such as abnormal climate, small production scale, and aging manpower, which makes domestic tea insufficient to meet domestic market demand. Every year, large quantities of commercial tea are imported to meet the needs of the hand-cranked and canned tea beverage market.

Li points out that the weeding, fertilization and pruning operations of tea gardens require a large amount of manpower, and the problem of lack of labor during harvest is even more serious."If the tea leaves are not harvested within a certain period of time, the tea leaves will be too old and will affect the quality, so every tea garden is often recruiting tea pickers." For cooperatives to spontaneously open field agricultural machinery courses, help solve the lack of work, she is happy to see it,"so that the output can be improved, domestic tea will have a greater competitive advantage!"

Trainee: It's a rare opportunity to practice on the spot

Lai Hanming, 51 years old, known as "Lai Sang", watched his parents farm since childhood. Rice field is the most familiar amusement park. He has a yearning and enthusiasm for agriculture. He wants to "bring home" what he has learned, improve the problem of lack of work at home and improve the quality of agricultural products. This firm will convinced the interviewer of the cooperative that Lai Hanming successfully became the oldest member of the "Qingnong" cooperative, and the other members were younger brothers and sisters who had to ask him for advice.

Lai Han-ming says that many of the machines in the field have commonalities, and it is easier to master them only when you observe the characteristics of each machine and find out the similarities and differences in operation. He also pointed out that previous farmer courses were held in classrooms and rarely provided opportunities for field practice."It's really rare to have the opportunity to actually practice pruning when the tea garden is dormant in winter." However, he also stressed that to get started or to rely on their own continuous practice after class, in order to truly experience the feeling of "man-machine integration."

Shih Ying-han, a team leader who switched from computer engineer to farmer four years ago, says that even if you use a simple lawn mower to mow grass, you still have to put in time to practice and experience the feeling at the beginning. The eyebrows and corners of the operation of various lawn mowers may be different, and the skills required are not the same. He believes that through field education and training, students can learn solid field knowledge and skills, which will not only solve the problem of lack of work on the ground, but also greatly help them in running their own farms in the future.

"Save yourself from your own lack of work", cultivate agricultural and technical skills

In addition to providing practical training in tea plantation management, the previous course also moved the classroom to the miscellaneous grain field."In the case of sweet potatoes, fertilization, ploughing, and planting are all labor-intensive, and farmers have to squat all day." Therefore, the course teaches how to operate cultivators, tractors, and transplanters that can replace these processes. Wu Chengfu said that the cooperative hopes to cultivate students 'agricultural machinery operation skills through collective strength and solve the problem of lack of work on the ground.

"there is a shortage of labor everywhere, but the shortage of labor varies according to the type of agriculture, and the months when labor is tight are different," wu explains. vegetables, flowers, tea, and miscellaneous grains are all agricultural items that require a lot of labor, but farmland in northern china is mostly small and fragmented, and it is very difficult to find contract farmers who can cooperate, making the shortage of labor even more serious. In addition, many crops are produced seasonally, and the demand for manpower varies greatly between slack and busy farming periods, making it difficult for farmers to hire agricultural workers.

"Save yourself from your own lack of work!" Wu pointed out that agricultural work has a certain technical threshold, and directly cultivating technical agricultural workers to solve the problem of lack of work can best meet the needs of owners. Through cooperative matchmaking, farms in northern Taiwan can find agricultural manpower and agricultural machinery contract workers stationed in northern Taiwan for a long time. Cooperative students can also have stable jobs and have the opportunity to start their own businesses in the future."In the cooperative, not only can you learn all kinds of agricultural techniques, but you can also think about land leasing, road construction, agricultural machinery equipment, and lack of work. It is hoped that more young people will be attracted to agriculture."

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