Dingxi, Gansu: turning "Xiaocao" into a big industry

Longzhong in August, the earth is verdant and the grass grows and warblers fly. Entering the summer day is the best time to harvest high-quality oatgrass. In the high-quality oat grass planted in Zhengchuan Village, Xingyuan Township, Anding District, Dingxi City, Gansu Province, Li Bing, the person in charge of Hengjia farmers' professional cooperative, is organizing cooperative agricultural machinists to hurry up with the harvest, the roar of machines in the fields, and the rush of "Iron Bull", playing a field symphony.

Dingxi, located in central Gansu, is famous for growing potatoes and traditional Chinese medicine on a large scale, and is known as the "potato capital" of China. In view of the situation that the young and middle-aged labor force goes out to work and the cultivated land is abandoned in recent years, Dingxi City takes the forest and grass industry with less labor and high income as the strategic leading industry, and puts forward the goal of building "the grass capital of western China".

After being demobilized in 2007, veteran Li Bing worked in the construction project and was a famous local construction boss. "I heard that the grass industry was developed in my hometown, but the villagers were short of funds, so I wanted to come back and work with the villagers." Li Bing has the unique vigor of the military. This year, he set up an entrepreneurial base for veterans in his hometown, developed the grass industry, and led the surrounding people to shake off poverty and become rich. "I want to realize the well-off dream of the villagers in the mountains."

With the support and help of the government, Li Bing set up three professional cooperatives of Hengjia planting, Yitong Agricultural Machinery and Hengjia Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, with a registered capital of 11.5 million yuan. Over the past two years, he has transferred 4800 mu of land from 230farmers, all of which are recommended. "I grow oats, alfalfa and silage corn. I don't worry about the market and make money faster." Li Bing said.

Gansu Minxiang Herbage Co., Ltd., Anding District, is another scene. Here, there are long queues of agricultural vehicles selling oatgrass, large grass graders working at full capacity, wrapped silage machines processing grass day and night, a busy scene.

"silage forage is good and easy to transport. it is a 'nutrition bag' that cattle and sheep like to eat. Fattening comes out early, so raising livestock is recommended." Lin Yimin, the head of the company, said humorously. This year, the company has purchased and processed more than 30,000 tons of alfalfa and more than 40,000 tons of high-quality oatgrass, and will process and sell more than 500000 tons of grass products in the whole year.

Zhang Jinchuan, director of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of Anding District, calculated an account: "if you plant corn, you can harvest about 900 jin of corn seeds per mu, which is calculated at 1 yuan per jin, and the income is more than 900 yuan. If we buy silage corn, we will produce 4.5tons of grass per mu, 300 yuan per ton, and the average income of farmers will be 1350 yuan per mu.

In Anding District, the core area of forage planting in Dingxi City, the grass output has increased from tens of thousands of tons in previous years to 1 million tons now. The district has adopted the mode of leading by enterprises and driven by large households to do enough "grass articles". So far, more than 2000 large feed growers have been cultivated, 81 grass industry cooperatives have been set up, 19 forage planting service teams have been set up, and 123 forage purchasing sites have been set up. In 2015, the per capita income of local farmers was 800 yuan. Lin Yimin, head of Gansu Minxiang Herbage Company, told the reporter that his company adopted the management model of "order agriculture", "company + cooperative" and "company + big grower". The average annual contract planting order area has reached more than 180000 mu, driving more than 36000 farmers in the region and establishing 54 contract purchase sites. The average annual income of alfalfa growers and forage oat growers is more than 1200 yuan per mu, and that of all-pearl corn and sweet sorghum growers is more than 1500 yuan per mu.

"the wind blows the grass and sees the cattle and sheep." Dingxi City did enough "grass" article, sang "grass" song, turned "grass" into a "big industry", green hillside rich villagers. In 2015, the bed area of perennial forage dominated by alfalfa and oatgrass reached 3 million mu, and the total output value of forage industry reached 13 billion yuan. The bed area of perennial forage in the core producing area of Anding area is more than 800000 mu.