Agricultural machinery enters the field, drones and other equipment make traditional planting “laid off”

“In order to do a good job in tobacco leaf transplanting, we organize tobacco farmers in advance to conduct on-site training sessions on fertilization, ridging, and film covering, and encourage tobacco farmers to use large tractors, rotary tillers, ridging machines, laminating machines, drones and other machinery to achieve Mechanized labor improves production efficiency,” said Wu Zhenhua, head of Liuzhai Tobacco Station.

The picture shows the agricultural machinery technicians explaining the precautions for the operation and use of agricultural machinery. Photo by Wang Caijin
In the recent on-site training meeting, agricultural machinery technicians explained in detail the characteristics and advantages of mechanized ridging and film covering technology, and demonstrated them in the field. Starting, advancing, turning, and adjusting the speed, the agricultural machine operator skillfully operates the machine and drags out a series of flat field ridges.
“Post-90s” tobacco farmer Luo Zujiang said with emotion at the training meeting: “In the past, when parents planted tobacco, in the process of transplanting tobacco leaves, they first manually cultivated soil, dug holes, and covered with film, and they had to bend down again and again to plant the tobacco plants. Tobacco is all done manually, which is labor-intensive and inefficient.”

The picture shows Luo Zujiang using machinery to raise a ridge. Photo by Wang Yuanfu
In Luo Zujiang’s view, agricultural machinery has changed the traditional planting mode of “purely manual” labor. He also purchased agricultural machinery such as micro tillage machines, ridging machines, soil cultivators, and film covering machines. After getting these agricultural machines, he was “laid off” from the purely artificial traditional planting mode with his face facing the loess and his back facing the sky.
“Mechanized transplanting can reach 6 acres per day, and the efficiency is more than ten times that of manual work, and there is no need to worry about the delay in transplanting tobacco leaves.” Luo Zujiang said, “At the same time, mechanized transplanting can achieve ‘deep planting of tobacco’ and strengthen tobacco plants root system vitality, improve the growth uniformity of tobacco plants, and reduce root and stem diseases of tobacco plants. Many machines can also be used in rice planting after tobacco plants, killing two birds with one stone.”
The entry of agricultural machinery into the field has changed the “purely manual” traditional planting mode, and solved the problem of excessive labor and high cost. In recent years, Guangxi Nandan County Tobacco Monopoly Bureau (Marketing Department) has actively guided tobacco farmers to take the road of mechanized planting. Through coordination with the county party committee, government and local agricultural machinery departments, it has helped tobacco farmers to obtain agricultural machinery subsidies, vigorously promoted various types of machinery, and focused on improving the mechanization of tobacco areas. level to ensure that tobacco farmers can reduce input and cost. At the same time, they also guide the cooperatives to integrate local agricultural machinery resources to carry out professional services, basically achieving full coverage of mechanized operations.