Spray drone “After 90” farmer Xiang Xianzhi’s “mechanical farming”

Wearing a hooded suntan suit and sneakers, he operates a drone. Sweat dripped down his temples on his bronzed face. If you’re not on a field road, you might think you’re a drone enthusiast.

This young man is Xiang Xianzhi, the operator of Xiang Baorong Agricultural Cooperative in Ruian City, and the legal representative of Yuantian Family Farm in Ruian City. He is a real farmer born in the 1990s.

July is the busy farming season every year. This SUMMER, WENZHOU APPEARED THE RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE, EARLY rice than usual 10 days LATER THAN USUAL, squeezing THE TIME FOR late RICE TRANSPLANTING, FARM MACHINERY WORKERS TO RUSH TO CUT rice, TRANSPLANTING rice. Xiang Xianzhi also went to work early and returned late, almost every night in the field “overtime” fly drone plant protection.

Over the past 20 years, the Xiang family from a few acres of land, has been planted to more than 3,000 acres, modern agricultural mechanization, so that the small family farm has unimaginable space for development. Mechanical strong farming, according to the reality.

Full mechanization made it possible for 30 people to manage 3,000 acres of land

Point it, program it, charge it, start it. Now, Xiang can operate the drone proficiently, not only for plant protection, but also for seeding.

I decided to purchase the first drone in 2018, when only three households in Ruian had drones. “Of course the product was constantly evolving, but at the time, it was really good except for expensive.” Xiang Kenji laughed.

The most direct benefit is to save labor costs.

In 2018, the total area of Yuantian family farm has reached more than 3,000 mu, scattered in many villages in Ruian. There are more than 200 people on the farm during busy times, and management costs are extremely high. “Even when you have to explain to the workers exactly where the farmland is, it is very tiring,” Xiang said. Everyone needs workers during the busy period, and the farmers are increasingly older, so it is difficult to find workers and work efficiency is also increasingly difficult to guarantee.

Now, after comprehensive mechanization, more than 3000 mu of land is busy with only 30 people. With the cooperation of two people to charge the pesticide and shoot the pesticide by drone, the plant protection of more than 700 mu can be completed by resting for one hour at noon from 6:30 am to 11:00 PM. Drones are at least eight times more efficient than humans.

The drone’s programming also breaks the agricultural tradition of working at sunrise and ending at sunset. Genda Family Farm just bought a drone this year, and so far it has worked over 8,000 acres, most of which are completed at night. Because many pests are under the leaves or in the soil during the day and come out at night, spraying at night is even more effective than during the day.

Thanks to the programming operation, the UAV flies along fixed lines, which can also effectively save fertilizer and pesticides. “What’s wrong with artificial plant protection? But when I came back to change the dressing, I couldn’t remember. When I applied it again, the seedlings were burned, so the UAV wouldn’t have this problem.” “Mr. Xiang said.

In addition to the drone, the Xiang family has 12 dryers to dry the rice for easy transportation and preservation. “When I was young, we had to grab the field, the field road, the square in front of the cultural hall… And you have to keep an eye on the weather. If it rains, harvest the rice, or the rain may wash it away.”

3 rice transplanters, 3 harvesters, 2 UAVs, 5 wheeled tractors, 2 crawler tractors, 12 rice dryers… At present, the source field family farm’s machine tillage, machine harvest has reached 100%.

The Genda family farm is just a small footnote to agricultural modernization. According to statistics from Ruian Agricultural Machinery Management Center, the number of agricultural drones in Ruian increased from 0 to 91 by the end of 2021 in just four years. Ruian city has also set up a flight defense team, which has built 18 UAV operating companies.

According to the statistics of the Agricultural Mechanization Development Center of Wenzhou Agriculture and Rural Bureau, by the end of 2021, there were 2,212 rice transplanters, 1,467 dryers and 374 plant protection drones in the city, which increased by 8.48%, 17.26% and 112% respectively compared with 2019. The comprehensive mechanization rate of rice cultivation and harvest in the city reached 85.67%, and the comprehensive mechanization rate of early rice cultivation and harvest reached 95.85%. This year, after the introduction of “Wenzhou City on supporting agriculture” several policy opinions on the action of “double strong”, the enthusiasm of farmers to buy aircraft has been significantly improved. In the first half of this year, the city has added 7887 sets (sets) of agricultural machinery and tools, accounting for 96.2% of the whole year 2021.

The policy of favoring farmers has ensured the renewal and iteration of farms

“When I was a child, my impression of farming was physical work, which was really tiring. No matter how to harvest rice or dry the rice, I had to carry bags and bags. One bag was 80 or 80 kilograms, and if it rained, the rice would be wet, maybe 100 kilograms. When he really took over the family farm, Xiang Xianji found that the development of modern agriculture, really let him this generation of new farmers in the physical strength of a lot easier, in terms of risk defense has more policy.

“Now I work in agriculture, of course, but I am more comfortable in my heart,” Xiang said. “Because the state has many policies to help and benefit farmers, such as collecting grain reserves from farmers and giving us subsidies for various means of production and insurance.” Xiang Xianzhi also bought insurance for rice, in the event of natural disasters caused by production, you can enjoy insurance protection, reduce losses. According to its memory, one year because of the typhoon caused lodging lost, the final insurance compensate more than 200 thousand yuan. And this agricultural insurance, the premium after the government subsidy, only 1 yuan/mu.

Genda Family farm is the Kawanyang functional food producing area, which is also a part of the “national brand” Ruian National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park. In order to develop the national modern agricultural industrial Park, Ruian has issued a series of industrial support policies. During the construction period, Ruian has invested 332 million yuan of fiscal funds (including 100 million yuan of central financial incentive funds), leveraged over 1.5 billion yuan of social capital, and vigorously promoted the high-quality development of rice, vegetable and other industries in the park.

Xiang Xianzhi’s first dryer was purchased in 2006 and sold for 170,000 yuan without any subsidy. Now, the original price of a dryer is only 70,000 yuan and it can enjoy at least 50 percent subsidy from the government. One drone, after subsidies, is less than 40,000 yuan.

But add it all up, and a year of equipment update is still a lot of money. “This year, we have invested nearly 400,000 yuan in equipment, and in the past 13 years, we have invested millions of dollars in agricultural machinery equipment.”

In addition to equipment investment, in recent years, Xiang Xianzhi’s family has also invested a lot of fixed assets construction, extending from planting to processing, agricultural tourism and other fields, including drying room, rice processing plant, and agricultural service complex under reconstruction, with a total investment of more than 5 million yuan. In addition, the annual land transfer rent alone will be nearly 2 million yuan.

Mr. Xiang faces more farm management challenges than his father’s generation, including keeping the money running. Instead of borrowing money from relatives and friends, bank loans have become an important source of funds.

“In 2019, when we needed money most, Agricultural Bank of China came to us and provided us with a 700,000 yuan loan to solve our urgent need to buy new equipment.” It is understood that the agricultural Bank of the agricultural loan loan speed, the term of three years, with the loan also. Due to the low interest rate, the loan was renewed this year, with an annualized interest rate of only 3.7%.

In addition to capital management, there are also challenges from the sales side — how to grow and sell, and how to use new media to further open the market in the retail side. When Xiang’s family first planted purple rice last year, it didn’t sell well at first. “We sell purple rice locally. People are not familiar with purple rice and don’t like it very much.” Later, through the Douyin channel, it opened the market this year, and the demand is completely in short supply.

First rich belt after the rich let Xingnong road paved the road of happiness

Xiang Xianzhi’s father, Xiang Baorong, is a big farmer in Ruian. He was originally engaged in footwear business in Yiwu, but returned to Ruian with his family in the late 1990s to cultivate rice. For more than two decades, the Xiang family has moved almost every three years, from rented villager homes to a self-built management house near a rice processing plant.

What impressed Xiang Kenji most was the tin roof management room. “I lived there when I was married. In summer, when it’s 38 degrees outside, it’s at least 45 degrees inside. Cooking in the kitchen is like taking a bath.” Even in such harsh conditions, Mr. Xiang said, his parents’ generation preferred to live on farms rather than in tall buildings.

Agricultural technology continues to develop, coupled with Xiang Xianzhi willing to work, will do, in recent years, the source of the field family farm more dry more prosperous, Xiang Xianzhi a life is getting better and better. Three years ago, he took his wife and children to a high-rise in Ruian Ma Yu, invested in shops and bought real estate in downtown Wenzhou.

Not only Xiang’s family, but also the farm’s “old employees” are thriving.

A Guangxi resident old staff in the family farm dry seventeen eight years, not only learned to operate agricultural machinery skilled, but also maintenance of agricultural machinery, now the salary reached nearly ten thousand yuan; A GuiZhouJi employee in farm for nearly ten years, the start because “pay” a high salary, now pay more than doubled.

Big family with small family, first rich with rich. In addition to solving their own production problems, Xiang Jia also helps other farmers solve the difficulties of seed, fertilizer, pesticide, technology and sales in the production process, and guides more than 100 local farmers to grow high-quality rice.

In recent years, many local villagers in Ryan have given up their livelihoods in other areas and returned to their hometown to farm. They have just transferred a few acres of small fields and have found Xiang Xianzhi to help mechanized management.

For example, rice drying, according to rough statistics, each season for their own cooperative drying rice is no less than 650 tons, for the surrounding people drying rice is also about 240 tons, not only greatly reduce the weather caused by the loss, but also reduce the pressure of the rush to harvest and seed. There are surrounding farmers entrust Xiang Xianzhi to help carry out UAV plant protection.

Using intelligent Internet of things, intelligent sensors, intelligent automation control and other high-tech, command unmanned aerial vehicles, field work robots and other new intelligent agricultural machinery, promote machine substitution… Thanks to this, a picture of total wealth is slowly unfolding in the field — in 2021, Ruian National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park achieved a total output value of about 3.68 billion yuan, driving 30,000 jobs, and agricultural enterprises in the park paid a total tax of about 400 million yuan.

From a family farm to a modern industrial park, machinery strengthens farmers like rain, nourishing every rice field and vegetable field; Common prosperity is like the wind, blowing every farmer dependent on the land.