Core Tips.
The fundamental way out for agriculture lies in modernization, and agricultural mechanization is an important means to realize agricultural modernization. At a time when rural labor resources are becoming increasingly scarce, the importance of agricultural mechanization is more prominent.
Chongqing has always occupied an important position in the field of micro-tillers, and has always had the reputation of "China's micro-tiller capital" in the industry. Data from the China Agricultural Machinery Association shows that in 2022, there will be 303 micro-tillage machine manufacturers in the country, of which 139 will be in Chongqing.
With the vigorous promotion of high-standard farmland construction and the diversified development of the agricultural industry, the use of micro-tillers is being lost. Our city urgently needs to explore a new way of iterative upgrading of the "iron cow" in hilly and mountainous areas.
Not long ago, the Municipal General Office issued the "Chongqing Agricultural Machinery Equipment R&D, Manufacturing, Promotion and Application Integrated Development Action Plan (2023-2027)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") proposed that by 2027, the city will build a national agricultural machinery and equipment R&D and manufacturing highland in hilly and mountainous areas, and successfully create a national advanced manufacturing cluster of agricultural machinery and equipment in hilly and mountainous areas.
In the face of new "opportunities", how to speed up the running and use of agricultural machinery in mountainous areas?In the past few days, the reporter walked into the production workshop and the field for interviews.
Self-propelled rotary tiller. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
After more than 40 years of planting, Zhou You, a large grain grower in Shajiao Village, Lishi Town, Jiangjin District, feels that growing grain is no longer a physical task. Last year, he used a ride-on crawler rotary tiller, "plowing the land as easily as driving a car."
This change originates from Weima Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weima Agricultural Machinery"), which is an iterative upgrade of the "Iron Bull" in hilly and mountainous areas.
Consolidation of old positions.
Iterative upgrade of micro tiller.
Pastoral management machine, walk-behind micro-tiller, ride-on crawler rotary tiller, ......On January 4, the reporter walked into Weima Agricultural Machinery Company located in Jiangjin Luohuang Industrial Park, and in the exhibition hall, all kinds of cool agricultural machinery were eye-opening.
These are all upgraded versions of the 'Iron Bull', which are very popular in the market and have been exported to Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States and other regions. As a listed agricultural machinery company in Chongqing, Zhan Yingshi, deputy general manager of Weima Agricultural Machinery, revealed pride in his speech.
Founded in 2003, WM Agricultural Machinery is a general machinery enterprise mainly engaged in the production of small water pumps, small generators, diesel engines, etc. In 2005, WM Agricultural Machinery began to turn to the production of micro-tillage machines in hilly and mountainous areas, and was committed to the R&D, design, manufacturing and sales of agricultural machinery and other power machinery products in mountainous and hilly areas.
On the one hand, the state has introduced a subsidy policy for farmers to purchase agricultural machinery, and on the other hand, the hilly and mountainous areas including Chongqing were still dominated by cattle farming, which was a business opportunity. Zhan Yingshi said, "We have the foundation of production and general machinery, and the manufacturing of agricultural machinery has the advantage of engines and talents." ”
In June of that year, Weima Agricultural Machinery developed a walk-behind micro-tillage. This product can plough 10 acres of land a day, which is more efficient than ploughing cattle, so it is welcomed by farmers as soon as it is listed, and Weima Agricultural Machinery has sold more than 200,000 units a year.
The prospect is broad, the "money way" is good, and there are many imitators - in just a few years, the number of enterprises producing micro-tillage machines in Chongqing has increased to more than 100.
On January 4, 2024, at the Weima agricultural machinery production line in Luohuang Industrial Park, Jiangjin, workers are stepping up production orders. Reporter Zheng Yu Intern Chen Yuru Photo by Visual Chongqing.
Behind the rapid development, the problem was quickly exposed - a machine is one or two hundred pounds, and the operator has to hold the handrail to control the direction, which is very laborious;At the same time, the transition requires two people to pick up the flat pole.
Although the cattle are liberated, they are tired and half dead", many farmers have expressed their demands for lightweight micro-tillage machines to agricultural machinery dealers or enterprises. After receiving feedback, in 2015, Zhan Yingshi took the lead in improving the micro-tiller, reducing its weight to seventy or eighty catties.
The weight problem was solved, and a new problem arose - a serious lack of comfort. For example, the walk-behind micro tiller requires the operator to straighten his waist and stand up, and at the end of the day, the tired person is sore all over. In response to this problem, in 2022, WM Agricultural Machinery developed a ride-on crawler rotary cultivator.
Like driving a car, farmers only need to control the steering wheel. What's more, it can be loaded with different tools to achieve a variety of uses from a single cultivated land to ditching and ridge formation. James said.
In 2022, the subsidized sales of micro-tillage machines nationwide will be nearly 5480,000 units, of which 4310,000 units are produced in our city, that is to say, for every 10 micro tillage machines sold, 8 are produced in Chongqing, and micro tillage machines are still the fist products of agricultural machinery in our city.
Lightweight, comfortable, green and intelligent, this is the development direction of micro tillage. Zhao Yang, the relevant person in charge of the Equipment Department of the Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, said that the city should make its fist products bigger and stronger, and also develop and produce low-noise or even zero-noise products, new energy micro-tiller products represented by electric energy, and take a new road for the development of micro-tillers in hilly and mountainous areas.
The workers of Weima Agricultural Machinery are stepping up production. Reporter Zheng Yu Intern Chen Yuru Photo by Visual Chongqing.
Expand into new areas.
Aiming at the research and development of small and medium-sized agricultural machinery.
When Zhan Yingshi upgraded the micro-tillage machine, Ding Xiaobing, a senior expert of Chongqing Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery"), devoted his energy to the research and development and innovation of small and medium-sized agricultural machinery in hilly and mountainous areas.
This has a historical background. Since 2012, the city has gradually implemented the mechanization transformation project of farmland in hilly and mountainous areas, and later carried out high-standard farmland construction, transforming the past "slap field" and "chicken nest land" into a relatively concentrated and contiguous large field, which puts forward new requirements for agricultural machinery.
Ding Xiaobing believes that after the plots are connected, the use of micro-tillers will decline;At the same time, although the small plot has become a large field, there are still problems such as difficulty in getting into the field, difficulty in turning around, and heavy volume leading to the destruction of the bottom layer of the paddy field plow, "so the research and development of small and medium-sized agricultural machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas has become the direction of the transformation of agricultural machinery enterprises." ”
Just do it. In 2012, Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery has developed a 21-horsepower small half-track tractor and a small harvester, and then developed a 100-horsepower tracked medium-sized tractor. Ding Xiaobing thought that these agricultural machinery would be an instant hit in the market, but he didn't expect to be "poured cold water" by reality.
The main thing is that it is too expensive. Ding Xiaobing found that Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery a small horsepower tractor market price in 50,000 yuan, and the lowest price of a high-horsepower tractor in the north is 60,000 yuan.
Micro tiller. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery has also thought about appropriately reducing prices, but there is no profit after accounting for costs. After analysis, Xinyuan Agricultural Machinery adjusted its thinking and put the focus on the 30-horsepower self-propelled rotary cultivator. After several years of research, a self-propelled crawler rotary tiller named "Xin Cheetah" was successfully launched last year.
Due to the use of triangular high-flowered rubber tracks, reduce the grounding pressure on the soil, ensure that the wetland operation does not slip, the paddy field operation does not sink, and the first drop to 40,000, the cost performance is highlighted, so the product is in short supply as soon as it is listed.
The reporter learned that at present, there are nearly 200 agricultural machinery and equipment manufacturing enterprises in the city, and many enterprises have developed some suitable small and medium-sized agricultural machinery around the hilly and mountainous areas, which has solved the embarrassment of inorganic availability to a certain extent, but for corn, potatoes, soybeans, rape and other grain and oil crops in sowing, planting and other links, the problem of "no suitable machine matching, no good machine available" is still more prominent.
In the next step, we will use platforms such as the Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Equipment Technology Innovation Center in Hilly and Mountainous Areas and the National Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Industry Technology Innovation Center in Hilly and Mountainous Areas to carry out in-depth continuous research and industrial application of the shortcomings and weaknesses of agricultural machinery and equipment in hilly and mountainous areas, and strive to develop more small and medium-sized agricultural machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas. Qiu Ning, the relevant person in charge of the Agricultural Mechanization Department of the Municipal Agriculture and Rural Committee, said.
Weima agricultural machinery staff is introducing modern agricultural machinery and equipment. Reporter Zheng Yu Intern Chen Yuru Photo by Visual Chongqing.
Break new ground.
Adapt to the characteristics of agricultural machinery.
Unlike other agricultural machinery enterprises that focus on the research and development of equipment for the cultivation management and harvesting of bulk grain and oil crops, Yao Keyong, general manager of Chongqing Shenkite Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., has focused on the research and development of intelligent equipment in the whole process of prickly ash drying, sorting, threshing, etc.
Zanthoxylum pepper is an important characteristic cash crop in our city, and the planting area of the city is nearly 1 million mu. For a long time, the drying of fresh peppers is a troublesome matter, which is more prominent in Jiangjin, the "hometown of Chinese peppercorns".
In Jiangjin, almost every pepper farmer has a stove for roasting peppercorns, but the quality of artificially baked peppercorns is uneven, which affects the dried peppercorns.
Yao Keyong has developed a set of intelligent temperature control equipment for pepper drying, which has been sold to Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guizhou and other provinces and cities. In 2021, Yao Keyong, who has been deeply involved in the field of agricultural machinery for many years, will start to develop new energy drying equipment, which is not a stand-alone equipment, but an intelligent production line for the whole link of Sichuan pepper.
Yao Keyong said that the stand-alone equipment only solves the drying problem of pepper, and the screening, threshing, and crushing of branches of pepper still need to rely on manpower.
For Yao Keyong, the development of a full-link intelligent production line is not a technical problem, the difficulty lies in the fact that this set of equipment requires at least three or four million yuan, and whether the user can afford it.
At this time, Zeng Zhenghe, a pepper buyer in Xiaoyuan Village, Shiyun Town, Jiangjin District, approached Yao Keyong and said that he was willing to provide the site and part of the research and development expenses. In June of that year, one was 31 meters long, 5 meters wide, and 5 meters highThe 5-meter pepper processing production line was built in Jiangjin. Due to the use of small air supply and large circulation technology, the volatilization of essential oil of Zanthoxylum zanthoxylum was controlled, and the quality of dried Zanthoxylum was significantly improved. At the same time, this production line has also realized the mechanization of fresh pepper collection, color fixing, transportation, drying, separation, screening, packaging and storage.
Seeing that the effect is good, the surrounding farmers are also willing to pay a certain processing fee and hand it over to them for processing. "It not only unifies the drying quality of Sichuan pepper, but also reduces the production cost. Yao Keyong said. In 2022, 5 village collectives, including Paifang Village and Huangjue Village, Lishi Town, Jiangjin District, will also purchase this production line. Now, on the one hand, he is iteratively upgrading the equipment, and at the same time, he is also researching special harvesting machinery for pepper picking.
Harvester. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Pang Youlun, the relevant person in charge of the Agricultural Machinery Institute of the Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that at present, the city's rice and other grain and oil crops have been mechanized harvesting, but the sowing, transplanting, field management, harvesting and other links of cash crops such as vegetables, citrus, tea, pepper, and Chinese medicinal materials still lack adaptation machinery. The city has announced a list of 30 short board agricultural machinery equipment needs, hoping that agricultural machinery enterprises can consider developing agricultural machinery and equipment around characteristic cash crops when transforming, and take a differentiated development path.
On January 4, 2024, in the Weima Agricultural Machinery Exhibition Hall of Jiangjin Degan Industrial Park, the staff of rural cooperatives who came to buy agricultural machinery were learning about the performance of agricultural machinery. Reporter Zheng Yu Intern Chen Yuru Photo by Visual Chongqing.