Developing Modern Agriculture to Increase Farmers' Income—— Yang Xiaoling, Chairman of Sichuan Guang'an Huimin Agricultural Machinery and Agronomic Professional Cooperative
Yang Xiaoling, Chairman of Sichuan Guang'an Huimin Agricultural Machinery and Agronomic Professional Cooperative, Deputy to the 13th Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, was named "National Agricultural Labor Model" in 2018, "National Advanced Individual in Grain Production" in 2021, and "National Top Ten Farmers" in 2022.
Promote the development of farmers and grow organic vegetables
In 1999, Yang Xiaoling returned to China after agricultural training in Japan and worked at the Sichuan Workers' Foreign Exchange Center, during which he went to the Japan Agricultural Association many times to study and work. Drawing on the concept of the Japanese Agricultural Association and combining with the actual situation in Guang'an area, Yang Xiaoling founded Guang'an Huimin Agricultural Machinery Agronomic Professional Cooperative in 2009.
In the early days of the cooperative, organic vegetables were grown according to Japanese technology, but due to unfamiliarity with the climate characteristics of the Gwangan area, organic spinach was successfully planted after four failures. After the cooperative's products were produced, they were unable to sell properly, and there was a large area of slow sales, which fell into losses and struggled. Under this circumstance, Yang Xiaoling actively recruited technical management talents, understood the market from various sources, and began the road of industrial breakthrough of the cooperative.
In 2010, while solving the problem of production technology, the cooperative opened the market through the "agricultural supermarket docking" with Chongqing Yonghui Supermarket. In order to meet the market demand, since 2011, the cooperative has successively developed more than 8,000 mu of pepper planting and more than 10,000 mu of children's vegetables in more than 20 townships including Da'an Town, Yuelai Town and Guange Town, Qianfeng District, through unified provision of seedlings, unified technical services and unified sales mode. At the same time, Yang Xiaoling learned from the experience of the Japanese Agricultural Association, combined with the current situation of rural areas in Guang'an area, and actively carried out the exploration of the integration of agricultural machinery operations and modern agricultural technology. Since 2012, the cooperative has transferred more than 2,000 mu of land in Da'an Town, Guang'an District, and carried out experimental demonstrations of mechanized rice planting and early maturing vegetable planting technology, and achieved remarkable results.
Today, the cooperative has 295 registered members with a registered capital of 27.61 million yuan, and its business areas cover the production of high-quality agricultural products, the demonstration and promotion of new agricultural varieties and new technologies and land trusteeship, with 247 sets (sets) of various agricultural machinery, radiating 30 townships in Guang'an District, Qianfeng District and Huaying City, driving more than 50,000 rural households, and the socialized service area of agricultural machinery is 140,000 mu. The cooperative has been rated as the National Agricultural Machinery Cooperative Demonstration Society and the National Farmer Cooperative Demonstration Society.
Promote standard production and lead industrial development
The cooperative adheres to the standard demonstration base to lead the industrial development, and has successively built 3 seedling vegetable planting demonstration bases (Yuelai Town Seedling Experimental Demonstration Base, Xingping Town Vegetable Industry Poverty Alleviation Demonstration Base, Kwun Tong Town Seedling Experimental Demonstration Base) and 3 grain-economic composite demonstration bases (Da'an Town "1,000 pounds of grain and ten thousand yuan" demonstration base, Guange Town high-quality grain and economic experiment demonstration base, Huaqiao Town rice fish and rice shrimp experimental demonstration base), covering a total area of 6,500 mu. The demonstration base undertakes the function of "incubator" and plays an important role in the experimental demonstration and promotion of new varieties and technologies of rice and vegetables. In the process of rice experiment and demonstration, the "Chuanyou 6203" and "Y Liangyou" series of varieties were actively introduced, and the experimental demonstration of live broadcasting, rice throwing and machine transplanting was carried out, and obvious results were achieved in combination with green yield increase modes such as straw return, installation of traps and solar insecticidal lamps.
The first is to introduce new vegetable varieties such as bitter melon, tomato and cucumber suitable for Guang'an area, and adopt new technologies such as grafting, electric heating seedlings, fertilizer-water integration, and tomato set seedlings, which has played a good demonstration and leading role.
The second is to carefully study the market, select and breed chili pepper "Xiangli No. 7", "Tianyu No. 3", "Shunyo" varieties and children's vegetables "Zaofu No. 1" early maturing varieties, leading the development of vegetable industry in Guang'an area. At the same time, we strictly abide by the Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Law, Food Safety Law and other relevant laws and regulations, and implement the "four haves" (production records, product labels, base certification, sales traceability) and "five unifications" (unified centralized seedlings, unified agricultural material supply, unified production standards, unified order purchase, unified brand sales) industrial development model, to ensure the safety and quality of agricultural products, so that the quality of agricultural products can be traced throughout the process.
Pooling resources from all parties to enhance development momentum
One good man, three gangs. Yang Xiaoling pays great attention to the development and expansion of cooperatives with the help of external forces, and enhances the new momentum of cooperative development.
First, huddle development. In 2015, the cooperative explored the road of "group" operation and "huddling" development, and established a new agricultural management entity association in Guang'an City with 12 cooperatives such as Guang'an Golden Hoe Agricultural Machinery and Agronomic Professional Cooperative, jointly building a food traceability system and the "Guang'an fragrant rice" brand, improving the ability to adapt to the market, resist risks, and enhance development stamina.
The second is to develop with wisdom. The cooperative has cooperated with Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other scientific and technological units to carry out soil testing formula fertilization according to the soil, climate and crop characteristics in Guang'an area, so as to improve soil quality and improve the quality of agricultural products.
The third is to take advantage of the situation for development. Taking advantage of the trend of testing, demonstration and promotion of new varieties and technologies in the agricultural and rural sectors, cooperatives take the initiative to undertake experimental and demonstration tasks, master technical essentials through practice and take the lead in promoting them in the region. For example, the cooperative took the initiative to undertake the experimental demonstration of new varieties such as hybrid rice "Chuanyou 6203" promoted by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Sichuan Province in Guang'an District, and achieved good results. Under the guidance of rice experts from Sichuan Agricultural University, the cooperative took the lead in realizing the whole process of mechanized planting of rice in hilly areas, such as machine breeding and machine cutting, and vigorously promoted it in Guang'an City.
Do not forget the original intention of cooperation and help the comprehensive revitalization
Under the leadership of Yang Xiaoling, while developing and growing, the cooperative adheres to the responsibility of "benefiting the people", constantly innovates mechanisms, alleviates the poor, helps farmers increase income, and returns to the society.
First, direct dividends. In 2021, the cooperative achieved sales revenue of 26.43 million yuan, withdrew 62,000 yuan from the provident fund, and realized a distributable profit of 620,000 yuan, and paid dividends twice according to the transaction volume of members and the total capital recorded in member accounts.
The second is to promote revenue through trusteeship. With the advantage of agricultural machinery, the cooperative provides land trusteeship services, and in 2021, it completed machine farming, seedlings, plant protection, harvesting, drying and other operations covering an area of 140,000 mu, helping farmers save costs and increase income. At the same time, cooperatives actively participate in government procurement socialization service projects, and from 2015 to 2022, a total of 305,000 mu of government-purchased socialized service projects such as centralized seedlings, machine transplanting, and plant protection will be implemented.
Third, we should do our best to help the poor. The cooperative has provided more than 5,000 poverty-stricken households with professional technical guidance such as seedlings, grafting and fertilization. By the end of 2021, more than 4,000 poverty-alleviated households in the city had been supplied with seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural materials equivalent to 650,000 yuan free of charge. It has helped more than 2,000 poverty alleviation households and distributors to purchase orders, and implemented unified brand packaging and unified online sales of agricultural products with the help of "Mail Tesco" and other e-commerce platforms, helping poverty alleviated households to increase their average income by more than 4,000 yuan. Priority was given to attracting 300 poor people to work in the base for a long time, with an annual per capita income of more than 18,000 yuan.
Today, the focus of the "three rural areas" has shifted to comprehensively promoting rural revitalization. Under the leadership of Yang Xiaoling, the cooperative will take the promotion of comprehensive rural revitalization as its own responsibility, build a modern agricultural information platform on the basis of existing agricultural machinery socialization services, rely on advanced technologies such as Beidou system and Internet of Things, vigorously develop smart agriculture and ecological agriculture, and realize agricultural efficiency, farmers' income, and rural greening.
(Provided by Sichuan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Guang'an District Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau of Guang'an City, Sichuan Province)
Source: China Farmers' Cooperatives, Issue 11, 2022
