The ancient practice of agriculture is undergoing a seismic change. Small agricultural products, with big dreams, build a bridge between the countryside and the world, farmers and wealth. Riding the new e-commerce car, farmers' money bags are gradually bulging.
Text | Wu Yiyi
Before the beginning of winter, the temperature drops below freezing.
Every season, Zhang Ding did not dare to leave the village for half a step, in his own words, even if he went to a neighboring village to drink.
He has three greenhouses, two small and one large. The small one covers an acre, and the large one covers four acres. At this time, there are tens of thousands of "Provencal" tomatoes growing vigorously. In this kind of weather, the greenhouse needs to be taken care of at any time, it is necessary to breathe when it is hot, cover the quilt when it is cold, melt the quilt when it freezes, and strengthen the greenhouse and install insulation lamps to prevent possible extreme low temperatures...... Zhang Ding said that serving tomatoes is "not tiring to live, but grinding".
Not surprisingly, these tomatoes will soon be fruiting and ripe. Before the Lunar New Year, the first small batch of fruits will be bought by local buyers as New Year's gifts, and by the sixth and seventh days of the Lunar New Year, before the smell of the New Year has dissipated, a large number of buyers will come to the village to buy tomatoes. After picking, tomatoes are sorted and packaged on the spot, and sent to all parts of the country along with e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo.
▲Zhang Ding picks up his home-grown tomatoes. Photo: Wang Xiaofeng
After the tomatoes are sold, Zhang Ding will quickly plant another crop, and with his craftsmanship, "Provence" can be planted until June. Then, it's time to rest. Zhang Ding said that if the land has to rest, people must also rest, and at this time, at most plant some "lazy vegetables" such as celery and coriander, otherwise people will not be able to bear it. Until September, it is time for the new season of tomato seedlings to be planted in the field.
And so on, it is a farmer's year.
In 2022, Zhang Ding's harvest is good, relying on the investment of more than 200,000 yuan in the newly built greenhouse, his "Provence" has earned a total of more than 200,000 yuan - just to return the cost of the greenhouse. In 2023, Zhang Ding, who is "debt-free and light", expects to make more money.
Farmers' purses are one of the most intuitive indicators of rural revitalization.
The Central Rural Work Conference held a few days ago also emphasized the "precise and pragmatic cultivation of rural industries" and "the implementation of farmers' income to promote actions". At the feet of Zhang Ding, the ancient farming is undergoing earth-shaking changes. New stories of agricultural prosperity are emerging in countless villages.
▲Towards the evening, the harvest of potatoes was successively carried by potato farmers on small three wheels, about to run to the processing plant. Photo: Meng Yungui
1
New farmers returning to their hometowns
Zhang Ding, born in 1987, is a native of Xiaoli Village, Jingyang County, Shaanxi. He went out to work at the age of 17 and worked in Guangdong, Xinjiang, Zhejiang and other places for more than ten years. At the end of 2021, he returned home to help his parents grow tomatoes.
He said that in the past, he could earn about 120,000 yuan a year by working outside, but as he grew older, he always wanted to go home to take care of his family. How to find new wealth in the ancestors' one-third of an acre of land has become a topic for Zhang Ding, and it is also a life topic for countless farmers who have returned to their hometowns.
Jingyang is a well-known tomato producing area in the country. The unique climate and soil make it ideal for growing a variety of tomatoes called "Provence". In Zhang Ding's memory, about five or six years ago, this variety imported from the Netherlands gradually became the main cash crop in his hometown. He said that the "Provence" of the wintering stubble is not only thin-skinned, but also juicy and "particularly delicious".
In 2022, Zhang Ding said that he "got on the head" and decided to use his savings and loans to build the largest tomato greenhouse in the village. He said that in recent years, "Provence" has been particularly popular in the market, and the industry has been rising steadily, and the increasingly complete production and marketing system of the whole region has also allowed him to concentrate on planting without distraction.
In fact, today's Jingyang "Provence" tomatoes are a sought-after item on the Internet. During the harvest season, tens of thousands of catties of tomatoes are sent from here to the whole country every day. Even the fields in Xiaoli Village will become bustling with people.
In 2023, Zhang Ding found that there are more and more young people around him who are joining this tomato track. "Last year, my new greenhouse was the largest in the village, but this year it is not. He said that many young people in the village have returned from other places, with money and enthusiasm, "and they have started growing tomatoes."
▲Zhang Ding is busy in the greenhouse. Photo: Wang Xiaofeng
Zhang Ding said that the market of "Provence" has been rising in recent years, and it has also benefited from the vigorous development of e-commerce. "Now that the tomatoes are ripe, those who come to the village to receive the goods basically can't see the people from the offline channels, and they are all doing e-commerce. "For Zhang Ding, this is a good thing. "The pace of e-commerce is faster, the fruits that traditional channels want are fully ripe, and e-commerce only needs eight ripe fruits because they need to be transported. "For growers, a shortened planting cycle is real money. "The time saved, I can hurry up and plant another crop. ”
Zhang Ding realized that his "one acre and three points of land" was rapidly integrating into a large industrial chain.
"In the past, we had to be responsible for loading the distributors, picking the tomatoes and loading them one by one into a large basket according to the standard. Our farmers here often work for a whole day with two people. Zhang Ding said, "But now it's all e-commerce, we basically only need to be responsible for picking, they will bring special people, directly in the field to put the tomatoes into cartons, and deliver them on the spot." ”
At the same time, more and more e-commerce companies have emerged in the village - some friends who grew up together as children have also made e-commerce companies prosperous.
Like Zhang Ding, Lu Yang is also a native of Jingyang. In 2017, he returned to his hometown to contact e-commerce, and after several failed attempts, he finally set his sights on "Provence" at his doorstep. Lu Yang said that he had traveled all over the county's greenhouse bases, tasted them one by one, and offered a purchase price higher than the market, and developed new packaging, with each tomato covered with an independent net cover. In 2021, Lu Yang shipped two or three hundred orders a day, sold 270,000 boxes of Provencal tomatoes throughout the year, and shipped nearly 3,000 orders a day by 2022, occupying the top spot in Pinduoduo's category sales list and praise list. In the last harvest season, Lu Yang's team purchased a total of more than 1 million catties of Provençal tomatoes and signed purchase contracts with about 100 farmers. Lv Yang said: "The Pinduoduo platform is simple and easy to operate, and the support and subsidies for agricultural products are strong. Direct delivery from the origin, coupled with platform support, can achieve high quality and low price. ”
2
New industrial chain
According to public information, tomatoes can bring nearly 1.3 billion yuan of income to vegetable farmers in Jingyang County every year. At present, there are more than 80 local enterprises engaged in tomato e-commerce sales, with a sales volume of more than 10 million catties.
Behind these figures, in recent years, Jingyang County has integrated land resources, expanded the area of greenhouses, and maximized benefits by optimizing varieties, building new cold storage, and extending the industrial chain.
Behind the increase in peasants' incomes is the industrial innovation in rural areas and agriculture.
"Industrial revitalization is the top priority of rural revitalization. Zeng Yande, chief agronomist of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and director of the Department of Development Planning, introduced at the press conference of the State Council Information Office held a few days ago that in recent years, the development of rural industries has achieved positive results, forming characteristic planting, characteristic breeding, characteristic food, characteristic handicrafts and other distinctive industries, and personalized and diversified products are more abundant. The industrial chain is also constantly extending and expanding.
In 2022, the operating income of agricultural product processing enterprises above designated size in China will exceed 19 trillion yuan. In the first three quarters of 2023, rural leisure tourism has recovered steadily, and online retail sales of agricultural products have maintained double-digit growth.
In Yunnan, Li Yanqiong, the person in charge of the "Dian Erwa" potato chip factory, can also feel the power brought by e-commerce to the transformation and upgrading of local agriculture.
This company, which specializes in local "Chinese-style potato chips", has not only brought new breakthroughs to Yunnan's potato industry, but also brought more stable income to potato farmers.
▲At the end of May, potato farmers in Huandian Town, Xundian Hui and Yi Autonomous County, were busy harvesting artichokes. Photo: Meng Yungui
In the past year, the new factory of "Dian Erwa" has been completed and put into operation in Kunming, and up to now, the annual sales have exceeded 100 million yuan. "50% of them are online e-commerce. Li Yanqiong said that the original cut potato chips of "Dian Erwa" sold more than 100,000 bags online per day. Taking June 18, 2023 as an example, they prepared 1 million bags of potato chips in advance, using about 180 tons of Yunnan potatoes, and according to the purchase price of 3.6 yuan per kilogram, "Dian Erwa" can earn 0.65 yuan for every bag of potato chips sold on the platform.
Yunnan is a major potato growing province in China, and potatoes are distributed in all states and cities, and they can be grown all year round. In fact, fried potato chips mixed with chili powder have always been a popular snack in the southwest of the mainland, but it has been difficult to get out of Yunnan-Guichuan for a long time, and it is even less able to compete with Western-style potato chips.
On the other side of the supply chain, farmers used to have difficulty in selling at a good price due to the obsolete varieties they planted, the wide range of crops and the lack of harvests, as well as the remote location and inconvenient transportation. Many potato farmers rely on more than 10 acres of land, and their income is no more than 20,000 yuan a year.
"The harvest season of potatoes in different regions of Yunnan is different, and we have signed agreements with seed companies and cooperatives in different regions to encourage them to plant and make guaranteed purchases, so that we can obtain stable and fresh potato raw materials all year round, and farmers can grow more assured. Li Yanqiong said that the price of potatoes has been fluctuating, and "Dian Erwa" by setting a guaranteed price, on the one hand, to give farmers a "bottom-up" when the price is low, on the other hand, but also at a high price, not to let farmers suffer.
Nowadays, Chinese-style potato chips are out of the circle, revitalizing the business of many potato producing areas in Yunnan, and potato farmers are smiling.
Thanks to the stable demand for processed potatoes and the opening of online sales channels for commercial potatoes, the average annual income of local farmers has grown rapidly. In Yangsala Village, Liushao Township, Xundian County, the potato planting scale of some large households has reached 70 to 80 acres, with an average output value of 3 tons per mu and an annual income of 500,000 yuan.
3
The new role of the farmer
The change of industrial structure is also affecting the fate of every farmer. The production and lifestyle that has been tied to the land for thousands of years is evolving into a new shape.
At present, there are more than 130 workers on the production line in the factory of "Dian Erwa", basically all of whom are local potato farmers in Yunnan. Compared with growing potatoes at home, they choose to work in the factory, in addition to five insurances and one housing fund or corresponding insurance, they can get more than 5,000 yuan per month. At the same time, "Dian Erwa" will also provide part-time jobs for potato farmers during the slack months before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival every year. Li Yanqiong said that there are about dozens of these positions, and priority will be given to workers' families, mainly responsible for simpler tasks such as packing.
▲Li Yanqiong's factory has 130 employees, and the two production lines consume a maximum of about 1,500 tons of artichoke per month. Photo: Meng Yungui
In Jingyang, the tomato industry has also brought more opportunities for locals to make money. Over the past few years, a large number of skilled pickers and sorters have gradually emerged in the area. Zhang Ding said that during the busiest season, he has to hire some workers to help with the picking, "otherwise he won't be busy at all." For every pound of tomatoes picked, these workers earn about a dime – a small amount of money, but it is still a good income supplement for many ordinary farmers who lack capital and skills.
Sorters are an indispensable part of the e-commerce industry chain. They can match agricultural products of different size, fineness and maturity according to the standards of different e-commerce enterprises to help products open up market segments. In Lu Yang's view, the model created by these e-commerce platforms is helping to commercialize agricultural products and reach consumers with different needs, "not only selling, but also selling at a high price".
The new mode of production is quietly changing the definition of "peasant" for thousands of years.
Li Yanqiong has left her hometown in Dali for more than 20 years and rarely returns. But as she travels through the mountains and rivers of Yunnan, she can still feel the earth-shaking changes in the countryside. "In the past, most farmers simply farmed at home, but now there are many cooperatives in rural areas, and these cooperatives plan production according to market demand. Even if many farmers stay in the countryside, they still work in the agricultural companies set up by these cooperatives, and have a relatively stable income, "in fact, the feeling is the same as when we work in the city." They are able to earn money, protect themselves from risks, and take care of their families.
"So on the whole, the countryside has changed a lot in recent years, because the income of farmers is relatively stable, and now the construction of the new countryside is also doing very well, and I think the happiness of farmers is still relatively strong. ”
Pang Jingbo, an assistant researcher at the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that while paying close attention to rural industries, expanding employment is also an important way to promote farmers' income. "At present, wage income accounts for more than 40 percent of peasants' income, and it is the bulk of the contribution to peasants' income increase. It is necessary to take a two-pronged approach, not only to fully realize employment at the doorstep, but also to effectively guide migrant workers. On the one hand, it is necessary to develop industries that enrich the people in counties with obvious comparative advantages, strong driving capacity, and large employment capacity, so as to encourage farmers to find employment and start businesses in the nearest place; on the other hand, we will implement a vocational skills improvement plan focusing on migrant workers, and do everything possible to promote the stable employment of migrant workers.
At the same time, with the rapid combination of "production, education and research" in the agricultural field, science and technology are blooming everywhere. As an e-commerce platform on the sales side, it is also actively building a scientific and technological cooperation platform to feed back the production side.
▲More and more young people are devoting themselves to the track of rejuvenating agriculture through science and technology. Photo: Meng Yungui
As the country's largest uplink platform for agricultural products, Pinduoduo actively participates in agricultural science and technology innovation, feeds scientific research with sales, accelerates the cultivation of varieties on the supply side, standardized production and quality improvement, encourages young scientific and technological talents to closely integrate their life pursuits with the country's development and progress, attracts and drives more young talents to devote themselves to agriculture, and provides practical assistance for the construction of "three rural", continues to increase investment in agricultural research, and promotes the exploration and application of cutting-edge technologies and the tackling of industrial problems.
In 2023, the "Duoduo Agricultural Research Science and Technology Competition" has been held for the third time, and a number of vertical farming technologies have depicted the future of agriculture, and also demonstrated many "hardcore" agricultural technologies to farmers. For example, in the competition, the production efficiency of the last lettuce of the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences team reached 0.18kg/㎡/day. If this planting scheme is calculated, its efficiency in actual production may reach the international advanced level of 0.4 kg/㎡/day.
▲Cuitian lettuce growing in the container. Photo: Chen Datong
New hope seems to be born every day in the ancient wilderness.
Li Yanqiong said that the new varieties of potatoes explored by "Dian Erwa" in cooperation with the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences are being studied, and the new potato chip products will also be available in 2024. At the same time, a larger potato chip factory project has also been launched. Small potato chips will carry big dreams and build bridges between the countryside and the world, farmers and wealth.
In Zhang Ding's view, the good days of "wife and children hot kang head" have just begun. He hopes to grow more and better tomatoes in a down-to-earth manner and sell them to Tiannan and Haibei at a price that satisfies him. He wants to buy a car and take his family out to play and see the world in his free time.
This is the life that peasants should live in this era.