From the initial 60 acres of paddy fields to more than 700 acres today, Li Qiang, a farmer in Heishantou Town, Meihekou City, has contracted more and more cultivated land, the level of mechanized farming continues to rise, and the quality of grain is getting better and better. After winning the gold medal in the China finals of the 3rd International Rice Tasting Conference, the rice he planted won the "Excellence Award" in December 2023.
Li Qiang has a flexible mind, not only proficient in planting technology, but also proficient in mechanical repair, can repair electrical appliances, and is a knowledge-based farmer with multiple skills. His Heishantou Village and surrounding villages are located in the Hailong Reservoir irrigation area, which has the unique advantage of developing the rice industry. Therefore, with the ideal of planting high-quality rice, he began to contract the farmland of farmers who went out to work in neighboring villages in 2002, using organic fertilizers, not spraying herbicides, and using traditional manual weeding methods to plant 60 acres of high-quality varieties of rice.
In recent years, with the increase in the number of migrant farmers in the surrounding villages, large areas of rice fields need to be outsourced, and Li Qiang has seized this opportunity to transfer concentrated and contiguous rice fields for large-scale planting. In order to drive the villagers to increase their income and get rich, he founded the Xiangtian Family Farm in Meihekou City, hired rice experts in the city as consultants, selected excellent varieties such as "Wuyou No. 2", "Pearl Fragrance" and "Small Grain Fragrance", and implemented standardized seedling raising, mechanized transplanting and harvesting throughout the whole process, which improved production efficiency.
Pesticide residues have always been a major factor affecting the quality of agricultural products. In order to solve the problem of "pesticide residues" and improve the quality of rice, he went to the city and provincial capital many times, invited agricultural technical experts to seek advice, and used red-eyed bees and traps to control pests and diseases, so as to ensure and improve the quality of rice. In December 2022, the rice produced by the farm won the gold medal in the China Division Finals of the 3rd International Rice Tasting Conference, winning glory for the "Jilin Rice" brand.
Chongde is good and benefits the villagers. As the scale of cultivation expands, so does the amount of labor employed on the farm. In terms of employment, Li Qiang gives priority to employing local surplus labor, and only pays 230,000 yuan in wages to seasonal workers every year, of which skilled workers can earn more than 300 yuan per day.
Large-scale planting is inseparable from mechanization. Therefore, Li Qiang aimed at the forefront of the development of agricultural mechanization, and successively purchased tractors, rotary cultivators, ploughers, rice seedling raising machines, rice transplanters, harvesters and plant protection drones and other large and medium-sized machinery and equipment with a total value of 1.2 million yuan, which basically realized the mechanization of farmland farming, effectively improved labor production efficiency, and became the "benchmark" of new farmers in Meihekou City.
Driven by Li Qiang, many farmers in the surrounding areas have begun to plant high-quality varieties of rice, purchased advanced agricultural machinery, and carried out substitution farming and harvesting services while implementing mechanized cultivation of cultivated land, which has increased their income.
After several years of development, the Xiangtian Family Farm founded by Li Qiang has become a prominent representative of the new agricultural business entity in Meihekou City, and the rice produced has a good taste and good reputation, and the rice sold for more than 10 yuan per catty of rice, and the reputation is getting better and better. In recent years, Meihekou landmark food "Yinglan Pot Meat Restaurant" and other catering companies have come to purchase his rice, and the rice made is fragrant, sticky, smooth and soft, giving the taste buds full enjoyment, so it is "sought after" by more customers.
"Diversify the land, skillfully grow the land, produce good grain, and contribute to ensuring national food security. This is Li Qiang's "motto", and it is also the "food security dream" that he has been chasing.
Author: Jilin Rural Daily all-media reporter Wu Lianxiang
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Liyun