Ma Hongyi, a villager in Dongping Village, Yunzhou District, Datong City, Shanxi Province, sells donkeys. Inquiring about a circle of prices, a donkey can only sell for more than 5,000 yuan, which is more than 3,000 yuan lower than the peak, and he is slightly hesitant.
In this small village in northern China, there are less than 10 donkeys left, all waiting to be sold. In fact, these donkeys had no work to do as early as five or six years ago, but because they had developed feelings, the villagers had been reluctant to sell.
Like farmers in many parts of China, dongping villagers once regarded donkeys as the "top pillar" for farming. There are only more than 190 people in this village, and the per capita arable land area is more than 30 acres, and it is impossible to grow without donkeys.
Ma Hongyi's donkey has been idle for several years and is now waiting to be sold. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Yuan
"Before, without machines, donkeys would be on top of half of their belongings, and it was up to it to plough the land, harvest, and pull things. If a donkey gets sick, the grain production will be reduced. Ma Hongyi remembers that when he was a child, even if people did not have enough to eat, they had to squeeze grain out of their teeth to feed the donkey, otherwise it would not have the strength to work.
According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in 1952, the number of donkeys in China was 11.806 million heads, and there were less than 2,000 tractors.
Primitive farming practices cannot fundamentally change the lives of farmers. Ma Hongyi said that there were nearly 300 donkeys in their village at the most, but it has always been a poor village, and it was only at the end of 2018 that the whole village was lifted out of poverty.
At a donkey cooperative in Guangling County, Datong City, a farmer feeds a donkey forage. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Yuan
Since 2004, the Chinese government has continued to implement the subsidy policy for the purchase of agricultural machinery, which has greatly improved the level of agricultural mechanization. In 2018, the comprehensive mechanization rate of cultivation and harvesting of China's major grain crops exceeded 80%, and there were nearly 200 million sets of various agricultural machinery.
"Tractors can cultivate 40 acres of land a day, and donkeys can't get tired of ploughing two or three acres a day." Ma Hongyi said that he bought tractors, rotary cultivators and film layers 7 years ago, and donkeys are no longer useful.
In the past, donkeys were used to pull goods in addition to cultivating land. But now, Chinese farmers don't need donkeys to pull goods.
Ma Hongyi's wife, Liang Xiurong, opened a small shop in the village a few years ago. She said that now rural logistics distribution is very convenient, and the goods are delivered to the home with a phone call.
Speaking of the idle donkey at home, the 60-year-old rural woman even cried. This donkey has been raised for more than ten years and has contributed a lot to the family, and now it is a bit reluctant to sell it. But it is not realistic to keep it at home all the time, not to mention that feeding grass and food and occupying a donkey shed is not a small expense, the key is that there is no donkey environment in the village.
In 2016, Yunzhou District renovated Dongping Village, and Ma Hongyi and his wife only spent 15,000 yuan to move from the cave to the new house. In 2017, Dongping Village transferred more than 3,000 mu of land to develop the yellow cauliflower and grape planting industry. Ma Hongyi transferred more than 30 mu of his land to the cooperative, earning more than 10,000 yuan in land circulation fees every year.
At present, Dongping Village, which is developing rural tourism, has invested more than 6 million yuan to beautify the environment and clean everywhere. "Donkeys are loud and have a lot of feces, which is both noisy and polluting the environment, and they don't want to sell it." Liang Xiurong said.
In 2018, the number of donkeys farmed in China has dropped to 2.5328 million heads, mainly for ejiao and donkey meat processing. Li Zhiyin, a donkey dealer, said that because the land is not used, the free-range donkeys raised by farmers in the past few years have basically been sold out, and it is not easy to buy donkeys from farmers' families now.
Some large traditional donkey-raising counties have also been affected. The thrush donkey in Guangling County, Datong City, is one of the four best breeding donkeys in China, but the staff of the Guangling County Animal Husbandry Bureau said that the number of thrush donkeys in Guangling County has dropped from more than 17,000 to less than 3,000 and has been included in the "List of National Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Protection in China". The local government subsidizes each donkey by 500 yuan per year to encourage donkey cooperatives to expand their breeding scale.
Zhang Lixin is a large local donkey farmer, with a breeding scale of 120 heads, and in a few years, he will have the industrial base of donkey meat processing. He said that in the past, donkeys were raised for farming, and now donkeys are raised for meat, and although the number of donkeys is getting smaller and smaller, it is also a manifestation of social progress.