Farmers get together to sow the seeds of a more profitable future
Print Edition
WITH an increasing number of rural residents leaving their hometowns to work in the city, it has become harder to recruit farmworkers.
For one collective in south China’s Guangdong Province, however, that’s no longer a problem.
The collective, in the township of Xi’an in Lianzhou, established a hire company in 2016, which rents out agricultural equipment to its members.
He Guozhan is one of those who has benefited.
After six years as a migrant worker, He noticed that farming incomes had increased, and so decided to move back home to seek his fortune.
“In the past, my family could only manage half a hectare of paddy, but now I manage over three hectares of arable land all by myself,” he said.
The collective decided the rental fee for equipment should be based on the size of land the machine will work and a fee of 5,700 yuan (US$827) per hectare was decided on.
He said that since the hire company was established his net profits per hectare had risen from around 5,000 yuan to 9,000 yuan.
“As machines now do the majority of the hard work, I just focus on the watering and fertilizing,” he said.
Chen Honghui, who manages the hire company, said the equipment was either purchased with profits from the rent or loaned to the collective by its members.
The company now rents out equipment to over 20 villages across the township.
“Equipment sharing means that farmers can grow more produce despite limited manpower, this has helped to increase their incomes,” said He Yongfeng, deputy Party head of the township.
Not far away, in Qingyuan’s Yangshan County, Chen Youzhi recently became a company shareholder.
Supported by the local government, he was one of 86 low-income families in the county to apply for a loan of 10,000 yuan in 2016, which they used to buy a stake in Haoran Agriculture Produce Co, a leading enterprise in the region.
The cash injection enabled the company to open a chicken farm, which can raise 160,000 chickens a year, while Chen and all the other investors receive dividends at the end of the year.
Other collectives have started similar programs to boost farmers’ incomes.
“I received a 5,000-yuan bonus last year in addition to the 40,000 yuan I made from selling my produce,” said Zhou Shixing.
Previously, he’d found it hard to turn a profit from his 0.23 hectare plot.
“One time, a few villagers and I rented a car so we could take our vegetables to a market in Guangzhou, but we still did not make any profit. I was so out of pocket that I did not even have enough money to buy seeds for the next year,” he said.
In 2015, Zhou and 150 of his fellow farmers joined a cooperative, which helps manage 567 hectares of land. The cooperative buys produce from its members, and at the end of the year pays a bonus to each farmer based on profits.
Last year, more than 2,000 households received at least 5,000 yuan through this system.
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