Shift to scientific methods boosts rice yield

陈小将

Agricultural technology gave Ren Fengjiu good growth and a high yield on his 40 hectares of rice this year.

Over the past few days, Ren, a farmer for No 290 Company of Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group, a State-owned enterprise in Heilongjiang province, has harvested around 400 metric tons of rice with the help of agricultural machinery.

"After three days of drying, the moisture content of the rice has reached the standard," he said. "All of my high-quality rice has been purchased by grain merchants for 2,740 yuan ($376) per ton."

"In fact, I had expected the high yield this year when I planted in the spring," he said. "I chose the factory-prepared strong seedlings and followed the advice of the technical staff to purchase advanced fertilization equipment during the transplanting stage. With precise fertilization, my rice has shown good growth throughout all its stages."

The company has 51,333 hectares of arable land, including 17,333 hectares of dry farmland for growing corn and soybeans.

As early as the spring sowing stage, the company began pushing for high yields. The factory-based seedling breeding base continuously provided high-quality seedlings and advanced technology to further improve the transplant quality.

During the growth period, the company introduced field monitoring and leaf age diagnosis equipment, which collects measurements to scientifically replace subjective experience-based farming.

"In the past, our parents relied on the weather for farming, but now I can rely on advanced technology to improve efficiency and on cutting-edge agricultural techniques to increase yields," Ren said. "New farmers in our operation have enjoyed the benefits of modern agricultural development and the transformation and upgrading of intelligent agriculture."