Machines turning, the drone is whirring, and life’s a breeze
As Chen Yulan used her mobile phone, a drone began to fly slowly above the rice field, spraying pesticide. Standing at the edge of the field, Chen smiled and chatted with her husband about this year’s harvest.
“The drone flies automatically and avoids obstacles, and it takes less than 10 minutes to spray 10 mu (about 1.65 acres) of rice fields,” said the 44-year-old farmer from Xinyunshan village in Liuyang, Hunan province. “It saves a lot of work.”
In addition to knowing how to control the drone, Chen is a skilled tractor driver and operator of agricultural machinery — such as the harvesters, rice-seedling transplanting machines she uses in her rice fields during the busy season — and is deeply tanned from long hours in the sun.
With the support of advanced technology and agricultural machinery, she is able to manage 214 acres of farmland by herself.
She said she has now realized her dream of no longer having to work as a migrant, because she can earn more from farming in the village.
In response to the national call to bolster food security, she has been growing doublecrop rice on about 148 acres of land, 49 acres of singlecrop rice and 11.5 acres of tobacco. She also plants vegetables in her greenhouses in the offseason to make more money.
In August the Hunan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs listed 60 cooperatives as modern agricultural machinery demonstration cooperatives, and the Silei Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, which Chen now runs, was included.
Chen, who had left her village to find work when she was 18, said she returned home because she was unhappy with her job outside, which involved a great deal of travel.
Xinyunshan is an important farming village, where people mainly grow rice, tobacco and vegetables. At first Chen did farm work with her husband, but quickly realized that changes had to be made.
“The fundamental way out for agriculture lies in mechanization,” she said.
In 2017 she set up the Silei Agricultural Machinery Cooperative with five other households to mechanize rice production and offer agricultural services to neighboring farmers.
After years of development, the cooperative has grown to 30 members with 40 sets of agricultural machinery valued at more than 5 million yuan ($730,000). It employs 40 villagers during the busy season, paying 450,000 yuan in wages each year.
Chen said the cooperative plans to improve its agricultural services, strengthen its ability to help more villagers become wealthy, and play a major role in rural vitalization and agricultural modernization in the years to come.