As the temperature rises, early rice seedling cultivation in Anren County of Chenzhou City has entered its peak period. In recent years, the county government has innovated a model featuring full chain service and order-based planting, promoting the transformation of traditional agriculture towards intelligent and scale development, and laying a solid foundation for stable grain production and increased income throughout the year.

Inside the intelligent seedling cultivation greenhouse of Xinliang Grain and Oil Development Co., Ltd., trays of seedlings are neatly arranged in a constant temperature space covering over 16,000 square meters.

A fully automatic seedling cultivation assembly line operates efficiently, with processes such as tray laying, soil fillinf, sowing, and soil covering completed in one continuous flow, with a daily seedling cultivation capacity of up to 300 mu (20 hectares).

Li Jiagan, head of Xinliang Grain and Oil Seedling Cultivation Center in Anren County, said, “This intelligent sowing production line, from laying trays, loading soil, precision sowing to automatic soil covering, requires little manual intervention throughout the entire process. It can accurately sow 1,200 seedling trays per hour, which is equivalent to the seedling demand for 300 mu (20 hectares) of farmland per day. The germination rate can reach 99%, and the overall cost has been reduced by 30%. It saves time, labor and worry, while ensuring seedlings are particularly uniform and robust.”

Intelligent seedling cultivation not only improves efficiency, but also provides strong support for the large-scale development of grain production in the entire county. The county actively integrates resources and relies on agricultural leading enterprises and professional cooperatives to closely connect the processes of seedling cultivation, machine insertion, centralized prevention and control, drying and storage, and order-oriented sales, providing farmers with full-process management or semi-managed services.

Farmers only need to choose services, and professional technical processes are handled by professional teams, making farming easier and more secure.

Ye Zhijun, a large grain grower in Anren County, said, “I have entrusted 500 mu (33.33 hectares) of paddy fields to the cooperative. Previously, it was difficult to hire workers and the cost was high. Now, with one-stop services, the efficiency of mechanical transplanting alone is more than 60% higher than when I did it myself, and the cost per mu (0.067 hectares) has been reduced by at least 150 yuan.”

To effectively reduce market risks, the company also vigorously promoted the order-based planting model. By guiding farmers to sign minimum guaranteed purchase agreements with agricultural enterprises, specifying crop varieties, quality standards, and insured protection prices, the company ensures that farmers can grow and sell well. At present, the orders have covered more than 5,000 households in 10 surrounding towns and villages.

Li Jiagan added that the center has signed guaranteed purchase agreements with farmers. The center provides seeds, agricultural materials and even some technical services. This way, farmers can grow without worrying about market fluctuations, and the center can obtain stable and high-quality raw materials to ensure processing and sales.

Chinese source: hunantoday