Mechanized farming boosts productivity in remote village

Remote Bayi village, nestled among cliffs in Henghe Tujia township, Chongqing, was busier than usual with farming activity.

The reason for the increased productivity was that its farming equipment has been recently mechanized and a bumper harvest is expected this autumn as a result.

Mechanized farming in China is no longer a novelty, but for "cliff villages" like Bayi that were once plagued by low productivity and difficult transportation, the development of mechanized operations holds exceptional value and significance.

Chongqing's northeastern township of Henghe, situated at the southern base of the Qiyue mountain range, is characterized by hills and numerous gullies.

And Bayi, on the northern border of Henghe near Hubei province, has an average altitude of over 1,000 meters. It consists of 652 households with a population of 1,949 people, of which 45 households and their farmland are situated on cliffs.

To enhance agricultural production, Bayi began to transform the once small, irregular and low-yield "chicken coop land" into high-yield, eco-friendly high-standard farmland suitable for large mechanical farming.

"The most challenging task is to break the villagers' ingrained notions about land boundaries, because for farmers, especially those seniors who have experienced food shortages, land is their lifeblood," said He Zhongkun, an official of Bayi village.

He and his colleagues negotiated with hundreds of households door-to-door and gathered feedback for months. So far, about 180 hectares of farmland have been paved, linked and made capable of handling high-tech and intelligent agricultural machinery such as harvesters, plowing machines and fertilization drones.

"The efficiency of cultivation has been boosted by 80 to 90 percent, and the per capita disposable income of the villagers is more than twice what it was," He said.

Through dividend sharing, land transfer and employment, local farmers are able to share the dividends brought by the development of the industry.

An oilseed-and-rice crop rotation method has been applied to expand the harvest. In April, 40 hectares of oilseed rape yielded a bumper harvest. Currently, 133 hectares of rice paddies are thriving and growing to their fullest potential.