Today's Huadu News: Mechanized ploughing equipment, sprout cultivation factory, mechanized rice transplanter, and drone seeder ... ; in order to further improve the level of mechanization in rice planting in Huadu District, enhance weak links and promote whole-process application, Guangzhou Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Station, Huadu District Agriculture and Rural Bureau, and District Agricultural Technology Management Center among others held in Yishan Village of Shiling Town an on-site demonstration event for 2020 Spring Ploughing and Farming and for promotion of agricultural machinery, technology, materials in countryside.

　　  The event focused on the demonstration of mechanization of rice planting, organization of mechanized ploughing and preparation of rice fields, sprout cultivation factory, and the use of mechanized rice transplanter, and drone seeder. Technical experts of the District Agricultural Technology Management Center at the event also answered questions about planting, breeding, rural environment protection, crop protection, cracking down on counterfeit agricultural materials, agricultural machinery safety, and price subsidies to agricultural machinery.

　　  Agricultural machinery cooperatives use machine in the whole process of rice planting

　　  Two rice transplanters are shuttling back and forth on a field of more than 80 mu (13 acre), leaving behind them clumps of seedlings that were neatly inserted into the field. Zhong Haihua, a villager from Yishan Village, said that he contracted this field from the village two years ago and started planting rice last fall. Then he did it in the old fashion, hiring 15 workers just to plant rice. It took more than 10 days to finish the job, low in efficiency and high in labor costs. This spring, he purchased the services of a professional agricultural machinery cooperative. “The whole process, from sprout cultivation to planting, is mechanized; I have little to worry about,” said Zhong; the transplanters may complete the job in about 4 days at their present speed, and the cost is greatly reduced.

　　  According to the person in charge of the agricultural machinery professional cooperative who is working on the site, compared with traditional manual planting, a mechanized rice transplanter can plant rice for more than 20 mu a day, 10 times more than manual planting. What is more, mechanized planting ensures consistent distance between sprout rows, and consistent depth of sprout into the earth, which is conducive to growth at the same rate and easy management; as a result, the yield is more than 5% higher than manual planting. In the case of large-area operation, the cost of mechanized transplanting is about one third less than the conventional way.

　　  It is reported that there are currently 3 agricultural machinery cooperatives and 5 other agricultural machinery service organizations in Huadu. Basically the whole process of rice cultivation, from land ploughing, planting, pesticide spraying, harvesting, and drying, can be done by machinery. This year the District will give agricultural machinery a trial as the main force in spring planting to actively promote spring production season. Now as mechanized spring planting is spreading across the whole District, it is estimated that 630 sets of tractors, planters, subsoiling tillage machine, and agricultural transportation machinery will be put to use, which will be enough for the season.

　　  First use of drone seeder

　　  At the spring planting site, after technicians putting soaked seeds into a box carried by the agricultural drone, the drone operator pressed the remote control keyboard, and the drone immediately took off to sow along the well prepared field.

　　  As far as we know, this is the first time in our District a drone is used in aerial seeding. Drone seeding technology is free of terrain restrictions, easy to operate and replenish, and conducive to control seed spacing and line spacing, which enables precise seeding, and high efficiency. Use of drone for precise seeding can also save the complicated and laborsome links in traditional rice planting, such as manual seeding, seedling management, seedling removal, and transplanting.

　　  According to responsible person of the Agricultural Mechanization Department of the District Agricultural Technology Management Center, fragmented fields, low intensification, poor awareness of farmers and other factors constrained the mechanization level in rice planting in the past, which became the weakest link in the mechanization of the whole rice production process. In the last three years, the District held "going to the countryside" event every year during the spring planting season. On top of rice planting by machinery, a whole range of equipment and technologies were introduced and promoted in rice field ploughing, rice planting, pesticide control, and harvesting, and active measures were taken to cultivate professional service organization for agricultural mechanization. Interaction with farmers on the site can give them first-hand experience with the latest agricultural scientific achievements, crop varieties, technologies, agricultural machinery and agriculture-benefiting policies, promote the full-scale use of machinery in rice production, and send spring planting to full swing. At present, the comprehensive mechanization level of rice cultivation in the District has been above 72.5%.

　　  The drone seeding technology, if its pilot use this year achieve good results, will be vigorously promoted in the District to help farmers save time and energy and improve agricultural production efficiency. By that time, the comprehensive mechanization level of rice cultivation and harvest in the District will rise to a higher level.