Promoting agricultural modernization, agricultural mechanization is an important support. In the magnificent process of agricultural modernization, agricultural machinery is becoming the main force of agricultural production, and farmers are becoming more and more worry free in farming. Data shows that currently, China's agricultural machinery ownership ranks among the top in the world, with a total power of over 1.1 billion kilowatts, and the harvesting of the three major staple crops has basically achieved mechanization.
During this year's "Three Summers" period, the wheat harvester was operating on site.
China has become a major producer and user of agricultural machinery. In 2023, the revenue of enterprises above designated size in the agricultural machinery industry will reach over 240 billion yuan, with nearly 4500 types of agricultural machinery products and a domestic agricultural machinery equipment support capacity of over 90%. At the same time, harvesting agricultural machinery is developing towards comprehensive, high-quality, efficient, intelligent and green direction, injecting new quality productivity into agricultural machinery and equipment to safeguard national food security and assist rural revitalization.
Efficient and low loss, widely used
As the leading domestic agricultural machinery enterprise, Weichai Lovol's "Agricultural Machinery Tiantuan" has achieved industry-leading performance indicators, filling the gap in the domestic industry and fully meeting the diversified needs of customers in different regions, including China's first commercial high horsepower CVT tractor, large feeding intelligent and efficient low loss harvester, high-speed precision seeder, large silage machine, and unmanned harvesting machinery.
In this year's "Three Summers" army, the latest upgraded Lovol Valley God harvesters such as GM100Pro and GR80Pro have shown off their skills.
The domestically produced maximum feeding harvester, the Lovol Valley God GS8180, made its debut in the Three Summers.
I have been participating in cross regional machine harvesting for 14 years and have used 7 harvesters. Since the first car, I have identified with the Lovol Valley God. This year, I bought the Lovol Valley God GM100 Pro, mainly because of its high efficiency and low fuel consumption. The intelligent functions have been upgraded this year, making it particularly comfortable to drive. Not only can it harvest wheat in summer, but it can also harvest corn and sorghum after changing accessories in autumn. Our couple is particularly confident in this year's cross regional operation. "Zhang Tao, from Minle County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, praised his" new partner "when harvesting wheat in Zhoukou, Henan Province.
According to statistics from the agricultural and rural departments, thanks to the use of more efficient and low loss harvesting equipment, the progress of wheat harvest in the "Three Summers" this year has significantly accelerated. More than 600000 combine harvesters have been put into operation in various regions, and during the peak wheat harvest period, more than 200000 combine harvesters were put into operation in a single day for 9 days, with the highest reaching 250000. Wheat harvesting accounted for over 98% of the total. The daily machine harvesting area in China has remained above 10 million mu for 16 consecutive days, and the progress of machine harvesting is 2 to 3 days faster than usual. In some provinces, the end time of centralized machine harvesting is about 5 days faster than usual.
Weichai Lovol, as a leading enterprise in the industry, leads the technological iteration of the agricultural machinery industry with continuous technological innovation and a high sense of corporate responsibility. "said Zhu Xianxue, Chief Engineer of Weichai Lovol Harvesting Machinery. By continuously optimizing the performance of agricultural machinery products and improving grain production efficiency, Weichai Lovol has provided strong equipment support for stable and high grain production in China. Especially during the "Three Summers" period, its efficient and reliable agricultural machinery effectively shortened the harvest cycle, reduced food losses, and made positive contributions to ensuring national food security.
The Lovol Valley God GM100 unmanned wheat machine and grain transport vehicle work together.
Weichai Lovol actively researches and promotes the technology of reducing losses in harvesters. The Lovol Valley God GM100 series harvester is equipped with a self-developed three-stage single longitudinal axial flow drum, which makes the feeding of wheat ears smoother and the separation speed faster, greatly improving the harvesting efficiency. At the same time, it adopts a double-layer reciprocating anisotropic vibrating screen, which has a large cleaning area, less scattering rate, and higher cleanliness. Coupled with the high efficiency advantage brought by strong power, it has become a leader in reducing losses.
The improvement of wheat harvesting level is a microcosm of the continuous development of agricultural mechanization in China. Currently, the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting in China has reached 74%, an increase of 17 percentage points compared to 2012, and the operating area of agricultural machinery has exceeded 7.3 billion acres; The comprehensive mechanization rates of cultivation and harvest for the three major grain crops of wheat, corn, and rice exceed 97%, 90%, and 86%, respectively. By the end of 2023, the total power of agricultural machinery will exceed 1.1 billion kilowatts. The manufacturing of agricultural machinery and equipment has basically covered various categories, capable of producing more than 4000 types of agricultural machinery products in 14 major categories, 50 sub categories, and basically meeting the domestic market demand.
Technology Promotes Intelligent Upgrade
In recent years, through continuous optimization and upgrading, China's intelligent agricultural machinery has made comprehensive leaps in terms of operational efficiency, adaptability, reliability, maneuverability, comfort, and other aspects. It has truly applied domestic high-end technology to production practice, adding a strong touch to the harvest scene and injecting new quality productivity into agricultural machinery equipment to safeguard national food security and promote rural revitalization.
Di Zhifeng, Deputy Director and Senior Engineer of the Field Operation Equipment Innovation Team at Shandong Agricultural Machinery Science Research Institute, introduced that intelligent agricultural machinery can achieve automation and precision operation, reduce manpower input, and improve production efficiency. It is a hot spot and direction for the current and future upgrading of the agricultural machinery industry.
This year, China has implemented a new round of subsidy policies for the purchase and application of agricultural machinery, including increasing the subsidy ratio for high-performance agricultural machinery and implementing the policy of optimizing machinery and subsidies. Therefore, agricultural machinery operators are more inclined to choose high-performance combine harvesters such as the Lovol Valley God GM series.
In addition, intelligence is not only reflected in the machines themselves. The optimal harvest period for wheat is only 3-5 days. In order to ensure wheat harvesting, Weichai Lovol has built an intelligent service platform using multiple technologies such as big data. Cross regional customers can view the maturity period, cluster distribution, weather warning and other information of each region through the intelligent service platform, actively seek job opportunities and cooperate with demanders, greatly improving the convenience of cross regional operations.
The Weichai Lovol CVT tractor is equipped with a Lovol electric drive high-speed precision seeder for unmanned seeding.
Currently, Weichai Lovol focuses on intelligent driving technology, combined with Beidou satellite positioning technology and remote sensing technology, to develop the industry's first "agricultural machinery+crops+soil+environment" smart agriculture management platform, realizing the integrated application of agricultural machinery, crops, soil and environment, and providing scientific management and business decision-making solutions for agricultural production. Covering 24 provinces, with a service area of over 3.7 million acres; Nearly 30 smart farms have been built, equipped with fully intelligent agricultural machinery, full scenario agricultural IoT devices, and an integrated data platform for air, space, and earth.
Increase research and development towards high-end
The leading agricultural machinery and equipment industry is an important feature of the world's major agricultural powers. In recent years, leading multinational agricultural machinery companies have proposed development strategies for the next generation of intelligent agricultural machinery, acquiring enterprises in fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, new energy, and agricultural software to accelerate intelligent transformation.
According to statistics, there are over 80000 agricultural machinery manufacturing enterprises in China. However, there are only over 1700 large-scale agricultural machinery enterprises, with small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for more than 80%. Their products are mainly traditional agricultural machinery and equipment, with low production and manufacturing levels and weak independent innovation capabilities. China is already a major producer and user of agricultural machinery. By 2023, the revenue of large-scale enterprises in the agricultural machinery industry will reach over 240 billion yuan, with nearly 4500 types of agricultural machinery products and a domestic agricultural machinery equipment support capacity of over 90%.
However, compared with world powers, China's agricultural machinery equipment has weaknesses such as weak industrial dispersion, limited original leading technologies, high-end equipment and high-performance components being controlled by others, and a large gap in performance and quality levels. To promote the high-end development of agricultural machinery, we also need to increase research and innovation, and accelerate the filling of shortcomings.
In 2024, the No. 1 central document of the Central Government proposed "vigorously implement the action of complementing the weak points of agricultural machinery and equipment". Di Zhifeng stated that to promote the development of new quality productivity in agricultural machinery and equipment, we need to strengthen original and leading innovation, improve details, further increase reliability and stability, and help our agricultural machinery brand move towards a higher end.
In addition, although the comprehensive mechanization rate of major crops in China has reached 74%, the mechanization rate of hilly and mountainous areas, which account for one-third of the country's crop production, is about 50%, becoming a shortcoming in China's grain production. Next, we need to focus on "good farmland, good seeds, and good methods" and "good planting, management, and harvesting", develop efficient, refined, and green intelligent agricultural machinery and equipment, accelerate the breakthrough of agricultural machinery and equipment from scratch, improve from existing to good, and lead from good to strong, and help to improve yield and reduce losses on a large scale.
We should not only focus on the large-scale high-power machinery urgently needed for agricultural production, but also on the small machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas, producing products with strong adaptability to complex environments and multiple uses of one machine, constantly meeting the needs of high-quality, efficient, and green ecological agricultural production. Di Zhifeng said that relevant government departments and enterprises should increase investment in agricultural machinery research and development, attract outstanding talents, establish a sound technological innovation system, accelerate the process of technological research and development, so as to continuously promote the improvement of agricultural machinery and equipment, and accelerate the effectiveness.