With the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure, the transfer of rural labor force and the large-scale management of land, China's agricultural machinery market is ushering in a large-scale high-end intelligent era. However, what is worrying is that domestic agricultural machinery enterprises are large but not strong, the supply of large high-end agricultural machinery products is insufficient, and the high-end market is monopolized by imported agricultural machinery. At present, imported agricultural machinery accounts for more than 90% of the large agricultural machinery with more than 250 horsepower. Domestic agricultural machinery industry must increase research efforts, over time, the core technology firmly in their own hands, in order to get rid of the "stuck neck" situation, enhance the competitiveness of domestic agricultural machinery.
The large agricultural machinery market is growing rapidly
There are tractors, harvesters, no-tillage machines, plant protection machines, deep-turning plows and other large and small agricultural machines in the agricultural machinery warehouse of Zhihe Agricultural Machinery Service Cooperative of Tuchengzi Village, Huanling Street, Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province. Liu Zhihe, chairman of the cooperative, told the Economic Daily reporter that in 2015, he returned to the village from Shenzhen to set up a cooperative, spending more than 2.4 million yuan to buy 13 sets of large-scale agricultural machinery and 45 sets of supporting agricultural machinery, transferring more than 1,000 mu of land every year, hosting more than 2,500 mu of land, and carrying out mechanized farming. Large agricultural machinery has high operation efficiency, which is conducive to reducing planting cost and improving grain efficiency.
The reporter learned from interviews around the country that large high-end tractors, harvesters, and green feed harvesters are welcomed by grain farmers because of their high efficiency and strong market demand. According to the data of the China Agricultural Machinery Circulation Association, the cumulative sales of various types of tractors in the first half of the country totaled 21,300 units, an increase of 4.71%. In the large and medium tow market accounted for as high as 75.96%, but accounted for a small decline compared with the same period last year. This means that the large and medium drag structural adjustment is accelerating, and the trend of large scale is increasing.
"The market for large tractors has developed rapidly in recent years." Wang Huan, deputy director of Tractor Research Institute of Weichai Rewo Heavy Industry Co., LTD., said that under the two-wheel drive of policy pulling and customer demand upgrading, the domestic market for large tractors with 100 horsepower and above has made great development, growing from 65,000 units in 2018 to 100,000 units in 2020. Tractors with 200 horsepower and above have grown rapidly from more than 10,000 units in 2018 to 37,000 units.
The relevant person in charge of the China Agricultural Machinery Circulation Association believes that the rapid growth of the large agricultural machinery market is the result of a variety of factors. First, with the transfer and trusteeship of land, the scale of agricultural operation has gradually expanded, which has become the direct thrust of the large-scale agricultural machinery market. Second, the rapid development of new subjects such as agricultural machinery service organizations, agricultural (agricultural machinery) cooperatives, and family farms, farmers in order to improve the efficiency and quality of work, large agricultural machinery has become their first choice, forcing the transformation and upgrading of the agricultural machinery industry. Third, conservation tillage promotes the rapid growth of large farming machinery market, and large operating machinery drives the rapid development of large tractors. The fourth is to promote users to choose to buy large machinery according to the subsidy policy of horsepower segment and feeding quantity subsidy.
The main production area of Northeast China is "the granary of China" and also the arena for large-scale high-end agricultural machinery at home and abroad. For a long time, the Northeast high-end agricultural machinery market has been basically monopolized by imported large high-end agricultural machinery equipment, and Beidahuang is even known as the imported high-end agricultural machinery exhibition ground. In recent years, driven by market demand and under the guidance of agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policies, domestic large agricultural machinery has made good achievements in research and development and manufacturing technology, quality, appearance design, etc., and won a place in the large high-end agricultural machinery market, changing the situation that imported agricultural machinery has monopolized the high-end agricultural machinery market for a long time.
Chen Guoyi, who is engaged in the wholesale of agricultural products at the multi-grain market in Sanjingzi Town, Fuyu City, Jilin Province, told reporters that he contracted 240 hectares of land to grow peanuts and corn this year. To this end, he spent 2 million yuan to buy 10 large agricultural machines such as large intelligent tractors, rotary tillers and balers.
Since last year, China's grain prices have risen significantly, farmers' grain yields have increased, further improving farmers' enthusiasm for grain planting, increasing grain planting area, and strengthening farmers' confidence in investing in agricultural machinery, laying a solid foundation for the growth of the agricultural machinery market.
Domestic large agricultural machinery to be upgraded
After the rapid growth of China's agricultural machinery industry from 2004 to 2014 during the "ten-year golden period", it has been in the high-quality development stage of stock structure adjustment since 2015. With the improvement of China's overall industrial level, the upgrading of user demand and technological progress, the research and development and manufacturing level of domestic agricultural machinery continues to improve.
In recent years, the reporter has seen at various agricultural machinery exhibitions that the power of domestic large agricultural machinery is getting larger and larger, the appearance is becoming more and more fashionable, the reliability of products is constantly improving, and the high-end market share is gradually increasing. The 400 horsepower continuously variable speed tractor developed by China Yituo has ended the history of China's tractors with more than 350 horsepower needing to be imported. Weichai Rewo Heavy Industry has broken through the core key tractor technologies such as power shift wet clutch technology, solved the key "jam neck" problem in the development of large intelligent tractors, and many products have filled the gap of similar domestic products.
Relying on the advantages of research and development resources of China Agricultural Machinery Academy, Modern Agricultural Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. carried out research on the weak links of China's agricultural machinery, and made breakthroughs in the research and development of large-scale high-end agricultural machinery products such as large green feed harvester, cotton picker and corn precision seeder.
Compared with imported large agricultural machinery, the price advantage of domestic large agricultural machinery is outstanding, 1 domestic cotton picker is half cheaper than imported cotton picker, however, domestic large agricultural machinery in design, materials, components, technology and foreign brands there is still a significant gap, still in the global value chain in the low-end.
Domestic large tractors are widely criticized by users because of their high failure rate and low efficiency. Large green fodder harvester is difficult to enter large livestock farms because of its low intelligence, low efficiency and unintelligently controlled operation process. The bundling machine is "stuck" because of the knotter, which makes it difficult for many enterprises to compete with foreign brands...
In the face of the gap, domestic agricultural machinery manufacturing enterprises must catch up and change this status quo in order to achieve Phoenix nirvana.
It is urgent to break through key core technologies
Agricultural diesel engine high pressure common rail injection technology, power shift and stepless transmission technology, agricultural machinery equipment hydraulic system technology and other large agricultural machinery key technologies, core components and high-end agricultural machinery equipment mainly rely on imports, has posed a threat to the safety of China's agricultural industry. Only by firmly mastering these core technologies in their own hands can we get rid of the "stuck neck" situation and ensure national food security and promote agricultural modernization.
Wang Yurong, general manager of modern Agricultural Equipment Technology Co., LTD., believes that domestic large agricultural machinery to reach the level of imported agricultural machinery, need to focus on many aspects. First, it is necessary to increase research and development investment, improve research and development capabilities, make major breakthroughs in the research of key core technologies, manufacturing processes, basic parts and basic materials, make major breakthroughs in the construction of test and testing equipment, build a nationwide common testing platform, and improve the level of test verification and testing. The second is to increase efforts to transform agricultural machinery manufacturing process equipment and improve the level of agricultural machinery manufacturing process equipment. The third is to actively learn from foreign agricultural machinery manufacturing enterprises and strengthen the research on foreign agricultural machinery technology.
Wang Fengde, deputy secretary-general of the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association, believes that in order to achieve breakthroughs in key core technologies and high-end agricultural machinery and equipment, domestic large agricultural machinery must take the structural reform of the agricultural supply side and the demand for modern agricultural production as the goal, take the integration of agricultural machinery and agriculture, mechanization and information integration as the entry point, and combine market regulation and government guidance as the means to improve the innovation mechanism. We will promote collaborative innovation, comprehensively improve manufacturing capacity and level, narrow gaps, fill gaps, and replace imports. It is necessary to do a good job of top-level design, set up a special agency, coordinate and promote the key core technology research work of China's agricultural machinery and equipment, and carry out multi-disciplinary and multi-industry concentrated research. The establishment of major projects on key core technologies of agricultural machinery, led by a number of domestic agricultural machinery equipment enterprises that have the foundation, conditions and motivation to carry out key core technology research, and participated in universities and scientific research institutions to jointly carry out key breakthroughs.
In the medium and long term, China's agricultural machinery industry is facing good opportunities for development. In the next 3 to 5 years, relying on the support of a strong domestic market, China's agricultural machinery manufacturing industry will strengthen its advantages in the global supply system with a complete industrial chain, enhance global competitiveness, and drive "Made in China" to "made in China".
