The path to modernization for pan-regional farms

　　The former glory of the Pan-area farm has been obliterated, but today's agricultural reclamation workers, like their parents, are fearless and forge ahead, constantly striving and seeking a way out.

　　The Pan-area farm has long been a place forgotten by administrative divisions. On the map, you can hardly sense its existence, even though its hundreds of thousands of mu of land are far from insignificant, and even though in the historical heavens it was once far more dazzling than its current administrative area, Zhoukou City.

　　This was once an open world, inclusive and magnanimous, where people from all walks of life converged from all over the country; it was also once a closed kingdom, where people inside couldn't get out, people outside couldn't or wouldn't get in, with only a gradually declining self-circulating system within.

　　But no one wants to be forgotten. In fact, regardless of whether they are still considered a sight to behold by others, or whether they can truly obtain external positive energy, they have always been striving and seeking a way out. After all, the blood of generations of agricultural reclamation workers flows in their veins—they are just like their parents, equally passionate, equally courageous and fearless in the face of hardship.

　　Agricultural modernization is a historical inevitability. They suddenly realized that modern agriculture has always been right beside them, or that they are only a step away from agricultural modernization.

　　Blood-stained Agricultural Reclamation

　　If the Yellow River hadn't burst its banks, and the vast river water hadn't flowed into the Huai River and then into the sea, transforming the vast fertile plains into a lake, perhaps the central plains would never have seen an agricultural reclamation area covering hundreds of thousands of mu.

　　In June 1938, the Nationalist government, in a hasty attempt to stop the Japanese invasion from the west, hastily blew up the Yellow River dike at Garden Mouth in Zhengzhou. The flooding of the Yellow River lasted for eight years, and a "Yellow River flood area" of over 54,000 square kilometers, shrouded in yellow sand, unexpectedly entered history.

　　After the Japanese surrender, in 1947, the Nationalist government's Henan Relief Agency successively established three reclamation teams to reclaim wasteland in Weishi, Fugou, and Xihua.

　　After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in February 1950, the central government established the "Yellow River Flood Area Revitalization Committee" and set up an office in Kaifeng, then the capital of Henan Province—the Revitalization Bureau, with Wu Zhipu, then governor of the province, serving as the director.

　　At that time, Xihua and Fugou were sparsely populated, and the villagers who had fled to the northwest had not yet returned home. In the "Yellow River flood area," wind, sand, reeds, and aquatic plants, as well as saline-alkali land, were everywhere. At a glance, it was desolate. To quickly resume production, the state allocated special funds, called on farmers to return home to produce, and stipulated that whoever cultivated the wasteland would plant and harvest it, and would not pay public grain for three years.

　　A stable political situation and favorable policies stimulated the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of the people in the flood area. Thus, a large-scale movement of fighting against nature, building homes, and benefiting future generations—the "revitalization" movement of the reclamation area—flourished. Due to concerted efforts and support from various parties, the revitalization work of the reclamation area achieved significant results in just one year, winning the praise of Premier Zhou Enlai, who instructed the end of the revitalization work and the collection of the land that could not be distributed to the people of the reclamation area to establish farms.

　　In January 1951, the Yellow River Flood Area Farm was officially established, directly under the Agricultural Reclamation Office of the Ministry of Agriculture. The farm director was Lu Yanling, the former deputy director of the Revitalization Bureau. In 1952, it came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Central South Military and Political Committee, and in 1954, it became a provincial farm under the Henan Provincial Government.

　　Many of the first generation of land reclaimers were young men full of enthusiasm. In the early days of the farm's establishment, under the call of the Party, they gathered from all directions. They were fearless and courageous, devoted to the dream of building a new China.

　　The land reclaimers devoted their wisdom and talents to production practices, not only steadily increasing grain production but also completing many technological transformations in conjunction with production realities. The creation of the "crop straw pulverizer" opened up a new path for returning large amounts of straw to the fields to improve soil fertility and change soil texture, and was therefore promoted nationwide. Animal husbandry focused on improved breeding, resulting in the "Pan Nong Hua pig" and the "light-pulling horse," which won major science and technology awards in Henan. The "Pan Nong Hua pig" had a high lean meat rate, and the "light-pulling horse" had a large pulling force, both of which were rare high-quality livestock breeds at the time.

　　After the mid-1950s, the farm began diversified operations, with agriculture as the main focus, vigorously developing horticulture, animal husbandry, and sideline production, implementing a two-level management system of general and branch farms with unified accounting, and improving the economic situation. However, the subsequent "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution" plunged the enterprise into chaos and severely reduced its efficiency.

　　After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the farm adjusted its production structure and improved its management. In 1979, with the approval of the Henan Provincial Committee, the farm piloted agricultural, industrial, and commercial joint ventures, expanding its autonomy and rapidly developing. That year, it earned 2.9 million yuan in profits and became a national advanced agricultural unit.

　　The farm's fruit trees were abundant, especially apple production. In 1984, the total orchard area reached more than 20,700 mu, with an annual fruit output of 20 million catties, while nearby rural areas also developed tens of thousands of mu of orchards with the farm's support in technology and fruit seedlings. The farm's annual hog inventory was around 10,000 heads, and the dairy cow inventory reached 600 heads, with an annual fresh milk production of 3 million catties.

　　In addition to the cylinder liner factory and power plant, food industries directly related to the farm's agricultural product production also developed rapidly, with a wide range of products including fruit wine, spirits, and blended liquors; flour, oil pressing, dairy products, fruit cakes, sauces and pickles, canned goods; and factories were springing up. There were also phosphate fertilizer, printing, bricks and tiles, feed processing, packaging, weaving, and textiles. The farm alone had nearly 1,000 businessmen, so much so that a farm produce market developed around the farm.

　　The farm also had a motor vehicle transportation team that exchanged goods with the surrounding markets. In 1984, the farm had 248 motor vehicles, including 112 heavy-duty trucks, which were active on the transportation lines in Zhoukou, Zhengzhou, Xuchang, and Luoyang, playing an important role in the farm's various production activities.

　　It can be said that it was a generation of agricultural reclamation workers who, with diligence as their plow and youth as their share, transformed the vast desert into boundless oases. The boundless fields, the lush orchards, the "golden silk jujubes" and "candied fruits" sold overseas, the famous "fish skin peanuts," "white wine," and "hawthorn cake slices," the large motor vehicle transportation team, and the group of wheeled tractors, all witnessed their hard work, passion, and pride in making the farm their home.

　　Transformation for Survival

　　By the 1980s, a second generation of agricultural reclamation workers emerged under the spring breeze of reform. With the blossoming of farm commerce, they plunged into the torrent of the market economy, but unfortunately, most ended in failure, leaving the reclamation workers overwhelmed by confusion and doubt.

　　Poverty breeds change. Bankruptcy restructuring, shareholding system reform, risk-pledge contracting, leasing, selling... they groped their way forward, struggling to find a suitable production and operation model through continuous trial and error. It was their daring progress and courageous breakthroughs that enabled the farm to achieve its current scale and form an agricultural industrialization system headed by Dishen Seed Industry, Lv Yuan Chemical, Tianying Cylindr Liner, and Xinxin Animal Husbandry.

　　In 1983, the farm initiated agricultural system reforms, implementing land contracting operations, promoting family farms, and forming a three-tier management system of the general farm, branch farms, and family farms. The general farm implemented unified accounting and assumed unified profits and losses; branch farms implemented independent accounting and assumed individual profits and losses; family farms implemented separate accounting and assumed self-profits and losses. For employees who had always held the glory of "eating from the same big pot and receiving wages" deep in their hearts, this was undoubtedly an earthquake.

　　In 1985, the Panqu Farm established 1290 family farms. Their state-owned nature, worker status, children's recruitment and grading qualifications, and retirement benefits remained unchanged. Employees were required to pay cash or agricultural products to the branch farm annually, with excess income belonging to the individual. This change greatly liberated and developed productivity, employee productivity soared, and agricultural production developed steadily.

　　However, by the end of 1997, when the second generation of agricultural reclamation workers took over, the family farm system exposed many problems in management and profit distribution. For example, employees had long-term outstanding accounts, unpaid dues, profit-only contracts without loss coverage, unreasonable distribution of operating results, increased burdens on branch farms, and the subsequent transfer of burdens to the general farm, resulting in insufficient financial resources and weak development of the general farm.

　　In 2002, the farm implemented a family farm land leasing system. Employees bid for land leases, with the highest bidder obtaining the lease. Rent was paid in full before planting, with independent planting within the planned area. Rent prices adjusted with agricultural product prices. This measure strengthened employees' risk awareness and competitiveness. Everyone began to take their "one mu of land" seriously, leading to a situation where they simultaneously complained and benefited; the farm also had greater "financial power" due to increased land prices and rental income.

　　After 1985, the farm's industrial and commercial enterprises experienced several stages, from profit to loss, from public to private, from collective operation to bankruptcy restructuring, leasing, selling, risk-pledge, and shareholding system reform. In 1988, the farm's industrial and commercial enterprises were at their peak, but the following year, due to unreasonable structure, poor management, national credit tightening, and weak markets, industrial production declined sharply, commerce struggled, and the overall state was in a loss. After 1998, the farm adopted different disposal methods such as leasing, auctioning, bankruptcy restructuring, and shareholding system reform for different industrial and commercial enterprises, merging 36 enterprises into 8, reducing enterprise personnel, and striving to establish a modern enterprise system. As a result, the farm had two relatively large-scale enterprises—Lv Yuan Chemical Co., Ltd. and Tianying Cylindr Liner Co., Ltd..

　　Objectively speaking, in the overall situation of the farm's industrial and commercial enterprises being "silent," these two enterprises with total sales of nearly 100 million yuan have maintained stable economic growth and continuously absorbed employees transferred from bankrupt enterprises, which played a role in stabilizing morale and contributed to the smooth implementation of farm reforms. However, due to high pollution, high energy consumption, and lack of core technology, the two enterprises are in decline.

　　It is gratifying that the farm's all-out efforts in crop breeding have achieved significant development. In 2002, the farm integrated various resources to establish Henan Huangfanqu Dishen Seed Industry Co., Ltd., responsible for R&D, seed distribution, and the construction of external breeding bases, aiming to expand and strengthen the "Dishen" Brand. Today, Dishen Seed Industry's wheat seeds have covered one-third of the wheat planting area in the Huanghuai region, making it one of the top 50 seed companies nationwide.

　　The Panqu Farm's persistent pig farming industry has also achieved significant development. In 2002, the Animal Husbandry General Corporation was reorganized into Xinxin Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd., using a modern enterprise system to strengthen management. It is a key leading enterprise in Henan Province's agricultural industrialization, integrating breeding pigs, pig farming, feed, animal husbandry machinery, and organic fertilizer sales and processing.

　　Because of its large area of fruit orchards, after 1983, the farm drove surrounding villagers to build cold storage facilities around fruit production, developing fruit and vegetable cold storage, becoming one of the largest fruit cold storage distribution centers in the country. Among them, the farm's 20,000-ton Jin Guo Cold Storage Co., Ltd. is a national high-temperature cold storage enterprise, mainly storing dry and fresh fruits and vegetables. In turn, to leverage the advantages of cold storage, the farm adjusted its fruit production structure, introducing golden pears and round yellow pears from South Korea and Japan, focusing on developing pesticide-free fruits. Today, the farm area has more than 2,000 mu of standardized pesticide-free fruit production demonstration parks and more than 12,000 mu of production bases, with considerable economic benefits.

　　However, future problems such as insufficient land resources, high social management costs, talent shortages, outdated concepts, and weak industrial chains may also restrict the farm's further development of modern agriculture.

　　Toward Large-Scale Agriculture

　　On December 23, 2012, at the National Agricultural Reclamation Work Conference, Yang Shaopin, chief economist of the Ministry of Agriculture, clearly outlined the future development blueprint for the agricultural reclamation cause using "two firsts"—to be the first to achieve agricultural modernization and to be the first to build a well-off society for agricultural reclamation.

　　In fact, before this, the Panqu Farm had already begun to build its own "large-scale agriculture" empire.

　　Panqu has 150,000 mu of state-owned land and more than 10,000 employees who have been immersed in standard agricultural production for many years. Crop production on the farm adopts standardized operations, with over 1,000 sets of agricultural machinery. The level of agricultural modernization has reached over 95%, which is the current capital of the farm and is incomparable to the smallholder economy under the domestic household contract responsibility system. Although the domestic and international land market is gradually opening up, a large influx of domestic and foreign capital is unlikely to transfer a large amount of land in the short term. The key is where to find so many "skilled workers" who understand modern agricultural production?

　　Capital must be utilized effectively. The farm's advantage lies in "agriculture," specifically in the unique "large-scale agriculture". Focusing on "large-scale agriculture" has become the farm's inevitable choice.

　　Strive for excellence, strengthen internal capabilities, transform its own hundreds of thousands of mu of farmland into a demonstration window for modern agriculture in central China provinces, become a representative of agricultural productivity and a model of agricultural scale and intensive development for Henan Province and even the whole country, and achieve a qualitative leap from traditional to modern agriculture. Based on the standardized production of the farm headquarters, the farm will establish project teams to conduct large-scale land transfer outside the farm and continuously replicate the production model of the farm headquarters. It aims to control 500,000 mu of seed production bases and 1 million mu of special wheat production bases within 10 years.

　　Because the farm's branch farms are not concentrated but scattered throughout more than a dozen locations in Xihua and Fugou counties, the farm plans to first use each branch farm as a center, playing its own guiding and demonstration role, radiating to the surrounding rural areas, thus ensuring the 1.5 million mu of original grain base. Nowadays, the farm workers have leased more than 150,000 mu of land in Hebei, Tianjin, Gansu, and Northeast China. It is not ruled out that after 2020, the farm will go out as a whole to contract or lease land—some large farms in China have already been "opening up territory" abroad. Of course, this requires the farm to vigorously introduce relevant talents and continuously increase the training of modern farmers.

　　In remote branch farms or areas far from residents, expand the scale of animal husbandry, expand the scope of animal husbandry, and vigorously develop modern animal husbandry. Within several years, increase the annual output of pigs from 300,000 to 1.5 million, increase feed production, and establish a 10 million live chicken farm, a 100,000 yellow cattle farm, and other small poultry and animal farms.

　　Focus on developing fruit planting, processing, refrigeration, packaging, and other highly related chain industries. Apples, peaches, pears, walnuts, grapes, and jujubes are all varieties that the farm produces in abundance. The farm plants them in a moderately scaled manner, and related industries can develop together.

　　Establish a modern agricultural sightseeing area. This plan is closely related to the farm's creation of a livable and beautiful small town. The farm plans to set aside 5,000 mu of land to build a modern agricultural theme park including picking, fishing, dining, and hunting, and there can also be a Henan Agricultural Reclamation Memorial Hall. The sightseeing area organically integrates agriculture and tourism, developing organic agriculture while providing "recreational" opportunities for city dwellers and increasing the farm's income.

　　Livable and beautiful has always been the goal of the farm in building a small town. Blue water and blue sky are the advantages of the farm. Building a livable small town is to make the farm a modern agricultural demonstration area while also becoming a place with high-quality living conditions, as well as a place for tourism, science education, and labor practice. That is, to try to build the farm's small town into a backyard of the city, becoming a spiritual resting place for modern people.

　　The Panqu Farm's moderate planting of small miscellaneous grains also has great potential. In today's world where people are increasingly paying attention to health preservation, the demand for small miscellaneous grains is increasing, and the economic benefits are considerable. It can also take the opportunity to develop agricultural product processing enterprises, appropriately extend the industrial chain, and increase product added value. With bulk agricultural products, and with the expressway soon to be built to the Panqu Farm's doorstep, and after the completion of the Huaihe "golden waterway," the farm's goods can be transported from the farm's waterway to Shanghai, and the farm area may become an agricultural product trade exchange center, radiating outwards.

　　A modern farm, or the modernization of a farm, in the context of the continuous fermentation of agriculture, may not be long before it really arrives.