Chapter 554 Increase production by one million acres

Ordinary farmers will definitely not be able to afford a cotton harvester that costs up to one million. Looking across the country, only large state-owned farms can afford to buy a cotton harvester.

In terms of agricultural mechanization, large state-owned farms have always been at the forefront. As early as the era when tractors were still precious agricultural machinery, state-owned farms used high-end agricultural machinery such as combine harvesters.

At that time, the few professional agricultural machinery produced by domestic enterprises were mostly supplied to state-owned farms.

After the reform and opening up, the country implemented economic system reforms, and many state-owned farms also learned from the experience of the contract responsibility system and began to try the organizational form of contract management.

However, in relatively large agricultural reclamation areas, state-owned farms still dominate.

One of the two largest agricultural reclamation areas in the country is in the Northeast. What was Beidahuang back then has been transformed into Beidacang after large-scale reclamation in the 1950s.

It’s just that the agricultural reclamation areas in the Northeast mainly grow grain, not cotton.

The second largest agricultural reclamation area is in the northwest autonomous region, which is the land reclaimed by the Production and Construction Corps.

On the farms of the Production and Construction Corps, cotton is the most important cash crop.

Li Weidong wanted to sell cotton harvesters and went to the Production and Construction Corps, which was the right path.

The Production and Construction Corps is a very special existence. It must complete the border guarding tasks assigned by the state and the reclamation responsibilities assigned by the state. It engages in production in peacetime and turns to military operations in wartime, so as to maintain production and combat readiness.

Although the Corps is located in the front, it is under the dual leadership of the central government and autonomous regions. Its organizational structure is similar to that of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

The Production and Construction Corps is at the deputy ministerial level, but according to national regulations, it enjoys separate management authority for provincial socio-economic planning. The leaders of the Production and Construction Corps will also be given high allocations to identify senior officials.

By convention, the deputy secretary of the autonomous region concurrently serves as the secretary and political commissar of the Production and Construction Corps, and the vice chairman of the autonomous region concurrently serves as the deputy secretary and commander of the Production and Construction Corps.

In terms of management authority, the Corps enjoys provincial-level economic management authority, of which economic, financial and other management authority are planned separately and are directly managed by the central government;

Administrative and judicial affairs are managed by the Corps in accordance with national laws; taxation affairs are managed by autonomous regions; population and area are included in local government statistics, but GDP is listed separately.

It is precisely because the Production and Construction Corps' financial management authority is under separate planning, so they have the ability to purchase a large number of cotton harvesters.

…

Uncle He made an appointment for Li Weidong, and then personally took Li Weidong to see Secretary Zhang Jianshe of the Production and Construction Corps.

Zhang Jianshe seemed very enthusiastic. He poured a cup of tea for Li Weidong himself, and then asked: "Chairman Li looks so young. Is he thirty years old?"

"I am exactly thirty this year." Li Weidong replied.

"You are so young and promising! If Lao He hadn't personally brought you here, I wouldn't have believed that the chairman of such a famous Puppy Group is so young!"

Zhang Jianshe paused for a moment and then said, "Speaking of which, on behalf of the autonomous region, I want to express my gratitude to you. You have helped build dormitories for dozens of primary and secondary schools here so that more children can go to school. You have really contributed to our autonomous region."

A big problem has been solved!”

"Contributing to education is what I should do." Li Weidong said modestly.

Zhang Jianshe continued: "Not only education, our autonomous region has many fields, and investment is also very welcome. For example, water conservancy, petrochemicals, and mineral resources. If Chairman Li is interested in any area, I can also arrange for someone to accompany you to inspect!"

"

A few simple sentences touch on the aspect of attracting investment.

For local areas, attracting investment is indeed a big deal. In places like the northwest, transportation is not as convenient as in the eastern coastal provinces. It is more difficult to attract foreign investment. The focus of attracting investment can only be on local enterprises.

.

Big entrepreneurs like Li Weidong are naturally the focus of local investment promotion, so when Zhang Jianshe met Li Weidong, he brought the topic to investment. He was eager for Li Weidong to come to the autonomous region to invest and build factories.

Li Weidong naturally heard what Zhang Jianshe meant. He couldn't help but feel a little funny. He came to sell things to make money, but his customers turned against him.

Li Weidong had no choice but to tell the truth: "Secretary Zhang, actually I'm here to sell products this time."

"Commodity circulation can also promote economic development, but it is rare for people to come to me to sell products." Zhang Jianshe then asked: "Chairman Li, what are you going to sell me?"

"Cotton harvester. The domestic cotton harvester jointly developed by our Fukang Agricultural Machinery Factory and the Agricultural Machinery Research Institute has successfully rolled off the production line a few days ago." Li Weidong quickly introduced.

"I have seen reports on this in the news." Zhang Jianshe nodded silently.

Li Weidong continued: "The efficiency of cotton harvesters is much higher than manual picking of cotton. A cotton harvester can work on ten acres of land in one hour. If it works ten hours a day, it will be one hundred acres of land, which is as high as

The workload of one hundred people.

Moreover, the cotton harvester is a machine. As long as it is filled with oil, it can work all the time without taking a break. If a cotton harvester is equipped with two drivers, the work efficiency can be doubled."

"Agricultural mechanization is indeed the trend of future development. The use of agricultural machinery is relatively common in the farms of our Production and Construction Corps."

Zhang Jianshe paused for a moment and then continued, "If the price is right, we don't want to try using machines to pick cotton."

"Because many imported parts are used, the current price of cotton harvesters is still a bit high. Normally, each cotton harvester sells for 1.1 million. If purchased in large quantities, the price can be reduced to 1 million." Li Weidong said.

replied.

Hearing the price of 1 million, Zhang Jianshe did not look very surprised. He just nodded calmly and then said, "Several businessmen from the United States came to me before to sell cotton harvesters.

."

The confusion on Uncle He's face flashed across his face, as if he was asking why I didn't know.

Zhang Jianshe turned to Uncle He and explained, "That happened about three years ago. You were still in the Ministry of Machinery Industry at that time, so you didn't know about it.

At that time, the American businessman had already introduced me to the advantages of cotton harvesters and the use of cotton harvesters in the United States, and also brought me a video tape explaining cotton harvesting in detail.

This videotape is in English and was shot in great detail. It is still in the archives. I was really shocked when I saw this videotape. I didn’t expect that American agriculture had developed to such an advanced level.

To be honest, after watching the video, I was a little tempted and wanted to buy a batch of cotton harvesters so that our production and construction corps could also use advanced agricultural machinery.

As a result, I was immediately confused when I heard the quotation. The cheapest cotton harvester was quoted at close to 300,000 U.S. dollars, and the higher-end models cost 500,000 to 600,000 U.S. dollars. How can we afford it if it is so expensive?

!

At that time, I thought that those American merchants were deliberately trying to trick me by offering high prices! Later, I asked someone to inquire about the price in the United States, and then I realized that cotton harvesters were really so expensive!

Compared with American cotton harvesters, your price of one million per unit is indeed much cheaper, but given the economic level of our country, this price is still too high!"

Zhang Jianshe said, putting on a serious tone, and continued: "The successful development of the cotton harvester has filled the gap in this area in the country. We should also support domestic agricultural machinery research.

Let's do this. The Production and Construction Corps can purchase two cotton harvesters and try out the effect first. If the effect is good, we will discuss subsequent purchases."

Zhang Jianshe spoke in such a serious tone, obviously not discussing with Li Weidong, but making a final decision.

The purchase volume of just two units was not the result Li Weidong wanted.

Li Weidong thought that it was because of his personal door-to-door sales that Zhang Jianshe decided to purchase two cotton harvesters. If it had been anyone else, he might not have bought one at all.

After all, Li Weidong spent a lot of money to build dormitories for primary and secondary schools in the autonomous region. For this reason, Zhang Jianshe couldn't refuse Li Weidong directly, so he decided to buy two cotton harvesters to give Li Weidong some face.

The so-called "try it out" and so on are just polite.

"Thank you very much, Secretary Zhang." Li Weidong had to say thank you first, then changed his tone and asked:

"Secretary Zhang, the country has been carrying out poverty alleviation cooperation between the east and west for two or three years. The partner of our cooperation in Handong Province happens to be you, so I would like to ask, what is the autonomous region lacking most now?"

"What's missing? That's a lot!" Zhang Jianshe smiled slightly and counted on his fingers: "Except for natural and mineral resources, we are lacking basically everything. Lack of funds, lack of technology, lack of talents, lack of infrastructure

, lack of corporate investment..."

"The most important thing is the lack of people, right?" Li Weidong asked with a smile.

"Yes, there is a shortage of people! In the final analysis, talent is the foundation of economic development. If you want to develop the economy, you must first have people. Only with people can you do economic construction." Zhang Jianshe nodded.

"Does Secretary Zhang feel that insufficient population has limited the economic development of the autonomous region to a certain extent?" Li Weidong asked next.

Zhang Jianshe opened his mouth and replied: "It cannot be said that it has restricted economic development. If the population is too large, it will consume more resources and put a greater burden on employment, so the country will formulate family planning policies.

But on the other hand, if there are more people, the demand for life will increase and opportunities in all aspects will increase. This will in turn drive the development of many industries and promote employment.

So population is also a double-edged sword, with pros and cons. But for our autonomous region, we generally welcome ambitious young people from the eastern region to come to us for employment."

At that time, the Northwest Autonomous Region had a population of approximately 17.5 million. This population size was relatively small among all provinces in the country. Taking into account the autonomous region's huge area of ​​1.66 million square kilometers, there were only ten people per square kilometer on average.

Li Weidong continued: "Actually, there are many people who come to the autonomous region to look for opportunities, but most of them do not plan to live here for a long time. Many people stay for two or three years and then go back to the east.

There are also some seasonal workers. For example, during the annual cotton harvest season, wouldn’t labor forces from all over the country gather here? Can 300,000 people come to pick cotton every year?”

"It's more than 300,000, sometimes it's more than 400,000, sometimes it's more than 500,000!" Zhang Jianshe replied.

"Is half a million people enough?" Li Weidong asked immediately.

"In terms of our cotton planting area, it is barely enough at most. During the cotton picking season, many farms have to work for more than twelve hours so that they can complete the cotton picking in time." Zhang Jianshe said.

"Then why not bring in more people to pick cotton?" Li Weidong continued: "I heard that the pay for picking cotton is quite good. One month of work is equal to the usual income of three to four months. There must be many people willing to come here.

"

Zhang Jianshe replied: “We also want to find more people to pick cotton, but due to transportation capacity constraints, so many people cannot come.

Every year during the cotton harvest season, even if we open a few more special trains, if all seats are occupied, we can only bring in tens of thousands more people, which is just a drop in the bucket for us here."

The cotton-picking labor force is naturally reluctant to spend money to fly, and they will choose the cheapest train.

A train can carry about 1,200 passengers. If the soft sleepers are replaced with hard seats and some station tickets are sold, the number will be about 2,000 passengers.

If you calculate it this way, even if you add five special trains a day, you can only transport 10,000 more people.

The time cost of critical transportation is very high.

The land area of ​​the Northwest Autonomous Region is so large that at the speed of the train at that time, even if it entered the territory of the autonomous region, the train would still have to run for several hours before reaching Urumqi.

If you go to other relatively remote places in the autonomous region, it is normal to spend several days and nights on the road.
To be continued...