Gansu Minqin: Shaxiang industrial "micro-factory" has become a "container" for farmers' employment

China News Service, Lanzhou, November 10 (Ma Aibin) "Working outside the home often involves high labor intensity and unstable income. Unexpectedly, I regained my familiar skills in shed management and maintenance and became a sought-after technical expert at home." In early winter, Liu Xue, Minqin County, Wuwei, Gansu Province, has more than 20 years of experience in facility planting. Qin, relying on the intelligent management and control system, coordinates four greenhouses and is responsible for digital management and maintenance work such as intelligent atomization and water and fertilizer integration. He integrates practical experience into digital management and maintenance, accurately regulates seedling conditions, ensures the quality of virus-free seedling cultivation, and achieves stable employment and increased income at home.

At the ginseng fruit virus-free seedling breeding center of Faze Seed Co., Ltd. in Minqin County, where she works, the warmth in the greenhouse is constant, and the ginseng fruit virus-free seedlings in the cultivation tray have spreading branches and leaves and are growing steadily. Liu Xueqin operates on the terminal of the intelligent environment control system. Facilities such as ventilation, water and fertilizer supply are activated in sequence, and management and protection operations are carried out in an orderly manner according to preset parameters. Digital means are used to stabilize the nursery environment and ensure the standardization of seedling cultivation.

The industrial "micro-factory" not only focuses on seedling cultivation and other aspects, but also extends to Minqin's traditional advantageous industries.

Right now, it is the season for harvesting green onions in facilities and putting them on the market. In the greenhouse scallion planting base in Wenyi Village, Dam Town, Minqin County, the contiguous scallions grow in a balanced manner and are bright green in color. Farmers carry out harvesting, sorting, grading and packaging operations in an orderly manner, and complete weighing and loading at the same time. The products will be transported to major markets. Relying on the industrial micro-workshop model built nearby, green onions are harvested from the field directly to the export link, shortening the circulation chain, promoting stable output of local specialty crops and smooth export sales.

"Working at home can not only take care of the family, but also steadily increase income. It kills two birds with one stone." Ma Hongxia, a villager in Wenyi Village, bent over to pick green onions. She held the sickle, cut and put it into the basket in one go, with skillful movements. Like her, many local villagers bid farewell to traveling across provinces to work. They rely on industrial micro-factories deployed in the fields to obtain rent through land transfer and work nearby to earn wages, achieving a double income of "rent + salary", stabilizing their jobs and increasing their income on the spot, and sharing the dividends of the development of characteristic industries.

From the "old-fashioned" management and maintenance in the greenhouse to the "big housekeeper" of the greenhouse, scattered migrant workers have gradually grown into a professional work team. This is a manifestation of Minqin County's innovative industrial development path based on its resource endowment and its reliance on ecological smart agriculture to expand employment channels. The local area has built modern agricultural and animal husbandry production nodes into rural revitalization employment workshops and entrepreneurial incubation carriers, and used industrial "micro-factories" to connect the industry-village integration chain to accumulate endogenous power for the continued promotion of rural revitalization.

Minqin is located in the Hexi Corridor, surrounded by the Tengger Desert and the Badain Jaran Desert. It is located in the golden agricultural belt at 38 degrees north latitude, with unique light and heat conditions and a good foundation for characteristic planting and breeding industries. The local oasis agriculture is characterized by a contiguous layout and spatial organization of towns and villages, and facility agriculture and collection and distribution nodes have prominent needs for nearby management, maintenance and on-site employment. Industrial "micro-factories" adapt to the characteristics of this production organization and can revitalize planting and breeding resources on site, absorb local labor, promote the transformation of resource endowments into industrial advantages and increase people's income, continue to expand local employment channels, and provide a powerful carrier for the integration of industry and villages.

In recent years, Minqin County has adhered to village-specific policies and classified promotion, relying on the village-level collective economy to explore multiple paths such as custody services, land transfers, asset revitalization, and land shares, focusing on the development of facility agriculture, sightseeing agriculture, smart agriculture and other special business formats, continuously optimizing the agricultural industrial structure, cultivating industrial "micro-factories" according to local conditions, opening up the chain of field production and nearby work, and achieving a two-way increase in income from agricultural production and people's work.

At the same time, Minqin relies on specialty industries such as honeydew melon, fennel, shallots, ginseng fruit, and mutton sheep to embed industrial "micro-factories" into the chain of interest connections between leading enterprises, cooperatives, and farmers, and implements the "enterprise + cooperative + base + farmer" model. Through order acquisition, nearby employment, Land transfer and other methods have driven farmers to deeply integrate into the value-added links of the industrial chain, allowing more income from breeding, cultivation, harvesting and other links to remain in the local land and benefit farmers. Industrial "micro-factories" have become the grassroots carrier for the implementation of the mechanism of linking agriculture with agriculture, promoting the coordinated connection between industrial value-added and farmers' income increase.

"The 'micro-factory' in the agricultural industry is not about starting a new business, but it is about accurately connecting the labor needs of production links such as seedling cultivation, management and maintenance, and collection and distribution with farmers' nearby employment capabilities, allowing the value-added links of the characteristic industrial chain to remain in towns and villages and benefit farmers." Zhang, deputy director of the Minqin County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau Huiming said that the local area is based on Shaxiang's endowment of light and heat, relying on characteristic industries to lay out industrial "micro-factories", transform planting and breeding resources on the spot, absorb labor, open up channels for technological empowerment and benefit connection, continue to expand channels for farmers to increase income, and accumulate industrial momentum for the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside.

Up to now, the planting area of ​​Minqin's specialty industries has reached more than 600,000 acres, and the number of mutton sheep raised has remained at more than 4.2 million. Characteristic industries have become the largest "accommodator" of farmers' employment and a booster, accelerator and stabilizer of rural revitalization.