Land of contrasts

China – a country of impressive size and diversity. This is why agriculture over there also has to face special challenges. 18 % of the world population live in China. China’s share in the global arable land, however, only amounts to 9 %. In 2016, HORSCH founded a Chinese branch, the HORSCH Agricultural Machinery CO. LTD.

It is located in Harbin in the north-east of China, right in the middle of the black earth region of the country. From here, the Chinese HORSCH team supports the customers throughout the country with a lot of different conditions and requirements.

Patrick Paziener from the HORSCH service team recently moved to China to support his colleagues on site. He had already worked in China before as an agronomist for a farming and agricultural machinery project in which HORSCH was one of the partners. On the occasion of a visit in Schwandorf, he told terraHORSCH about his work and his impressions.

Logistics and support

In a country of this size, logistics plays a crucial role in making the machines available to the customers. For about 45 days, the machines travel in containers from Germany to China. At the HORSCH site in Harbin they are assembled and then transported to their destination. In addition to the assembly hall, there also is a showroom in Harbin which is used in the off season to train customers and sales partners. At the moment, 13 employees are working at HORSCH China – closely and in a familiar atmosphere. “Of course, there was and still is a certain language barrier“, Patrick Paziener comments. “But everyone makes an effort, and this is why communication and co-operation work well and efficiently. People treat each other particularly politely and with respect. This helps to overcome obstacles and to solve problems. We really work together very successfully.”

Agriculture in China

The size of agricultural farms in China varies considerably. The national average field size is under one hectare. In the region of the HORSCH site there are also farms with an area of over 30,000 ha. They are state-run and compared to the farms in the South and in Central China are characterised by large fields and a high degree of mechanization. The most important crops are rice, wheat, maize and soya, followed by barley, rapeseed, cotton, sugar beet and potatoes. Chinese farmers also grow different fruit and vegetable varieties which cannot be found in any European supermarket.

Adaption to local requirements

The climate in China is influenced by the monsoon which brings rain in summer. It ranges from an extremely dry desert climate over a winter-cold coniferous climate to a tropical climate. The change in weather with the very cold winters in the north-east of China also was quite a challenge: “Compared to Germany - this results in completely different demands on man and machine.” The weather, of course, influences crops and cultivation methods. In the black earth region mainly maize, soybeans and sorghum are grown. For this purpose, HORSCH developed the Maestro LV – a seed drill which has been adapted to the local method of sowing on little ridges. This cultivation method has a long tradition and was already used in the Zhou dynasty (1,000 BC!). This historical method, however, has a well-founded agricultural basis: The crops are protected from heavy rain events which regularly occur in summer and the roots do not get “wet feet”. As the crops stand on the ridges, water can drain off and drain away better allowing the soil to heat up faster. With regard to the very cold winters and the short vegetation period in North China, this is an essential advantage. Ridge cultivation provides a certain protection against wind erosion and the drying-out by strong wind. The Maestro LV is the first single grain seed drill that can handle this traditional ridge cultivation and is equipped with an electronic metering system. Thus, you can sow with relatively high operational speeds and excellent accuracy even in difficult conditions. Machines with mechanical metering partly cannot sow at all in wet conditions. This increased efficiency – sowing area per time unit – and shorter idle times for filling due to the larger seed and fertiliser hoppers contribute to helping due to the constant decline of manpower in rural areas. The precise placement also saves seed and thus costs. Thus, farmers can work more efficiently and productively.

In Inner Mongolia, a province in the north-western part of China, where the number of frost-free days ranges between only 95 to 100 days per year, HORSCH seed drills like the Focus TD and the Pronto DC are used for sowing spring wheat, spring barley, spring rapeseed, Lucerne, grass and milk thistle. Milk thistle is an important medical plant which is used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Co-operation

The Chinese HORSCH customers are agricultural farms as well as contractors that work for large farms. The latter often load their machines on trucks and follow the season. They start working in the south and then gradually move to the north.
The exchange of knowledge and experience plays a major role in the relationship with the customers. With trainings and advanced training programs HORSCH supports the farmers with regard to extending their know-how and to learning new methods. They are intensely working on the sales partner network to make sure that the customers get optimum support – also in terms of training.
What Patrick Paziener also notices is that in China tractors are equipped differently than in the Europe or the US. “And there are some customers who carry out modifications to their machines themselves or tinker and weld partly rather creative replacements for wear parts. This, of course, can affect the functionality of the machines.” This is where the Chinese colleagues comes in with an intensive training program. “In the beginning, our customers hardly knew anything about the technology and our agronomic concept. With demonstrations, tests and a lot of events we managed to convince the customers of our machines and of the idea behind it”, Xiaoqing Lu, General Manager HORSCH China, remembers. “It takes perseverance and a lot of patience, but the success confirms our efforts.”

Promotion of sustainable methods

Agriculture in China faces various challenges: different climate zones and cultivation methods, but also legal and regulatory guidelines. But it still offers an enormous potential for an efficient agriculture. More sustainable methods and technologies are increasingly promoted and topics like direct seed and mechanical weed control become more and more important. This year, the first 15 Transformer VF have been delivered to China and have already started working. At field days the Avatar SD, a direct seed drill, is presented. There is also constant structural change: the small family farms are discontinued, and more and more large state farms are established.

Chinese culture and people

Also outside his actual job Patrick experiences a lot of new things. Due to the close co-operation with the Chinese colleagues, he quickly got an impression and a better understanding for the Chinese culture and way of life. “Hospitality is a central value in Chinese society. You frequently are invited to dinner, and these invitations are a demonstration of appreciation and respect towards the guests”, he summarises his experiences. Eating is much more than just satisfying your hunger. It is a social event where family and friends gather to spend time together. Chinese cuisine is famous for its versatility, its variety of flavours and the refined preparation methods. The regional variety is reflected in a wide range of flavours and specialities. “In the Chinese language there are not only words which describe the taste of a dish, but also words for the feeling that a dish resp. the texture of a dish creates in the mouth”, Patrick points out the extremely high significance of the eating habits.

Perspectives

Different conditions require an adaption of the cultivation methods and the technology. With its presence on site, HORSCH is working this highly interesting market. For especially as the ratio of arable land in relation to the population in a global comparison is rather low, efficiency plays an even more important role. In absolute terms, we are talking about 134 million hectares of arable land in China!