From scattered, fragmented small plots to consolidated, standardized field grids; from traditional manual field patrols to today's IoT-enabled smart systems, high-standard farmland construction has not only transformed traditional farming methods but has also become a crucial initiative in strengthening the foundation of the nation's food security. Today, as high-standard farmland construction proceeds vigorously across the country, how can every acre of prime farmland become fertile soil for abundant harvests? The answer lies not only in "construction" but also in "efficiency" and "management." How can we achieve equal emphasis on construction and management, with simultaneous improvements in quality and production? The exploration by Heilongjiang's Beidahuang Group offers valuable insights and lessons.
On the black soil, rice waves roll, automatic irrigation systems spray water mist, various intelligent devices stand quietly, and agricultural aircraft fly overhead from time to time... This modern agricultural landscape represents a microcosm of Heilongjiang's high-standard farmland construction.
By 2024, Heilongjiang Province has cumulatively built nearly 120 million acres of high-standard farmland, ranking first nationwide; grain production reached 160.034 billion pounds, accounting for 11.3% of national grain output, maintaining the top position for 15 consecutive years and making important contributions to securing China's food supply. The "Implementation Plan for Gradually Building Permanent Basic Farmland into High-Standard Farmland" issued by the Central Committee and State Council proposes optimizing the spatial layout and timing of high-standard farmland construction, prioritizing development in Northeast black soil regions, plain areas, areas with water conservancy and irrigation conditions, and regions with high grain production and significant yield potential.
As China's largest cultivated land area and most comprehensive production capacity national important commodity grain base and strategic grain reserve base, Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Beidahuang Group") had built 31.38 million acres of high-standard farmland by the end of 2024, accounting for 68.98% of permanent basic farmland area. This year, Beidahuang Group plans to complete 1.01 million acres of high-standard farmland construction with a total investment of 2.402 billion yuan. How to steadily advance high-standard farmland construction? How to manage and maintain farmland after construction? How do local farmers benefit from these improvements?
"Previously Unwanted, Now Highly Sought After"
At a high-standard farmland construction site at Beidahuang Group's Heilongjiang Qixing Farm Co., Ltd., cement trucks and excavators are roaring as they work on a section of farm road construction. "This area used to have gravel roads and 'shoulder pole fields' with difficult irrigation and inconvenient machinery access. Once repaired, it will solve major problems!" nearby farmers are full of anticipation.
"The project spans 12.64 kilometers total, benefiting 3 management areas of Qixing Farm and nearly 300 farming households," Yu Hongyu, project manager of the first section of Beidahuang Construction Group Co., Ltd., tells reporters. Qixing Farm adopts a transformation model of "central farm roads, fields on both sides, and water channels around the perimeter" for standard field grid renovation, which can increase effective planting area by 3% to 4% and achieve yield increases of 15 to 21 kilograms per acre.
How to build high-standard farmland well? In recent years, Beidahuang Group has made this project construction a "top priority," establishing a leadership group and successively issuing a series of regulatory documents to provide institutional guarantees for project construction.
During the 2024 project planning process, Beidahuang Group determined project areas and construction content according to local conditions. For example, conducting grid transformation for paddy field areas and erosion gully treatment for dry field areas, with overall field remediation engineering investment accounting for 31.82%. At the same time, construction focus was placed on infield areas, prioritizing field remediation, infield irrigation and drainage systems, farm roads, and production roads, firmly implementing the task indicator of "field remediation as the priority among priorities."
What's the use of field grid transformation? Farmers feel the impact most directly.
On the vast fields of Management Area No. 1 of Beidahuang Group's Qixing Farm, farmer Qin Yuqiu's contracted 320 acres of paddy fields have all completed high-standard farmland transformation. Over these years, Qin Yuqiu's contracted land has changed significantly—from 70 small pond fields to 10 large pond fields, with field ridges converted to cultivated land and roads becoming more straight.
"After small fields became large fields, agricultural machinery can run freely!" Qin Yuqiu tells reporters that this saves nearly 10,000 yuan annually in machinery and labor costs, while transplanting progress can be advanced. Through large-scale field grid transformation, his contracted land achieved per-acre yields exceeding 1,400 pounds last year. "Agricultural machinery operation most fears twists and turns. After transformation completion, land utilization rates improved, and yield increase effects are very evident."
The scale benefits of high-standard farmland have also been verified at Beidahuang Group's Heilongjiang Junchuan Farm Co., Ltd. With continuous improvements to basic infrastructure including paddy field grids, farm roads, culverts, and drainage ditches, Junchuan Farm's high-standard farmland effective planting area continues to expand, with concentrated contiguous land fully leveraging scale benefits to create patches of high-yield, stable-production fertile farmland.
"Drought can be irrigated, waterlogging can be drained, farm roads reach field heads. Now farming relies entirely on agricultural machinery, saving time and effort while increasing production," Lei Yuqing, a farmer in Junchuan Farm's Chuannan Management Area, calculated an account. His family contracts 240 acres, and after transformation gained 4.8 acres of effective cultivation area, increasing annual income by 4,800 yuan.
"After high-standard farmland transformation, the farm's land changed from low-lying flood-prone areas to high-yield stable-production fields. Previously this land couldn't be contracted out, now people compete to contract it, significantly improving farmers' enthusiasm," says Tang Huaisheng, General Manager of the Engineering Construction Management Department at Beidahuang Group's Heilongjiang Puyang Farm Co., Ltd.
From "Feeling Soil and Watching Sky" to "Touching Fingers"
The "Implementation Plan for Gradually Building Permanent Basic Farmland into High-Standard Farmland" clearly proposes encouraging high-standard farmland operators to independently advance informatization construction including water-fertilizer integration, intelligent irrigation, automatic monitoring of soil moisture and pest conditions, and smart meteorological services. On Beidahuang's vast black soil, such informatization construction practices are everywhere.
Walking into the high-standard farmland of Beidahuang Group's Heilongjiang 290 Farm Co., Ltd., IoT devices stand in the fields, connected to intelligent digital irrigation and drainage systems—integrated field gate systems and field ultrasonic water level meters work together to achieve precise irrigation and drainage. "Farmers only need to click the 'Digital Beidahuang' mobile APP to automatically irrigate," introduces Zhang Wu, Deputy General Manager of the Agricultural Development Department at 290 Farm. The farm comprehensively applies smart water management and control technologies, and after high-standard farmland transformation, per-acre yields increased by approximately 30 pounds.
Intelligent upgrades in agricultural water conservancy provide solid guarantees for high-standard farmland construction. Through precise monitoring, intelligent scheduling, and remote control of water flow, reservoir capacity, and gate equipment status at water conservancy hubs, 290 Farm has significantly improved irrigation and drainage system management efficiency. Zhang Wu witnessed the farm's tremendous transformation from fragmented plots and silted channels to smooth, orderly fields. "Previously, irrigation and drainage channels in fields were prone to waterlogging, and farmers had to carry shovels to dig. Now agricultural machinery can drive directly into fields, greatly reducing labor and mechanical costs. These changes all benefit from high-standard farmland construction."
Intelligent irrigation systems have changed traditional agricultural working methods. In the experimental fields of Beidahuang Group's Junchuan Farm, intelligent equipment in 515.8 acres of paddy fields gives farmland a "smart brain." IoT pest monitoring lights, field weather stations, spore capture devices, and other "technological tools" are distributed throughout the fields, transmitting pest, disease, and climate data in real-time back to digital cloud platforms, providing basis for decision-making on pest control and variety selection, offering precise "diagnosis and treatment" for crop growth. "Advanced equipment application brings conceptual changes, making the entire process of cultivation, planting, management, and harvesting scientific and efficient," says He Yan, Director of the Agricultural Science and Technology Service Center at Junchuan Farm.
Under the empowerment of smart agricultural technology, Beidahuang Group's Qixing Farm has achieved transformational development. In recent years, Qixing Farm has established hundred-acre smart farm experimental areas, thousand-acre smart farm demonstration areas, and ten-thousand-acre smart farm promotion areas, advancing agricultural production from precision and intelligence toward unmanned operations. The farm has also promoted smart agricultural technology applications to 500,000 acres of nearby high-standard farmland, equipped with 2,320 sets of Beidou navigation automatic driving systems, with assisted straight-line transplanting covering over 80% of area. The high-standard farmland also installed 220 intelligent leaf age monitoring points, using data analysis to provide scientific guidance for the entire planting process of 1.26 million acres, saving over 30 cubic meters of irrigation water per acre and increasing average yields by over 25 kilograms per acre.
Concrete results make high-standard farmland construction deeply popular, with more and more farmland applying digital agricultural technology on a large scale to actual production. Beidahuang Group's Jiansanjiang Branch covers a total area of 12,400 square kilometers, governing 15 large and medium-sized state-owned farms, with total grain sowing area exceeding 12 million acres and annual rice planting of approximately 10 million acres, making it one of the world's largest high-latitude japonica rice planting regions. The company vigorously promotes smart agriculture construction, having built 8 smart farm clusters and conducted 23 million acres of full-scenario intelligent agricultural machinery operations covering cultivation, planting, management, and harvesting through applications of 5G communication and integrated sky-earth technologies.
"One cloud overview, one map display, one network processing," through platform integration, Beidahuang Group's Jiansanjiang Branch established the "Digital Sanjiang Integrated Cloud Platform" integrating intelligent leaf age diagnosis, smart fertilization and irrigation, weather forecasting, disaster early warning, and other management functions, achieving visualized monitoring, comprehensive collection, systematic processing, and scientific diagnosis of agricultural big data.
Standing before the "Digital Sanjiang Integrated Cloud Platform," technicians only need to click the mouse lightly to see dynamic data including real-time monitoring values of soil moisture content, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium levels, and future precipitation probabilities. "In the past, farming required 'feeling soil and watching sky,' now sensors transmit data every 10 minutes," Liu Jianguo, supervisor at the Beidahuang Smart Agriculture Machinery Center, tells reporters. The platform's electronic map clearly shows each plot's planting history, varieties, yields, management measures, intelligent machinery distribution, and other information, using big data to guide agricultural production.
Deep integration of digital technology with agricultural production is reshaping Beidahuang's agricultural production methods. From intelligent irrigation to water-fertilizer integration, from smart seedling cultivation to digital agricultural services, from intelligent water conservancy to aviation plant protection, Beidahuang Group's high-standard farmland construction has not only achieved hardware upgrades of "fields in squares, soil in shape, channels in networks, roads connected, ditches linked," but has also driven vigorous smart agriculture development by implanting "technological chips," achieving profound transformation and efficiency leaps in agricultural production methods.
In the view of Zhang Jinghui, a farmer in Management Area No. 8 of Beidahuang Group's Qixing Farm, the intelligent management and control system covering all cultivation, planting, management, and harvesting stages built by the farm truly brings technology to the fields. This precision agriculture based on digital technology represents the future direction of agricultural development. "30 years ago, I carried shovels for field patrols, exposed to wind and sun; now, just touching fingers allows me to check seedling growth anytime. Now I can manage all 355 acres of contracted paddy fields by myself," Zhang Jinghui says.
Farmland Facilities Have "Guardians"
If building high-standard farmland well is the foundation for achieving agricultural modernization, then managing and utilizing these farmlands well is an important guarantee for long-term benefits.
In the Wutongshan Management Area of Beidahuang Group's Heilongjiang Baoquanling Farm Co., Ltd., 193 newly transformed standardized field grids are neatly arranged. Maintenance worker Sun Dachen is conducting routine inspections of transformed drainage ditches. "Slopes meet standards, joints are tight without leakage, ditch bottoms are flat without siltation..."
This year, Beidahuang Group's Baoquanling Farm invested 46.32 million yuan to build 20,000 acres of high-standard farmland, currently completing 3,369 acres of field leveling and 10.119 kilometers of channel protection work. Zhang Lei, a staff member of Baoquanling Farm's Agricultural Production Department, introduces that the farm adheres to the principle of "whoever benefits maintains," assigning one dedicated maintenance worker per 500 acres of farmland. Maintenance standards strictly follow "straight, solid, lean, appropriate" requirements, with 85 maintenance personnel trained to ensure smooth field irrigation and drainage.
At Beidahuang Group's Puyang Farm, reporters saw stacks of high-standard farmland construction project inspection and maintenance records and management ledgers. "March 1 to November 30 each year is the field engineering inspection period, including weekly irrigation and drainage facilities and channel structures, monthly field roads and agricultural power transmission and distribution, and quarterly agricultural protection and ecological environmental protection among 8 main contents," Sun Bin, Deputy General Manager of Puyang Farm's Agricultural Development Department, tells reporters. The farm implements grid-based maintenance mechanisms, decomposing maintenance work to individuals and implementing it to field plots, ensuring normal operation of high-standard farmland facilities.
High-standard farmland relies on 30% construction and 70% management. How to ensure that each acre built is effective and well-managed, continuously exerting comprehensive benefits, and carefully completing the "second half" of post-construction maintenance? Beidahuang Group's Baoquanling Branch established a healthy maintenance mechanism with clear rights and responsibilities, sound systems, and scientific assessment, achieving hierarchical management by branch companies, farm companies, management areas, and beneficiary farmers, and clarifying maintenance standards, funding use scope, and supervision assessment mechanisms for high-standard farmland engineering facilities to ensure regular maintenance.
"Previously, when encountering problems like aging farmland facilities and outdated wiring, farmers had to report layer by layer, consuming time and energy. Now farms conduct maintenance at fixed times, giving every good field a 'guardian,'" Tang Huaisheng says.
According to the Agricultural Development Department of Beidahuang Group, strict maintenance systems issued in recent years have been successively implemented, with maintenance work having entities, personnel, funding, standards, supervision, and assessment. Beidahuang Group has established a five-level management system of group, branch company, agricultural and pastoral farms, management areas, and operation stations, comprehensively maintaining irrigation and drainage systems, field roads, power transmission and distribution engineering facilities, avoiding "heavy construction, light management" phenomena, ensuring proper management and maintenance, allowing every acre of high-standard farmland to receive careful nourishment and protection.
Black soil fertile fields, the nation's granary. Beidahuang's fertile farmland uses abundant harvests to continue writing new chapters of "Chinese bowls filled with Chinese grain."