Shanghai-Kashgar Unity | Shanghai’s Assistance to Xinjiang Boosts the “Big” Harvest in the “Small” Rice-Fragrant Town of Shache
This Autumn Harvest, When Reporters Entered the Kuonaxianbaibazha (8) Village Committee in Yigaierqi Town, Shache County, Kashgar, Xinjiang, They Saw Several Young People Energetically Turning and Drying Rice Paddy. “According to villagers, there is almost no empty space left in the village for drying rice paddy. To meet the basic needs of the villagers, after comprehensive consideration, we opened up the empty space in front of the village committee for their use,” Lan Baohong, the First Secretary and Work Team Leader of Kuonaxianbaibazha Village, smiled while talking about the “happy troubles” in the village.
Young people in the village are turning and drying rice paddy on the empty space in front of the village committee. Photo by Wang Junqi.
With the assistance of Shanghai’s aid to Xinjiang, this village, located within the Rice Fragrance Town, celebrated a bumper harvest this year, attracting the attention of CCTV. Compared to the previous annual total rice yield of 300-350 tons, this year’s yield is expected to exceed 600 tons. Meanwhile, a rice wine processing plant supported by funds from Shanghai’s aid to Xinjiang has also been established and is under construction. Soon, the “fragrance of rice” will be transformed into the “fragrance of wine,” continuously promoting the coordinated development of the industry.
As reporters conducted in-depth interviews, a beautiful blueprint for rural revitalization in the new era, featuring joint efforts between aid-to-Xinjiang cadres and village/town cadres, common development of agricultural and sideline industries and extended industries, and shared benefits among local villagers and tourists from various places, is gradually unfolding.
Using Rice Transplanters to Sow New Hope for Rural Revitalization
At the beginning of 2024, with strong support from Shanghai’s aid to Xinjiang, Kuonaxianbaibazha Village used aid funds to purchase 10 rice transplanters. “To achieve agricultural modernization and assist rural revitalization through scientific means, the four aspects of planting, breeding, management, and harvesting are all indispensable. The purchase of rice transplanters has been very helpful to the current agricultural development in the town, solving the most fundamental aspect. This is also thanks to the help of Shanghai’s aid to Xinjiang,” said Cao Li, the Secretary of the Yigaierqi Town Party Committee.
However, when the rice transplanters first arrived in the village, most villagers in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village were hesitant and waited to see what would happen. Some villagers recalled that these “huge iron machines” made them somewhat resistant because they were vastly different from the farming methods their ancestors had used for generations. As their livelihood, they did not want to “take risks.”
Villagers are harvesting. Photo by Yang Tongchang.
Of course, the village leaders of Kuonaxianbaibazha Village were well aware that rice transplanters were no longer a novelty, and advancing agricultural production methods was also a pressing matter. Cao Li said that to smoothly advance the work, it was necessary to start with the fundamentals of ideas: “The introduction of rice transplanters is a good opportunity to help villagers ‘overturn’ old ideas and plant new ones.” The village leaders all agreed with Cao Li’s view and extensively mobilized, explaining the uses and advantages of rice transplanters to the villagers in a detailed and accessible manner. With the tireless efforts of the village leaders, during this year’s spring planting, about 80% of the households in the village used rice transplanters.
The effects of using rice transplanters were immediate. The most obvious was that the seedlings emerged faster than with traditional planting methods. In the subsequent planting and maintenance process, the fields using rice transplanters were significantly denser, grew more uniformly, had better ventilation, were easier to manage, and greatly facilitated the harvesting with harvesters.
“When they saw the results of using rice transplanters for farming, without our cadres even needing to speak, the villagers who didn’t use rice transplanters this time couldn’t sit still and asked to use them for the next planting,” Cao Li said with a smile, “The benefits of rice transplanters go far beyond that.”
According to Cao Li, through the use of rice transplanters, the agriculture in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village is gradually achieving “cost reduction and efficiency improvement.” Originally, manually planting rice for a day could only cover 0.8 acres, with a daily labor cost of around 300 yuan; an automatic rice transplanter can plant 50 acres per day, with a cost of only 60 yuan or even lower per acre, greatly reducing costs.
Furthermore, villagers who have freed up their hands are liberated from primary production and can use the saved time and funds to invest in secondary and tertiary industries such as deep processing and local tourism, increasing income for themselves and their families. By both “increasing income” and “reducing expenses,” the living standards of the villagers in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village are steadily improving.
Due to the increase in efficiency, starting from this year, many farmlands in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village are no longer limited to one crop per year. Recently, they have begun replanting work, cultivating winter wheat to achieve two harvests per year, which will undoubtedly further increase production.
Next, on the basis of basically achieving modernization in the “planting” and “harvesting” stages, Kuonaxianbaibazha Village plans to focus on “breeding” and “management.” Cao Li has introduced enclosed weed control and scientific fertilization methods through field visits and inviting rice experts to guide the village, which have been partially promoted. Enclosed weed control requires a series of preventive measures before sowing begins, rather than waiting for weeds to emerge before removing them. Scientific fertilization aims to reverse the current situation of villagers over-fertilizing, to avoid “too much of a good thing” leading to a decrease in rice yield per acre.
The differences between fields of different qualities are very obvious. Photo by Wang Junqi.
“We invited rice experts to create a one-acre experimental field and divided it into three categories: first-class (using both scientific fertilization and rice transplanters), second-class (using only rice transplanters), and third-class (completely traditional planting). The actual effects of these three types of fields are obvious at a glance. The yield per acre of first-class fields can reach 750-800 kilograms, which is more than 20% higher than that of third-class fields. Although some methods and concepts are still gradually being accepted by the villagers, as long as they see practical results, they will actively embrace change,” said Cao Li.
Deepening the “Rice Story” and Building a Comprehensive Rice Industry Chain
Kuonaxianbaibazha Village has excellent hydrological conditions, located downstream of the Yarkant River and adjacent to the Yigaierqi Reservoir, with abundant water resources. With the addition of modern agricultural equipment such as rice transplanters, Kuonaxianbaibazha Village has steadily increased its own rice production while also driving widespread rice cultivation of about 8,000 acres in other villages in the town. At the same time, Kuonaxianbaibazha Village also shares equipment such as rice transplanters as a shared resource, providing convenience for neighboring villages, and significantly increasing the rice production of the entire Yigaierqi Village.
To promote the reprocessing of rice and significantly enhance the added value of agricultural products, the rice wine brewing plant located in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village has recently completed its groundbreaking ceremony and is gradually being constructed. As a project fully supported by funds from Shanghai’s aid to Xinjiang, with an investment of tens of millions, the deep processing of rice in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village will reach a new level, and the comprehensive rice industry chain will continue to expand.
Rendering of the rice wine brewing plant. Provided by the interviewee.
Wu Mixiu, the Commander of the Shache Branch of Shanghai’s Aid to Xinjiang, said that Kuonaxianbaibazha Village was chosen for the construction of the rice wine plant due to its comprehensive advantages in resources, raw materials, and transportation location. “Through research, we believe that the prospects for low-alcohol healthy liquor, both locally in Xinjiang and in the interior, are very broad. We will seize this opportunity to further enhance the reputation of Shanghai’s aid to Xinjiang and the Shache brand,” said Wu Mixiu.
The initially constructed rice processing plant is also continuously being optimized and upgraded. Abudurahman Adili, the Secretary of the Kuonaxianbaibazha Village Party Branch, told reporters that rice cultivation in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village has a long history. Since the 1980s, it has been popular locally, and people from nearby areas are willing to come to Kuonaxianbaibazha Village to purchase rice.
The rice processing plant in the village. Provided by the interviewee.
To further strengthen the integration of production, sales, and processing, the rice processing plant this year purchased rice from villagers in Kuonaxianbaibazha Village and neighboring villages at a slightly higher but competitive price, strengthening the production foundation. Meanwhile, to enhance the competitiveness of industrial development, in recent years, with the support of the Shache Branch of Shanghai’s Aid to Xinjiang, the “
