Chapter 374 - 179: Talking of a Bountiful Year

Chapter 374: Chapter 179: Talking of a Bountiful Year

After scouting out Red Grass Town.

Zhang Dashan made some more calls to a few clansmen working at the Hailufeng Company. Following their directions, his group arrived at Nanhu Village in Magong Town.

In the offices of the Agricultural Planting Division.

They found the agricultural technology office, which was responsible for providing technical guidance, and Zhang Dashan explained the purpose of their visit.

After listening, the head of the office, Zhu Xiaojie, smiled and said, "Brother, are you thinking of having the Shizhou Agricultural Cooperative adopt the three-season plan? Worried about the technical aspects and if the land can take it?"

"Yes! We’ve never farmed this way before, so we’re worried the fields won’t be able to handle it," Zhang Dashan nodded.

Zhu Xiaojie stood up and said, "Don’t worry. As long as you follow our technical guidance, not only will the fields not become barren, but they will actually grow more and more fertile."

He opened a metal cabinet behind him and took out a detailed three-season planting plan for the Lingnan Region.

Then, he carefully answered all their various questions.

After more than an hour of explanation, Zhang Dashan and the others finally understood the situation, and their minds were put at ease.

They decided to convert the 300 mu of soybean fields into three-season fields. After all, this land was on higher ground, making it difficult to irrigate when it had been used for rice paddies. Moreover, it was classified as basic farmland, so it couldn’t simply be converted into vegetable plots or orchards.

Now, as three-season fields, they could harvest one season of soybeans, one season of silage corn with soybeans, and one season of wheat with soybeans and hay. At current market prices, each mu could generate 6,000 yuan in revenue annually, with a gross profit of around 4,000 yuan.

It still wasn’t wildly profitable.

But at least it was much more profitable than just growing rice.

Even if the prices for soybeans and grain crops were to fall in the future, as long as they weren’t cut in half, each mu would still generate a profit of about 2,000 yuan per year.

Moreover, this three-season planting plan had another major benefit: it could build up soil fertility. If they practiced crop rotation every three years—turning grain fields into vegetable plots and vegetable plots into grain fields—they could maintain the soil’s long-term fertility balance and reduce the need for fertilizer.

Zhang Dashan and his group prepared to head back for a meeting to discuss implementing the three-season plan with the cooperative members.

By the time they had lunch in Magong Town and returned to Shizhou Village, the 300 mu of soybeans belonging to their Shizhou Agricultural Cooperative had already been completely harvested, bringing in a total of 391,860 yuan in Hailufeng Commercial Bills.

In the afternoon, the sun blazed outside.

The combination of high heat and high humidity was extremely uncomfortable.

Inside the small office building of the Shizhou Agricultural Cooperative.

Zhang Dashan laid out his entire plan.

After hearing his idea, the members began to whisper and discuss it amongst themselves.

One of the more troublesome young men was the first to stand up. "Co-op Head, our village only has a little over a thousand mu of fields. We might as well convert them to rice-paddy fish ponds. Egyptian Fish are more profitable right now."

"Bullshit! The Beilong plot is over a meter higher than the nearest river. How are we supposed to convert it? Why don’t you pay for the excavator?" another old man retorted, tapping his pipe.

"Uh..." The troublesome young man was instantly speechless at the mention of money.

Old Huang stood up to voice his opinion. "The Co-op Head’s plan isn’t enough. I think converting only that much to three-season fields is too little."

"Too little?"

"Don’t tell me you want to touch the vegetable plots?"

Old Huang was blunt. "If we don’t touch the vegetable plots, how can we touch the rice paddies?"

"Old Huang, what are you thinking?"

"Our village has a population of about 1,600. The total arable land is 1,500 mu: 1,000 mu of basic farmland, 400 mu of vegetable plots, and 100 mu of fish ponds. Am I wrong?"

Zhang Dashan’s expression was calm. "Old Huang, if you have an idea, just say it. Don’t beat around the bush."

"We can’t get rid of the basic farmland, but that doesn’t mean we can’t swap it," Old Huang said, his small eyes darting about.

"Swap?"

Zhang Fan caught on. "Old Huang, are you saying we re-designate 300 mu of vegetable plots as basic farmland, and then take 300 mu of rice paddies from the original basic farmland to turn into fish ponds?"

Old Huang stated his idea. "That’s right. As long as we guarantee the higher-ups we have 1,000 mu of basic farmland, it doesn’t really matter if it’s being used to grow rice."

The others suddenly understood.

They definitely preferred raising fish to growing vegetables. After all, vegetable farming wasn’t very profitable, and it was incredibly labor-intensive.

The village’s registered population was 1,600, but in reality, the number of permanent residents was only around 700 to 800, mostly middle-aged and elderly people.

Much of the high-intensity labor of growing vegetables—like weeding, transplanting, watering, spraying pesticides, harvesting, and selling—couldn’t be replaced by machinery and relied entirely on manual effort.

They worked from dawn until dusk every day.

Yet the income wasn’t that great.

Raising fish was less labor-intensive, and it left them with plenty of free time each day to manage their other fields.

With so little young labor available, if the Shizhou Agricultural Cooperative wanted to grow, it had to change its old model and reduce its cultivation of vegetable types that couldn’t be farmed with machines.

Old Huang’s proposal for a land swap was a way to get around the old restriction that rice paddies could only be used for growing rice and not for cash crops.

The lotus root industry in their Meilong Town was quite good, but unfortunately, Shizhou had a relatively low percentage of paddy fields. Furthermore, most of them were basic farmland within the "red line," meaning they couldn’t be used for cash crops.

"I agree."

"I agree, too."

"Yes, the rice paddies converted to fish ponds can be used to grow lotus roots and raise Egyptian Fish at the same time. Every household could earn over ten thousand yuan."

"Yeah! I think that’s a great idea."

Seeing that everyone was in agreement, a flash of satisfaction appeared in Zhang Dashan’s eyes. "Good. Since everyone agrees, I’ll make the arrangements."