Ningbo farmers develop new energy agricultural machinery and only need 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity to cultivate 1 acre of land

Weeding and fertilizing, soil cultivation and moisture conservation...... On December 26, 2023, in the base of Ganhong Fruit and Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Ninghai County, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, a new "tank-style" agricultural machinery with a smart body and a sense of science and technology shuttled back and forth in the "Red Beauty" citrus greenhouse to carry out twice-year-round fruit tree nutrition management operations.

"It's really 'easy to handle', which saves time and effort, reduces costs, and makes people easier. Hu Zhongyong, the person in charge of the base, excitedly introduced that with the help of pure electric new agricultural machinery, 22 acres of orange orchards can complete the management operation in a short time, and only need to easily control the remote control.

The pure electric crawler rotary tiller is in operation.　Photo by Wu Ligao

"This guy is so powerful, he can carry out a variety of operations, one machine can do a lot of people's work, and the efficiency is more than ten times that of manual labor. Hu Zhongyong sighed.

Hu Zhongyong's "good style" is independently developed by an agricultural machinery enterprise in Ningbo. This pure electric crawler rotary tiller can be charged for 5 hours and can work continuously for 8 hours. Taking cultivating one acre of land as an example, it only needs 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity, the cost is about 1/25 of that of similar fuel-fired agricultural machinery, and the carbon emission is reduced by 4 kg.

"According to the feedback from farmers, on the basis of the original rotary tillage, we have improved and added functions such as ditching, ridge formation, hoeing, spraying, transportation and bean sowing, and the current market response is quite good. Wei Renquan, head of Ningbo Agricultural Machinery Enterprise, said proudly.

Wei Renquan is a native of Qiangjiao Town, Ninghai County, a farmer. During the investigation in Ninghai Qiangjiao, Changjie, Huchen and other townships, Wei Renquan found that many farmers urgently need to use new portable agricultural machinery to reduce labor burden and improve labor efficiency. After three years of overcoming difficulties, Wei Renquan led the company to devote itself to the research and development of multi-functional and adjustable pure electric agricultural machinery.

The reporter learned that more than 10 innovative achievements of the company have successfully obtained national patents, and some machines and tools have been put into small batch production.

The latest pure electric multi-functional rotary tiller is energy-saving, environmentally friendly, zero emission, and its climbing ability and turning radius are also excellent, especially suitable for light and simplified, integrated and modular operation methods, covering all aspects of farming, planting, management and harvesting. In addition, the remote control operation of the agricultural machinery realizes the separation of man and machine, which greatly improves the safety factor of farmers when working.

"Agricultural mechanization is an important symbol of agricultural and rural modernization, and new energy agricultural machinery has the characteristics of low carbon environmental protection, no pollution, low cost of use, etc., and is becoming a new track for the development of agricultural machinery. Ningbo relevant agricultural machinery experts said that China's agricultural machinery has the world's forefront, but in the new energy agricultural machinery, domestic agricultural machinery and equipment benchmarking international still has a certain gap, must make up for the shortcomings, promote optimization, this "made in Ningbo" multi-functional new energy agricultural machinery came out, to achieve the current new energy rotary tillage field "zero breakthrough".

"New energy agricultural machinery is the result of our team's joint efforts, and every time I think of participating in it, I have a special sense of achievement. Wei Renquan said that since 2023, the new pure electric rotary tiller manufactured by his company has participated in many domestic and international agricultural machinery expos, and each appearance has attracted wide attention in the industry.