Sugarcane Machinery Will Become the Next Blue Ocean of the Agricultural Machinery Industry

At present, the market competition of tractors and grain combine harvesters has entered a white-hot stage and the competition of maize harvesters has entered the “red sea” phase. But, where is the next blue ocean of the agricultural machinery market?

There is a part of people saying that it is the plant protection UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and there is also another part of people saying that it is the potato machinery! It is no doubt that the plant protection UAV has been hyped intensely and the staple food grain role of potatoes is started to be hyped from last year. However, from the perspectives of action and sales volume, these two areas only have the “much cry and little wool” and are only in the stage of “calling”!

Where is the next blue ocean of the agricultural machinery market?

The answer is sugarcane machinery!

The author believes that a part of people will immediately stand out and say: stop it and do not play jokes when seeing this phrase.

It is difficult to make a breakthrough in core technology of sugarcane harvest and planting because the core technology is in hands of the overseas-funded enterprises, isn’t it? The mechanized work does not apply to sugarcane planting area of our country because the sugarcane planting area has the small parcel area but more steep stones in our country, does it? It is difficult to link the harvest, transportation and processing of the sugar refineries and carry out the systematic work, isn’t it?

In brief, the sugarcane mechanization work is difficult all the time, thus, why can sugarcane machinery become the blue sea?

The author thinks that the reason why sugarcane machinery becomes the blue sea is that three main external conditions for development of the sugarcane mechanization have been gathered together at present!

Making a breakthrough in difficult problem of the sugarcane mechanization benefits from a document

In 2010, the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting Sound and Fast Development of Agricultural Mechanization and Agricultural Machinery Industry (hereinafter referred to as Opinions), which pointed out that the problem in key technologies of the sugarcane planting and harvest mechanization will be solved basically in 2020; the breakthrough will be made in the bottleneck of the sugarcane harvest mechanization and the mechanization level of the sugarcane planting and harvest will be improved.”

Since issuance of this document, China has started to provide support for research & development and popularization of the sugarcane mechanization. Henceforth, China’s sugarcane production mechanization has started to develop rapidly.

The allowance for purchasing has nearly doubled

In 2015, the highest allowance issued by central finance for one sugarcane harvester was increased to 0.4 million yuan per set from the original 0.2-0.25 million yuan per set. The scope of allowance objects was adjusted and expanded properly. In the meantime, the allowance pilot for deep scarification and soil preparation work of the sugarcane lands and the financial lease pilot for large-sized sugarcane machines were carried out, which promoted the constant improvement of the sugarcane production mechanization level.

During the production period of 2014/2015, the comprehensive mechanization level of sugarcane production in the whole country reached 48.7%, which increased by about 13% compared with that of the last production period. In addition, for the plowing lands, the mechanization was achieved basically and the new breakthrough was also made in the mechanized planting and harvest. Especially in the Guangxi “high-yield and high-sugar” demonstration base, the breakthrough was made in the production mechanization. Except the breeding planting, the plant and management links have achieved the mechanized combination operation basically; the mechanized harvest ratio in the 0.5 million mu of “high-yield and high-sugar” demonstration base has reached 7.8%, which created a new record.

Driven by this, the mechanized sugarcane planting developed rapidly in Guangxi. The area planted by machine was three time than that of the last production period in Guangxi. For sugarcane production mechanization level in Yunnan, although the foundation was weak, the development trend was good. Compared with last year, the mechanized ditching, mechanized planting, mechanized cultivation and banking and mechanized combination harvest respectively increased by 260％, 500％, 320% and 210％.

A breakthrough is made in sugarcane mechanization technology

China has invested nearly 30 million yuan to support research & development of sugarcane mechanized equipment by these projects including non-profit agricultural industry scientific research project and science and technology support program etc.; some enterprises and research & development institutions, such as Guangxi Agricultural Machinery Institute, Guangdong Kolea Modern Agricultural Equipment Co., Ltd., Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and Ganbao etc. also enlarge the strength to tackle difficult problems in research & development and have obtained promising results.

At present, for section-cutting type and whole-bar type sugarcane combine harvesters suitable for the large-scale combination operation and the cutting and laying machines and leaf strippers suitable for small-parcel operation in the hills and shallow mountainous areas, some of them have had the successfully trial-produced model machines and are being perfected by test; some of them have completed the customization and are being produced in batch so as to speed up popularization; some of them have passed the popularization identification and entered the allowance popularization.

Besides, some foreign large agricultural machinery enterprises have set up factories in China for production by harvester remodeled and perfected as per the actual sugarcane production situation of China and are recognized by sugarcane growers. The sugarcane planters and sugarcane transport vehicles researched & developed and manufactured independently by China are increasingly mature and begin to be popularized and used in production widely.

The market scale forms gradually

Since 2010, breakthroughs have been made in domestic sugarcane planters and harvesters. Many enterprises have manufactured the sugarcane planters and harvesters successively and these sugarcane planters and harvesters have been popularized initially.

There are about 5 or 6 kinds of typical sugarcane planting machinery used in domestic markets. Exampled by the FLW sugarcane planters, FLW sugarcane planters include one-line planters and two-line planters; the supporting powers for FLW sugarcane planters are 50 hp tractors and 100 hp tractors; machines adopt the combination operation mode and can complete ditching, fertilization, section cutting, sowing, earthing, film laying, earthing up and suppression all at once. So far, the machines have been sold in Yunnan, Hainan and Guangxi, which provides the complete solutions for mechanized sugarcane planting of these three Provinces.

Besides, the common sugarcane planters in the markets also include 2CZX-2 sugarcane planter manufactured by Guangxi Qinzhou Lishun Machinery Co., Ltd., 2CZ-2 sugarcane planter manufactured by Nanning Wuling Guihua Vehicle Co., Ltd. and 2CZY-2B sugarcane planter manufactured by Sinomach Menoble Co., Ltd. etc. at present. All of these sugarcane planters can achieve these procedures including ditching, planting and film mulching etc. and can be used in the hilly areas with the small slope.

Except the sugarcane planters, there are also some domestic sugarcane harvesters appearing in the markets at present, such as, Guwang AS60 sugarcane harvester, Kolea 4GZ-91 crawler-type sugarcane combine harvester and Hansen 4GQ-350 section-cutting type sugarcane combine harvester. The Guwang AS60 sugarcane harvester adopts the section-cutting type harvesting mode, crawler-type rigid and ship-form structure and is well adaptive to mountain lands and wet lands; Kolea 4GZ-91 crawler-type sugarcane combine harvester has the adaptive distance of 0.9-1.2m and it can complete the combination operation functions including lifting up, pushing over, conveying, cutting, cleaning, leaves stripping, stacking and bagging etc. all at one without the human assistance; Hansen 4GQ-350 section-cutting type sugarcane combine harvester applies to wide-spacing and large-parcel sugarcane field operation and can adjust the length of cutting section as per users’ demands etc.

These domestic machines have been able to adapt to the sugarcane production in different terrains in China basically and can be popularized initially at a lower price. Thus, the market monopoly of the overseas-funded brands is broken.

The industrial leading enterprise is engaged in the sugarcane machinery field

During the period from the end of April to the beginning of May, 2016, news that Guangxi Liugong Group Co., Ltd. marched into the sugarcane machine harvesting field gave rise to a drastic debate in the agricultural machinery industry. Some people held the positive view on the Liugong Group’s cross-industry development from engineering machinery to the agricultural machinery, but others questioned Liugong Group’s cross-industry development. However, no matter what the result would be, it is no doubt that the sugarcane machinery is really a blue-ocean market with the attractive potential.

Except Guangxi Liugong Group Co., Ltd., Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. also takes a fancy to the sugarcane machinery. At the end of 2015, Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. made the sugarcane harvester products enter the production line and thus became the first enterprise to achieve the on-line production of the sugarcane harvester in China, that is, Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. became the first to achieve the flow line production, which means the strong volume production capacity.

In December, 2015, the first-batch sugarcane harvesters produced by Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. were directly delivered to users after leaving the production line. But, maybe, only the enterprises with the rich and mature channels in the agricultural machinery field can achieve this situation that harvesters was ordered before they carried out production.

In China, it is very difficult to make breakthrough in the sugarcane harvester machinery industry all the time, so many people in the sugarcane harvester machinery industry do not think that the sugarcane harvester machinery industry will develop well. But that the two industrial leading enterprises Guangxi Liugong Group Co., Ltd. and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. attach importance to the sugarcane machinery industry reflects the market potential of the sugarcane machinery from another aspect.

How to speed up development

Although China’s sugarcane production mechanization has entered a large-area popularization stage, the existing problems still need to be solved if wanting to grasp this blue ocean.

The sugarcane production is a systematic project, so, the development of the production mechanization shall be promoted from all these links including land integration, production and purchasing etc.

On one hand, cooperate with the land department to coordinate the land reclamation to make lands be beneficial to mechanized operation and large-scale production. Actively strive for getting support from National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Land and Resources of the People’s Republic of China, The Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China and other relevant departments, integrate the support policies and use the methods for land reclamation in Guangxi for reference to build the high-standard sugarcane fields suitable for high-efficiency operation of large, medium and small mechanical systems and build the field roads meeting the requirements for agricultural machinery operation and transportation of the sugarcane.

On other hand, speed up remodeling of the sugar refinery. The sugar refinery is an important link to promote the mechanization. We should cooperate with the relevant departments to support the technical renovation of the sugar refinery, research & develop the sugarcane self-unloading, environmental protection and high-efficiency cleaning and pre-treatment system and auxiliary equipment; renovate the sugarcane unloading platform and sugarcane slot of the sugar refinery gradually as per the requirements of entering the factory and squeezing of the section-cutting sugarcane; formulate (revise) the standards for entering the factory and purchasing of the sugarcane harvested by machine in accordance with the actual situation of the machinery harvest operation so as to match with the machinery harvest operation; improve the agricultural affairs management of the sugar refinery, explore and establish the effective cohesive mechanism between the machine harvest and the processing of the sugar refinery, perfect the scheduling of the machine harvest operation, create the green channel and guarantee the section-cutting type sugarcane to enter the factory for squeezing within 24 hours and thereby provide the guarantee for mechanized combination harvest of the sugarcane.