I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 430 Farming isn't profitable.

Jiangping Town is only about 30 kilometers away from Nanxin County. It takes less than 40 minutes to drive there. Lu Yongbing's village is called Eping Village. The vehicle finally stopped in front of a small courtyard.

This was a typical two-story building in Nanxin. After the two got out of the car, Bai Haihong went to knock on the door. A middle-aged woman opened the door. When she saw everyone, a sad look appeared on her face: "You're here again. We really have no money now. Why don't you have the police arrest us?"

Bai Haihong did not answer directly, but instead said, "Today, our President Fang and President Zhao are here to check the situation in person. Is Lu Yongbing at home?"

"exist."

The group followed the hostess into the courtyard. Fang Qingye looked around and found it to be no different from an ordinary farming family in Nanxin. What caught the eye was a shed built against the wall on the east side of the courtyard, inside which were several machines of different styles.

Just then, a middle-aged man wearing a coat came down from upstairs. He was thin and had dark skin. When he saw Zhao Wenjun, he greeted her with a wry smile.

"Lu Yongbing, this is our top manager, President Fang," Zhao Wenjun introduced.

"Hello." Fang Qingye smiled and extended her right hand.

Lu Yongbing looked slightly surprised. He hadn't expected the head of Jinghai Bank to be so young, but he didn't think much of it and quickly shook hands.

"These are the machines you use to grow peanuts, right?" Fang Qingye asked, pointing to the machinery in the shed.

“Yes.” Lu Yongbing led everyone to the shed and introduced each machine one by one: “This is a planter, this is a combine harvester, a fruit picker, a plant protection sprayer, and a peanut washing machine. President Fang, I mainly borrowed money to buy these machines. In addition to your bank, I also borrowed 10 yuan from the Rural Commercial Bank.”

"Don't these machines greatly improve production efficiency?" Fang Qingye asked.

"Yes, when planting manually, it takes 4 people a day to plant one mu (0.16 acres), but now a planter can plant 40 mu a day; in the harvesting stage, a peanut combine harvester can harvest 20 mu a day, which only costs 200 yuan for diesel. Based on the calculation of 1000 yuan per day for manual harvesting, this saves 800 yuan."

Lu Yongbing recounted the story with great familiarity: "So I decided to take out a loan to buy these machines, but I didn't expect the price of peanuts to drop so drastically. Forget about making a profit, I can't even pay back the loan." Lu Yongbing's face turned bitter as he finished speaking.

After inspecting the machine, Fang Qingye returned to the main room and chatted with Lu Yongbing. Lu Yongbing told him that he had a son who was in college, and the child's tuition and the family's expenses were basically covered by this season's peanuts.

"Look, these are the peanuts I harvested." Lu Yongbing then led Fang Qingye into a room where neatly stacked snakeskin bags were piled up, all bulging.

“These dried peanuts in their shells, stored this way, can only last for a year at most. After that, they might spoil and get moldy, and then they won’t be able to sell,” Lu Yongbing said.

"So, you mean you want to sell them before the new peanuts come to market this fall?" Zhao Wenjun asked.

"Yes, and with the new peanuts coming onto the market, it's even harder to sell old peanuts."

"After the peanut harvest, what are you planting this season?" Guo Yanfei interjected.

"Wheat and rapeseed don't make any money. Wheat yields about 600 jin per mu, and the purchase price is 1.1 yuan per jin, so one mu only brings in a little over 600 yuan. Add to that the 70-odd yuan subsidy per mu, and it's less than 700 yuan. But then there are the costs of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, water, labor, and machinery... all that adds up, and you end up losing money!"

"Rapeseed is better, with a yield of 500 jin per mu and a price of 2.3 yuan per jin, so one mu only yields a little over 1100 yuan. Breaking even is no problem and you can even make a small profit, but it's impossible to get rich."

Lu Yongbing did some calculations, and everyone present nodded in agreement. Many of them had worked in rural areas before, and the situation was indeed as described.

Agriculture, especially crop farming, is not profitable.

Just then, the courtyard gate was pushed open, and three people entered. The one in the lead was about forty years old, wearing a gray jacket and glasses.

Fang Qingye recognized him as Liu An, the secretary of Jiangping Town, and walked outside.

"President Fang." "Secretary Liu."

The two shook hands warmly.

"This is Secretary Yu from Eping Village," Liu An then introduced him to a fifty-year-old man next to him.

"President Fang, I heard from Secretary Yu that people from the bank were coming to the village, so I rushed over. I didn't expect it to be you, President Fang, coming down in person," Liu An said with a smile.

"I'm mainly here to understand the actual situation," Fang Qingye said, glancing at Secretary Yu, but still shaking hands with him.

After everyone returned to the main room and sat down, Qingye briefly recounted what she had learned.

Liu An nodded in agreement. "What Lu Yongbing said is true. Growing grain is not profitable, so the town encourages farmers to grow cash crops, especially peanuts, which are a specialty of our Jiangping Town. But the price is puzzling."

"Secretary Li, how many acres of peanuts did your town plant last year, and what was the yield?" Fang Qingye asked again.

"About 20,000 mu (approximately 1333 hectares), with a total output of about 6000 tons. According to our statistics, nearly two-thirds of the peanuts are unsold and still in farmers' homes, like Lu Yongbing's case," Liu An replied.

"That's a very serious problem."

"Yes, the farmers are anxious, and so is our town. We've tried every possible way to contact sellers, but last year Jinghai and even central and northern Jiangsu had a bumper peanut harvest. Merchants either wouldn't buy it or offered too low a price, so we couldn't sell it."

At this point, Liu An changed the subject: "Please understand that farmers are temporarily unable to repay their loans. President Fang, please also be lenient and grant them some more time, and don't report it to the credit bureau, otherwise the farmers will not be able to get loans anymore."

Fang Qingye laughed after hearing this: "Secretary Liu, since you've spoken up, we can't be unreasonable, can we? The main reason we're here is to understand the actual situation. The farmers are indeed having difficulty repaying their loans, so we'll extend the loan for a while longer. The farmers, the town, and our bank will all work together to find a solution."

"President Fang, thank you so much!" Liu An was overjoyed.

After chatting for a while, Fang Qingye led everyone to take their leave.

When they returned, Guo Yanfei and Bai Haihong chatted in the car again.

"Old Bai, what do you think is the point of our trip?"

“I understand the situation. Also, you just heard Director Fang say that the farmers, the town, and our bank should all try to find a solution to this problem,” Bai Haihong said with a smile.

Guo Yanfei curled her lip: "If it could be solved, it would have been solved long ago. Why wait until now? Besides, what can our bank do? Sell peanuts?"

"Hey, you know what, some people actually do it," Bai Haihong said.

"I heard that there was a privately owned Langshan chicken farm in Wuyang County that had taken out a loan from the county's credit cooperative. When the loan was overdue, the cooperative's leaders called on all employees to buy chickens from the farm and set minimum numbers for each type of chicken: how many for the bank manager, how many for middle-level managers, and how many for ordinary staff."

"In the end, the products were all sold out, and the farmers repaid their loans to the credit union. This news was even featured on Jinghai TV as a positive report on supporting agriculture."

"I've heard about this too. Are you suggesting we actually go buy peanuts?!" Guo Yanfei said, somewhat surprised.

"Haha, then you'll have to buy a few more pounds."

"Who wants that junk? Cooked, it'll give you a sore throat; raw, it'll give you diarrhea!"

(End of this chapter)