BEIJING -- The peanut oil processing project with an annual output of 100,000 tons, invested and constructed by Luhua Group in Zhengyang County, central China's Henan Province will soon be put into production in October 2018.
As one of the key industrial poverty alleviation projects in Zhengyang County, after it is put into operation, on the one hand, local farmers will see the yield of high oleic peanut per mu increase by more than 800 yuan, thus solving the problems of production, supply and marketing of peanuts; on the other hand, nearly 10,000 jobs will be created in the local industrial chain.
"In order to better enhance farmers' income, Luhua will build its factories wherever the high oleic peanut is planted," said Sun Dongwei, chairman and president of Luhua Group. The development of Luhua Group takes root in agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Only when farmers increase their income and become rich can China's peanut industry develop and grow.
Unfolding the development map of Luhua Group, it can be found a peculiar development track of the group's factory location, which catches people's eyes. In order to better put the industrial poverty alleviation policy into place, drive farmers to increase income and get rich, and promote the deepening development of rural areas, Luhua Group has given priority to establishing peanut oil production bases in vast rural areas with backward economy. In Sun Dongwei's view, the group is not only a national brand actively advancing the development of agricultural industrialization, but also an agricultural brand closely related to rural areas, agriculture and farmers.
Precision service for farmers with order agriculture
"Soil temperature should be well regulated during the growing stage of the high oleic acid peanut. Because low temperature will tend to affect the growth and sprout of peanut seedlings. At the same time, it also requires to accurately record soil moisture, planting depth and spacing, which are the keys factors for the yield and quality." This is a remark made in the annual meeting of Luhua Group's Order Agriculture for Cooperatives. At the end of August every year, about 200 heads of cooperatives from different regions across the nation will gather here to jointly summarize and exchange experience on peanut planting, processing, supply and marketing, production and technology.
"The planting acreage, varieties, methods and scale of traditional peanut cultivation varied, and the ability of peanut growers to resist risks was also relatively low. In addition, due to the lack of unified technological support, even some large farmers and farms struggled to obtain good economic benefits. However, Luhua Group provides whole-process precision services such as peanut planting, technological guidance, insurance service, and procurement with guaranteed price for many peanut farmers, so as to reassure them,"said Li Yuegang, head of the Luhua Peanut Planting Cooperative in Cangzhou City, north China's Hebei Province.
In terms of whole-process technological guidance service, Luhua Group provides farmers with a series of services such as planting mode and variety selection, field management, harvest and processing, and sets up an expert team to offer all-round consulting services. At the same time, the expert team provides technical guidance to farmers on the spot during sowing, growth and harvest period, and farmers can also consult the experts at any time through telephone, WeChat and other means to solve the practical problems encountered in the production process, which thus relieves the worries of many farmers.
Moreover, on the basis of providing precision order-based agricultural management services, during the peanut sowing season every year, Luhua Group will set the peanut purchase price range for that year according to the planting area, scope, number of households and the total output, turnover and average transaction price of peanuts in previous years. It will also sign a purchase price guarantee agreement with farmers in the planting bases, promising to unconditionally purchase peanuts from them at a price higher than the average market price when the peanut price plunges.
"The purchase price guarantee measure will not only encourage farmers to grow peanuts more boldly and obtain more income, but also enable cooperatives to concentrate their labor, resources and finances to develop production, create more space for standardization, scale development and industrialization of peanut planting. And our peanut planting base in Xinjiang will be expanded from the existing 1200 mu to 10,000 mu next year,"Yan Xingxiang, head of the peanut planting cooperative in Yancheng City, east China's Jiangsu Province, said. He added that during the procurement, Luhua Group never gives farmers promissory note, and realizes the settlement on the same day of the procurement.
In 2018, Luhua Group, on the basis of consolidating the bases in major peanut producing areas in China, expanded the bases for high oleic peanut in Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Hubei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin by means of order agriculture, and developed 60,000 mu of high oleic peanut seed breeding bases and 100,000 mu of raw material planting bases to help farmers shake off poverty and get rich.
The group carries out innovative R&D of high oleic peanut to improve the quality and efficiency of poverty alleviation
The peanut oil processing project in Zhengyang County, which is about to be completed and put into production, is backed by an 80,000 mu high oleic peanut planting base. Luhua Group has adopted the peanut industry poverty alleviation model of "low-income households+cooperatives+enterprises", effectively lifting 4,715 people from 2,050 households out of poverty and increasing the average income of poor households by 2,000 yuan. Apart from the precision service of order agriculture, the effort to promote the plantation of high oleic peanut also plays an important role in poverty alleviation.
"The oleic acid content in edible oil determines its nutritional value. Developing edible oil with high oleic acid content is not only beneficial to the health of consumers, but also directly increases the economic income of upstream peanut growers," Sun Dongwei said. In addition to changing the traditional mode of production and management, the introduction of agricultural technology is also crucial in this regard.
As early as 2009, Luhua Group put forward the strategic concept of "one increase and one decrease" for edible oil development. One increase refers to the cultivation of peanuts with high oleic acid, high yield and high oil content to drive peanut farmers to increase production and income, thus promoting the healthy development of China's peanut industry. Whist one reduction refers to relying on scientific and technological innovation to create the original 5S extraction technology and the aroma-creating and aroma-retaining technology, and advocating the public to "eat less oil and intake quality oil" in order to bring down the total amount of edible oil consumed by Chinese consumers.
Oleic acid is called "safe fatty acid" by nutritionists. It is a monounsaturated Omega-9 fatty acid, which is often found in animals and plants, and is also the most abundant fatty acid in human adipose tissue. It has the effects of resisting oxidation, and reducing cholesterol and blood lipid, thus benefiting cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. To cultivate high-quality peanut varieties with high oleic, Luhua Group has set up a special agricultural science and technology promotion department, and carried out industry-university-research cooperation with domestic research institutes to conduct the introduction and breeding test, production demonstration and operation promotion of the sixth-generation peanut varieties.
In 2013, after many years of exploration, Luhua Group, together with relevant scientific research institutes, successfully cultivated and developed more than 10 new varieties of high oleic peanut such as Luhua 19, Huayu 963, Huayu 52, Huayu 661, which were officially launched and promoted. This marked the wide spread of high oleic peanut varieties in China. The yield per mu, oil content and oleic acid content of new varieties were 120%, 130% and 175% of those of ordinary peanuts respectively. In term of plumpness, yield and oil content, these varieties surpass those planted in the United States, Argentina and so on. In December 2017, the first home-made high oleic peanut oil product developed by Luhua Group was officially launched.
A long-term mechanism for poverty alleviation through industrialization
According to Sun Dongwei, enterprises engaged in agricultural industrialization shore up both farmers and the market at the same time. On the one hand, when high-quality products enter the market and are widely accepted by consumers, enterprises are able to purchase unprocessed peanuts from farmers at more appropriate prices, encourage more farmers to grow peanuts and promote the continuous increase of economic income. On the other hand, enterprises boast a strong ability to expand the market and resist risks, which can better guide the market demand to the upstream production end and continuously improve the market value of the supply and demand side.
In 2009, Luhua Group, together with the National Peanut Engineering Technology Research Center, Jiangnan University and 21 enterprises, jointly established the Strategic Alliance for Technological Innovation for China's Peanut Industry, which integrates and utilizes innovative resources to form an industrial technology innovation chain and continuously enhances the independent driving force of industrial upgrading, so as to ensure the strategic safety of edible oil in China and the fundamental interests of the vast number of peanut farmers.
"Industrialized development will help attract modern elements to transform traditional agriculture and realize modernization, expand agricultural functions and foster new growth points in rural development, and more importantly, enable farmers to share the dividends brought by it and obtain real benefits. With the rapid development and expansion of Luhua Group, it is no longer difficult for local farmers to sell peanuts. Not only has the planting area been expanded, but also the purchase price has been continuously raised." Sun said only the people get benefits can the group embrace a better tomorrow.
(Source: Official website of Luhua Group)
A single purchase
