The Import Development of Agricultural Machines in China: The Road to Boosting Agricultural Takeoff

In the journey of China's agriculture towards modernization, the import of agricultural machines plays a pivotal role. From the arduous beginning in the early days of the founding of New China to the introduction of diversified and intelligent high-end agricultural machines nowadays, imported agricultural machines have witnessed and promoted the great changes in China's agriculture.

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At the beginning of the founding of New China, everything was waiting to be rebuilt, and agricultural production was still in the stage dominated by traditional farming. At that time, the Chinese agricultural machinery industry had a weak foundation and could only produce a small amount of simple farm tools, which was difficult to meet the needs of large-scale agricultural development. In order to rapidly improve agricultural productivity, China began to cautiously import a small number of basic agricultural machines, such as tractors and seeders, from countries like the Soviet Union. For example, in the 1950s, under the background of friendly cooperation between China and the Soviet Union, China introduced a certain number of Soviet tractors. These huge steel beasts entered the fields and made great contributions to reclaiming wasteland and improving the efficiency of farming, initially allowing Chinese farmers to witness the power of mechanized agriculture.
In the new era of reform and opening up, with the opening of the country's door, the import of agricultural machines ushered in a new opportunity. On the one hand, the implementation of the household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output stimulated farmers' enthusiasm for production, and the demand for agricultural machinery surged. On the other hand, the improvement of the international trade environment enabled China to widely explore advanced agricultural machinery from developed countries such as those in Europe, America, and Japan. In the 1980s, combine harvesters became a popular category of imported products. According to statistics, the number of combine harvesters imported from abroad by China increased steadily every year during this period. They greatly shortened the crop harvesting cycle and reduced grain losses. Especially in the vast wheat fields in the north, imported combine harvesters worked efficiently like steel warriors, becoming a beautiful scenery during the harvest season. At the same time, irrigation equipment, small gardening machinery, and other products also entered the Chinese market successively, enriching the mechanized choices in various links of agricultural production and helping agriculture develop towards refinement and diversification.
With the upsurge of the global technological wave, since the 21st century, the import of agricultural machines in China has entered a stage of high-end intelligence. The concept of precision agriculture has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and the intelligent agricultural machinery supporting it has been highly favored. For example, agricultural machines equipped with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and sensors can adjust sowing, fertilization, and irrigation strategies in real time according to soil fertility and crop growth conditions, achieving precise control of agricultural production. In recent years, the high-end intelligent tractors imported by China from agricultural machinery powers such as Germany and the United States are not only powerful in horsepower but also have extremely high precision in the automatic driving function. They can operate according to the preset route in complex terrains, greatly reducing the labor intensity of farmers and improving the quality of work. The data shows that the annual average growth rate of the import value of intelligent agricultural machines in China has reached about 12% in the past five years, reflecting the strong demand for such high-tech equipment in the Chinese agricultural field.
Driven by the import of agricultural machines, the Chinese agricultural machinery industry has also developed vigorously. By introducing, digesting, and absorbing foreign advanced technologies, Chinese agricultural machinery has been continuously catching up in terms of quality and performance. Taking rice transplanters as an example, in the early days, China heavily relied on imports. Nowadays, Chinese rice transplanters have occupied a considerable market share and are even exported to Southeast Asia and other regions. This is a powerful manifestation of the "spillover effect" of imported agricultural machinery. The advanced concepts and technical standards they bring have prompted Chinese enterprises to innovate and strive forward, forming a virtuous cycle.
Of course, the road to the development of agricultural machine imports has not been smooth sailing. Problems such as trade barriers and technological monopolies occur from time to time. Some developed countries set high tariffs or restrict the export of key technologies to protect their Chinese agricultural machinery industries, which brings obstacles to China's import of high-end and urgently needed agricultural machinery. However, Chinese agricultural machinery enterprises and relevant departments actively respond and break through the difficulties through multiple channels such as independent research and development and international cooperation.
Looking to the future, with the development of China's agriculture towards higher quality and sustainability, the import of agricultural machines will continue to be optimized. On the one hand, the import of eco-friendly agricultural machinery will be focused on, such as new energy-driven plant protection drones, to reduce the pollution of traditional fuel agricultural machinery. On the other hand, centering on the needs of smart agriculture, more efforts will be made to introduce integrated equipment of software and hardware for agricultural big data analysis systems and intelligent farm management software, adding bricks and tiles to the full arrival of the Agriculture 4.0 era. With the help of imported agricultural machinery, China's agriculture is setting sail at full speed towards the vast world of modernization, constantly writing new chapters of development.