In the fields, cotton pickers are busy, cotton picking is a relatively tedious matter, every year at this stage, the agricultural reclamation company has to hire many workers.

With the production of labor, the rise of labor costs, such cotton picking costs will be higher and higher, in this case, in order to maintain the monopoly position of cotton planting, it can only be the political axe to take out the money to subsidize, otherwise the production cost is all dragged back by the labor cost, the price is naturally uncompetitive.

This year, East China Political Axe took out 10 million yuan for subsidies, because the temporary labor cost is not high, so the subsidy does not need too much, only a small subsidy.

The subsidy of the political axe allows this year's cotton to still be sold at a low price, so as to impact cotton planting in other countries.

As far as cotton planting is concerned, it was mainly concentrated in India, the United States, and South American countries in the past, and the cotton output in Europe and Tsarist Russia was not self-sufficient enough, and the cotton production area of Tsarist Russia was mainly in Kazakhstan in the later generations, which was in the west of Xinjiang Province, and the same climate as Xinjiang Province was very suitable for planting cotton.

Now that Europe is at war, cotton production has also been hit, and the demand for imports has increased greatly.

The cotton planting industry in the United States has picked up slightly this year, because last year the United States raised tariffs on cotton imports and raised import tariffs on textiles in an attempt to protect the cotton planting and textile industries in the United States.

At this time, the United States basically had nothing to export to China, and China was basically a net exporter at this time, and the demand for finished goods was very small, except for the strong demand for raw materials.

Under such circumstances, the United States does not have to fear retaliation from the East China political axe.

The U.S. has raised tariffs, and many of the East China political axe goods have no market in the U.S., and the U.S. has nothing to export to China.

Both sides are now very single, and the only thing that is not too single is the investment of both sides in each other's territory, but the investment effect of American capital is not as good as that of East China capital's investment in the United States.

However, the United States has produced those high-end brands, and the rest do not want to survive in the world, which is the world of Chinese textiles.

Chinese textiles have flooded the world, and the United States has lost its traditional textile market in South America, even if it is a world war in Europe.

The textile industry took the lead in breaking away from the post-world war-heavy period of profiteering and entered a normal stage, because the supply was increasing, the number of Chinese textile exports surged, and the profits naturally fell.

At the same time, in the sugar industry, China gained pricing power last year, and this year's sugar production has doubled compared to last year, and it has begun to violently impact the world sugar market, and the economy of traditional sugarcane-growing countries such as Cuba has also suffered a major impact.

In terms of light industry, in addition to the textile industry, other industries have also begun to move towards a world monopoly position, and the United States is constantly building tariff barriers.

At this time, the rise of the political axe in East China has aroused the vigilance of the United States, but tariff barriers also mean that American goods cannot be sold internationally, and can only survive behind closed doors.

The most important thing involved in this is the issue of employment, just like the East China political axe at this time to subsidize the cotton planting industry, the pursuit is not how much profit can be made, but to provide employment for the people, and impact the agriculture of other countries.

In order to cope with the U.S. tariff policy, Xia Jun chose to drill into the United States, increase investment in the United States, in order to earn capital in the United States, and then withdraw back to China.

At present, Xia Jun's behavior in trade is constantly expanding the trade balance, and most of the time he directly converts money into precious metals and ships it back to China.

After the First World War, you couldn't change it if you wanted to, and when the time came, you could buy gold, which was all gold after being taxed, which was very uneconomical.

When the autumn harvest is underway, the Ministry of Agriculture is nervously counting various data to prepare for next year's regulation.

At present, what East China political axe pursues is fine management, not to take small profits and do nothing, agricultural management is very important, not only conducive to the interests of the political axe, but also conducive to the interests of agriculture.

If there is no regulation, the market will be good this year, and if there will be more output next year, the market will be bad immediately, and the output will decrease the year after then, and the market will start to improve again...... The most hurtful thing for farmers is this rollercoaster market, and there is no such risk after regulation, because the output is relatively constant and within the controllable range, and when the market is out of control, the political axe will be subsidized.

This year, China's total agricultural output value is expected to be about 40 billion yuan, and the agricultural tax collected by the East China government has reached about 2 billion yuan.

Among them, aquaculture accounts for nearly two-fifths of the total, forestry and fishery also account for an increasing proportion, and the total output value of planting is one-third.

In particular, the export of aquaculture is much larger than the amount of grain exports.

The rapid development of agriculture has naturally led to the development of industry. Industries such as textiles and tanning have received a large amount of raw materials, benefiting far more than just these two industries.

Industries based on agriculture have basically achieved a clear competitive advantage in the international market.

Although this year's agricultural output value is high, the industrial output value has exceeded that of agriculture for the first time, and a large number of projects and strong export demand have brought the industry into a period of rapid development.

In particular, many of these projects are built with bonds, which is an act of advancing future commodities, but if this kind of advance is done well, it can obtain higher returns.

East China's industry and agriculture are very prosperous, and the construction industry is extremely busy, so the construction of those projects can pay off enough.

In the case of railways, every railway is now very busy, and some are even too busy, and the railways that were built in the first place have a very good rate of return at this time.

The rate of return on the highway is also good, although the highway does not charge tolls, but it brings great convenience to transportation and also drives the strong demand for cars.

At present, the biggest production task of the East China automobile factory is not export, but to supply the strong demand within the supply.

The cost of road transportation is not much higher than that of the railway at this time, because the fuel cost is low, and there is no toll, so the traffic is relatively smooth.

Many people take out loans to buy cars, which is also a kind of advance for the future, which not only brings a large number of orders to the car factory and creates many jobs, but also solves the problem of transportation, and solves the limitations of industry due to transportation.

The whole industry has entered a kind of cycle of mutual drive, internal consumption and external exports, making the factory extremely busy.

I have to say that this is a very good era, and the East China political axe has seized the opportunity of this world war, so that China has entered a period of rapid development.

Agricultural taxes are growing, industrial taxes are also growing, tariffs are soaring, and although there are fewer imports, there are more arms and other exports, and the export tax on such things is the highest, and the political axe must at least strip off half of the profits and sell them abroad.

At present, the East China political axe has completed the order of 800 million pounds from the Entente countries, and by the end of the year, it can complete at least 1 billion pounds, and the Central Powers have also completed 500 million pounds of trade.

In terms of unfinished orders, the Entente would have £300 million unfinished by the end of the year, and the Allies would have £50 million unfinished.

Xia Jun is very happy that this year's fiscal revenue is estimated to rise to 10 billion yuan, what a huge amount! All departments are probably going crazy.

At the time of the autumn harvest, the drip irrigation technology research conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture also yielded results.

Drip irrigation technology was invented by the Israelis, but this technology is actually not too difficult to develop, that is, water pipes, spouts, and irrigation control.

Under normal circumstances, cotton farmers are very tired of being responsible for 20 to 30 acres of land, but if drip irrigation technology is used, a cotton farmer can manage 80 to 120 acres of cotton fields.

Under drip irrigation conditions, the effective utilization rate of water is high, and the irrigation water moistens part of the soil surface, which can effectively reduce the ineffective evaporation of soil water. At the same time, drip irrigation only moistens the soil near the roots of the crop, and the soil moisture content in other areas is low, thus preventing the growth of weeds. The drip irrigation system does not generate surface runoff and is very water-efficient because it is easy to grasp the precise application depth.

After drip irrigation, the environmental humidity is low, the soil root permeability condition is good, by injecting fertilizer in the water, can provide enough water and nutrients, so that the soil moisture is in a stable and low suction state that can meet the requirements of crops, and the ground evaporation in the irrigation area is also small, so that the humidity in the protected area can be effectively controlled, so that the frequency of crop pests and diseases in the protected area is greatly reduced, and the amount of pesticide application is also reduced.

Because drip irrigation can supply water and fertilizer in a timely and appropriate amount, it can improve and improve the quality of agricultural products while increasing crop yields, so that the commodity rate of agricultural products in the protected area is greatly improved, the economic benefits are high, and the quality of crop products is improved.

Drip irrigation has strong adaptability to terrain and soil, because the dripper can work in a large working pressure range, and the outflow of the dripper is uniform, so drip irrigation is suitable for undulating terrain plots and different kinds of soil. At the same time, drip irrigation can also reduce the need for weeding and do not cause soil compaction on the ground.

Save water and labor, increase production and income. Because the water does not move in the air during irrigation, does not wet the foliage, and does not evaporate from the soil surface outside the effective moist area, the amount of water directly lost to evaporation is the least; It is easy to control the amount of water and does not cause surface runoff and deep soil leakage. Therefore, it can save 35%-75% of water compared with sprinkler irrigation. It has opened up a new way to realize water conservancy in mountainous areas where water sources are scarce and scarce. Because there is not enough water between the plants, weeds are not easy to grow, so the interference between crops and weeds competing for nutrients is greatly reduced, and the weeding labor is reduced. Yields can be increased because the root zone of crops can maintain optimal water supply and fertilizer supply.

Saving water, fertilizer, labor, increasing yield, and improving quality are the many advantages of drip irrigation, and the comprehensive benefits have been significantly improved.

The disadvantage is that the upfront investment will be high, and how to reduce costs is also a problem.

Another problem is that the vent will be often blocked, and the research team has two main ways to deal with this problem, one is to use simple equipment to filter the water, such as a filter screen, to ensure that there are no large particles of impurities in the water.

The second is to use a detachable nozzle, which can be removed for cleaning after the nozzle is blocked, although it will still be blocked, but as long as it is removed and cleaned.

The main point of reducing the cost is the price of water pipes, drip irrigation is very water-consuming, so this technology is very expensive at the beginning, does not have the practical value of large-scale promotion, and with the development of science and technology, the improvement of productivity, the cost of water pipes continues to decrease, and the cost of drip irrigation technology is reduced.

Therefore, this is a technology that needs to be continuously improved, or a technology that waits for large-scale scientific and technological development, and can only be used for the cultivation of luxury goods such as tea and flowers for the time being.

In terms of cotton, Xia Jun did not consider using drip irrigation for the time being, but chose to use sprinkler irrigation technology.

Sprinkler irrigation is suitable for almost all field crops except rice, as well as vegetables, fruit trees, etc. It is highly adapted to terrain, soil and other conditions. However, in the case of windy conditions, there will be problems such as uneven spraying and increased evaporation loss. Compared with surface irrigation, sprinkler irrigation for field crops can generally save 30%~50% of water and increase yield by 10%-30%. The biggest advantage is that farmland irrigation has changed from traditional manual operations to semi-mechanized, mechanized, and even automated operations, which has accelerated the process of agricultural modernization. However, in areas with strong winds and strong evaporation, they are susceptible to climatic conditions and sometimes difficult to exert their superior surnames, and the adaptation of them should be further analyzed for sprinkler irrigation in these areas.

In terms of sprinkler irrigation technology, the Ministry of Agriculture has developed several methods.

In the past, cotton planting was carried out by mobile sprinkler irrigation teams, which used cars to carry mobile water pipes to carry out mobile sprinkler irrigation on cotton fields.

This kind of mobile sprinkler irrigation technology is low and has low input costs, which is very suitable for agricultural reclamation companies that have little capital in previous years.

At present, the capital owned by the agricultural reclamation companies has increased considerably, and further reforms in the mode of production can be carried out.

The most unskilled is the fixed type, but the input cost is high, and 300 yuan per hectare needs to be invested to build a pipeline, which is equivalent to the benefit of one hectare of land for a year. The advantage is that it does not require any management and has a high degree of automation.

The second is semi-mobile pipeline sprinkler irrigation, the branch pipe can be moved, but more labor needs to be invested for management, and the branch pipe is easy to be damaged in the process of moving, the advantage is that the input is 50% ~ 70% less than the fixed type.

The third is the central pivot sprinkler, the branch pipe is supported on a bracket with a height of 2~3m, the total length can reach 400m, the bracket can walk by itself, one end of the branch pipe is fixed at the water source, and the whole branch pipe is around the center point, like a clockwise, irrigating while walking, you can use low-pressure sprinklers, and the irrigation quality is good. There is a high degree of automation. It is suitable for large areas of plains (or shallow hills), and it is required that there are no high obstacles (such as electric poles, trees, etc.) in the irrigation area. Its disadvantage is that it can only irrigate a circular area, and the corners should be refilled by other methods, and this technology was widely used in the United States in later generations.

At present, these three sprinkler irrigation methods have been developed, with the third kind of economic benefit is the highest, not only the input is much less than the fixed type, and the degree of automation is also high, as for the problem of corner irrigation, this is actually not a problem, it is possible to carry out agricultural reform, the farmland can be transformed into a shape suitable for irrigation, and where the irrigation can not be irrigated, you can also use a fixed pipeline, or simply do not plant.

After using sprinkler irrigation technology, it can reduce the labor input for the cultivation of cotton and other crops.

In addition, a large amount of labor is also required to be invested in cotton harvesting every year, so Xia Jun purchased the drawings of the automatic cotton picker.

This is a horizontal spindle picking self-propelled cotton picker, which is a project developed by John Deere Company in the United States after 1920, and after more than 90 years of research and development by the company, it finally developed a self-propelled six-row cotton picker with ultra-high efficiency.

The efficiency of this cotton picker is many times higher than that of the small cotton picker carried by a single person, but Xia Jun bought the kind of two-row cotton picker and carried it on a small tractor.

With the current state of technology, it is completely possible to manufacture this kind of cotton picker.

The picker is 80 times more efficient than manual picking, and nearly 30 times more efficient than a worker equipped with a small picker.

From now on, when the production line is made, by the time the cotton is harvested next year, it should be possible to manufacture a lot of this cotton picker, if it is not enough, Xia Jun can buy it directly from the exchange platform, or follow the previous picking method.

After adopting sprinkler irrigation, cotton picker and other technologies, the scale of labor input in cotton planting will be greatly reduced, the production cost will be reduced, and the efficiency will naturally be improved.

In order to further improve the efficiency of cotton, Xia Jun purchased a secondary high-yield cotton cultivation base.

The highest yield of secondary high-yield cotton can be achieved at 600 kg, and the yield can be maintained at more than 450 kg after the use of sprinkler irrigation technology. If the climate and management are effective, it is possible to produce 600 kilograms per mu. The current average yield per mu is around 400 kg.

In this way, the efficiency of cotton planting has improved, so there will be no need to subsidize cotton farmers next year.

In terms of cotton picking, Xia Jun also allocated special funds for research to make picking machines with higher efficiency and lower cost.

The Ministry of Agriculture has issued new cotton planting specifications, according to the parameters of the cotton picker, to make uniform regulations on cotton row spacing, so that machinery can be used for picking.

Drip irrigation technology is invested in cotton planting in Xinjiang Province, which is still a trial period, mainly to verify whether it meets the requirements of production costs.

Due to the lack of water in Xinjiang Province, drip irrigation technology is very much needed in Xinjiang Province.

Next year's agricultural production will enter a new period of reform, the main place of reform is irrigation, the Ministry of Agriculture will gradually eliminate the sprinkler irrigation group from the mainstream, and use it as an auxiliary irrigation means.

Sprinkler irrigation technology is not complicated, and it is suitable for almost all crops except rice, so it can be covered in many areas, which is also one of the main contents of next year's agricultural reform.

In recent years, East China has been carrying out agricultural reform, but the main focus is on the reform of mechanized farming, mainly on some areas that are not suitable for mechanized farming to carry out topographic rectification, and change to mechanized flat land.

With the beginning of China's autumn harvest, the agriculture of all countries in the world has also entered a cold winter period, and a large number of agricultural products have begun to pour into the international market, easily defeating the agricultural products of other countries.

In other countries, agriculture has entered a low period, and agricultural returns have decreased, and inputs have naturally decreased.

This is the same principle as industrial development, where countries with the upper hand tend to invest more in technological research because they have a base, while those who are at a disadvantage do not invest as much in research as those that have an advantage.

The same is true in agriculture, at this time the East China political axe is actively carrying out agricultural reform, and the phenomenon of reducing agricultural input has appeared in countries around the world.

Of course, there are also countries that have increased agricultural inputs in an attempt to recoup the decline in agriculture, but this is also clearly futile.

(To be continued)