湖南汉寿把秸秆“吃干榨尽” 综合利用率达96.5%Hanshou, Hunan, 'uses up and squeezes out' straw, achieving a comprehensive utilization rate of 96.5%

In mid-October, the first-season rice harvest in Zhoukou Town, Hanshou County, Changde City, Hunan Province was completed. After the harvesters had passed, rows of rice stubble were left in the fields; not far away, a baler moved along the stubble rows, rolling scattered straw into cylindrical bales. The previously troublesome 'ban on burning' is turning into a 'revenue booster' that farmers, enterprises, and village collectives all enjoy.

Wu Zhongfu, head of Hunan Longling Straw Comprehensive Utilization and Development Co., Ltd., stood on the field ridge and patted the straw bales on the trailer, saying that these bales will be sent to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan at the end of the month for breeders to use as bedding and silage. The company manages the transfer of over 7,000 mu of rice fields in Zhoukou Town; after being crushed and baled, the straw from first-season and early/late-season rice is sold externally, earning a net profit of over 100 yuan per ton. The storage coverage extends to four towns in the West Lake area of Hanshou County, with annual storage exceeding 30,000 tons, and seasonal employment brings more than 100 local people work opportunities right at their doorstep.

Wan Shanhai, the Party branch secretary of Taiping Village, Zhoukou Town, has been going to the fields before dawn these past few days. The village's "Village Broadcast" plays policies three times a day—morning, noon, and evening—and the town and village officials are surveying each household's land area and setting up ledgers. He spread out the ledger for the reporter: 800 mu (Chinese acres) of straw are supposed to be returned to the fields, and 200 mu have been completed; 1,115 mu of rapeseed stubble are being processed through crushing, stubble elimination, deep plowing, and returning to the field; sesame stalks, soybean shells, Xianglian shells, and field weeds are crushed on-site using mobile shredders and then transported away in bulk. He said that working with the people cannot rely on orders alone—it requires comprehensive service and showing them tangible benefits. After returning the rapeseed straw to the field, potassium and phosphorus are returned to the soil, and the town's agricultural economic station estimates that fertilizer use can be reduced by about 10% per mu, which is beneficial for improving soil compaction and for planting early and middle-season rice. For some low-lying, scattered plots that are inconvenient for mechanical harvesting, temporary storage points are set up, with dedicated personnel assigned for collection, shredding, and compression.

In Fuxing Village, Guantouzhui Town, the machines in the workshop of Hanshou County Xinfù Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Technology Development Co., Ltd. keep running continuously. In 2020, the company started using semi-feed harvesters to specially collect long grass—the high-quality long grass is sent to distilleries, selling for about 1,000 yuan per ton; ordinary grass bundles are sent to the workshop to make grass ropes and weave grass mats, with an annual output of more than 1,000 tons, selling for 600 to 800 yuan per ton. The grass ropes are shipped nationwide, used as securing and cushioning materials for ceramic transport; the grass mats are provided to local vegetable bases in the county, used as transport padding and insulation materials. The company leader, Zhang Zhiwang, held a bundle of grass rope and said, 'Don't underestimate this rope; it protects valuable goods.' The leftover short and broken grass is made into silage, with an annual output of about 20,000 tons, used for fattening cattle and sheep. Guantouzhui Town has gradually formed an integrated 'recycling—storage—processing—sales' model, turning grass that was once discarded at the edge of fields into stable, income-boosting orders.

On the production line of Canggang Town Shengqiang Rice Professional Cooperative, Hu Shengxiang, a national model worker in 2011 and an experienced grain farmer, was watching the grains being discharged. The straw is crushed and pressed into pellets, producing dark brown biomass pellets. "The calorific value is stable at 4,700 kcal per kilogram, with low smoke, suitable for rice drying boilers and industrial heating," said Hu Shengxiang, holding a handful of pellets, which were solid and carried the aroma of grass and wood. This year, the cooperative plans to process about 5,000 tons of crop straw, including rice and cotton, supplying the products to local drying equipment and boilers to replace loose coal. What used to be waste straw burned in a single fire has now become solid, burn-resistant energy pellets.

Mei Chenyu, Deputy Director of the Rural Energy Service Center of Hanshou County, reviewed the accounts: the county has 923,000 mu of arable land, with 1,983,000 mu of crops sown, mainly rice and rapeseed. In 2025, the county will produce 779,500 tons of straw, of which 560,800 tons can be collected, with rice straw accounting for 77.3%; the annual utilization of straw will be 541,200 tons, with a comprehensive utilization rate of 96.5%. Behind this is the full chain of the 'five transformations': fertilization, feed, fuel, base material, and raw material: returning to fertile soil, baling for external transfer, silage for livestock, pelleting for energy supply, braiding for ropes and mats. The county has 13 specialized operation entities and 37 storage and collection points.

In order to make the principle of 'able to be collected, transported, and used' practical, Hanshou County has recently launched the 'Three-Seven Work Method' — implementing about 30% of bundling and removal of mid-to-late rice straw from the field and 70% of straw crushed and returned to the field, with localized deep plowing or water decomposition; introducing new stubble eliminators and self-propelled balers, and providing operation and storage incentives to market entities for straw return and removal, using precise government subsidies to leverage the comprehensive utilization market of straw; establishing new standardized transfer centers and market entities, forming a closed loop of 'collection at township level, transfer at county level, and utilization in industrial parks.' Mei Chenyu said that this year, the goal is to achieve high-value utilization, making every straw stalk fully used through equipment upgrades. In Hanshou, straw is no longer a burden, but rather 'another harvest season' connected to farmland quality, livestock feed, clean energy, and farmers' employment.

[Source: Changde Daily]

[Editor: Xiao Neng]