Guangxi Tianyuan: Integrated Farming Services to Help Transform and Upgrade China's Agriculture

Editor's Note: "With the size expansion of the individual farms in China's farming industry, a transformation to links shortened and functions integrated is taking place in China's agri-inputs sector. The channel operators should shift from direct selling products to product sales driven by labor services", said Li Weiguo, President of Guangxi Tianyuan Biochemistry Co., Ltd., recently in an interview with AgroPages.

Guangxi Tianyuan Biochemistry Co., Ltd. (Guangxi Tianyan for short), a long-established pesticide company with a history of more than 20 years, is constantly practicing its development concept of "integrated agricultural services". Under the guidance of this concept, the company has achieved good performance in the field of use of UAV plant protection. Guangxi Tianyuan is changing the development model of China's agriculture by virtue of its own strength and influence.

Q1. Could you please introduce the positioning and development model of Guangxi Tianyuan and your achievements in recent years?
 
Guangxi Tianyuan positions itself as an assistant to integrated farming services providers, rather than as an integrated farming services provider. In our opinion, the main players engaged in integrated farming services in the future should be the platform providers in counties and their cooperative farming services managers. Based on this concept, Guangxi Tianyuan has been, in recent years, vigorously supporting agri-inputs wholesalers who have cooperated with us for many years or those who have never done business with us but agree with the concept of farming services. By providing these wholesalers with highly effective pesticides, pesticide application equipment and such other highly efficient agricultural machinery as sugarcane harvesting machines and mobile dryers, Guangxi Tianyuan supports them in the transformation to plant protection and integrated farming services providers.

For supporting the transformation of agri-inputs channel operators, the use of UAV plant protection is only one of the means. China has diverse terrain and crops. Besides the provision of drones, we also provide our partners with various types of highly efficient plant protection techniques, such as backpack, airborne devices and manned aircrafts suitable for large-area, low-cost operations. By the end of August 2018, we have supported more than 400 county-level platform operators and more than 3,000 village-level pesticide spraying teams throughout the country, serving the protection operations for nearly 10 million Mu (0.667 Ha) of crops.

Integrated farming services will build the organizational support for cost saving, efficiency increasing of agriculture and for the promotion of advanced agricultural technologies, contributing to modernizing China's agriculture.

Q2. Could you please introduce some of the formulations for drone spraying launched by Guangxi Tianyuan? How does the company combine products and services properly?

Guangxi Tianyuan started the research and development of formulations for drone plant protection (ULV formulation) in 2008. Since the initial registration in 2011, Guangxi Tianyuan has registered 14 products covering the whole process of rice and wheat pest and disease control and sugar content increase from sugarcane, including the Chlorantraniliprole licensed by DuPont (now acquired by FMC). The newly registered sugarcane sugar content booster will be released on the market this year. Guangxi Tianyuan has applied for more than 100 invention patents in the field of drone plant protection, of which more than 80 patents are granted.

ULV formulations are used at high concentrations and fine mist droplets, requiring excellent product safety, anti-drifting and anti-evaporation properties, which are the important features distinguishing ULV formulations from traditional ones.

A large-scale plant protection service must be supported by highly efficient low-volume and ultra-low-volume concentration pesticide application equipment, which in turn, requires compatible formulations to safeguard its normal operation.  Just as the historical law of productive forces determining the relations of production, the operation of farming services pattern needs the support of highly efficient plant protection equipment and pesticide products.

Q3. Could you please tell readers what problems the company has encountered during the implementation of “integrated farming services”? How to solve it?

To implement integrated farming services and business transformation, the most difficult is to change the thinking and behavior patterns of channel operators and employees. To tackle this dilemma, it is necessary to supplement new talents to the company and find new channel operators with the concept of farming services.

Q4. How do you think about the current agri-inputs sector in China? What is the direction of future transformation and reform? What new layouts and plans will Guangxi Tianyuan have in this process?

With the size expansion of the individual farms in China's farming industry, a transformation to links shortened and functions integrated is taking place in China's agri-inputs sector. The channel operators should shift from direct selling products to product sales driven by labor services.

In response to this transformation, Guangxi Tianyuan needs to be equipped with new capabilities to serve plant protection and farming service providers. Therefore, Guangxi Tianyuan should do pesticide business at a higher perspective. In addition to continuing the existing formulation business, we will focus on innovating products and technologies in the industrial field where crossover area exists between pesticides and agricultural machinery, pesticides and fertilizers, and pesticides and seeds, so that we can provide more competitive products and technical support to integrated farming services providers.