【活力中国调研行】玉米“跑”上马路 脐橙“飞”出峡江

CCTV.com reports (Xinwen Lianbo): From corn-processing workshops on the black soil to navel orange orchards in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, technology is redefining the value of agricultural products. How many times can the value of a kernel of corn multiply? How can an orange be given wings? Reporters visited workshops and rural hillsides in the two places in search of answers.

In a production workshop in Beilin, Suihua, corn is being processed into high-purity crystalline sugar. Interestingly, some of this sugar does not go into sugar jars, but instead becomes a raw material for new energy vehicle batteries, helping make the electrical current steadier and smoother. Who would have thought that a kernel of corn could ultimately “run” along the road?

Heilongjiang has ranked first nationwide in both corn acreage and output for many consecutive years. Building on the circulation of unprocessed grain, the question of how to extend the industrial chain and develop advanced processing so that a kernel of corn gains value at successive stages has long occupied local thinking. At the end of 2024, the Suihua–Harbin–Daqing–Qiqihar biomanufacturing cluster, jointly developed by the four cities of Suihua, Harbin, Daqing, and Qiqihar, was selected as a national advanced manufacturing cluster. The four cities have developed complementary operations and coordinated their respective roles. Starch slurry produced by one company can travel directly through enclosed pipes to a downstream starch sugar factory, with corn processed step by step so that it is truly “used to the last drop.” A total of 194 enterprises have formed an industrial chain cluster, with the industry’s overall output value exceeding 100 billion yuan.

Today, Heilongjiang’s corn industry has developed more than 30 high-end, advanced-processing products that rank among the world’s leading products, and its corn-based processed products are exported to more than 100 countries and regions.

While Heilongjiang is extracting every last bit of value from a kernel of corn through advanced processing, Zigui in Hubei is giving navel oranges wings and seeking greater efficiency in low-altitude airspace. Most of Zigui’s 400,000 mu of navel oranges grow on steep mountain slopes, where plots are scattered and mountain paths are rugged, and transport has long depended on people carrying the fruit on their backs. As workers have moved away and aging has intensified, traditional working methods have become costly and inefficient. Starting in 2022, local fruit farmers began trying drones to airlift navel oranges.

To turn the skills of individual drone pilots into standardized industry services, local authorities have built more than 100 drone takeoff and landing platforms and charging facilities, introduced county-level management rules for agricultural drones, refined standards for mountain operations, and included drone pilots in professional title evaluations for farmers, opening a path for local rural talent to advance.

Today, “Zigui Drone Pilots” has grown into a well-known local labor service brand. The county now has more than 2,700 licensed drone pilots, saving fruit farmers more than 200 million yuan in costs each year and creating a mutually reinforcing cycle in which the industry nurtures talent and talent helps the industry thrive.