Farmers in two villages of Qian’an County in China’s northeastern Jilin Province will benefit from 250 granaries built by both the government.
Cargill has also donated RMB200,000 (US$28,990.89) to help the villagers boost their income through better grain storage.
The granaries will also help farmers to solve the ‘ground-piled grain’ issue and better adapt to market-oriented environment since China’s adjustments of its corn reserve purchasing program this year.
The two villages that will receive the donations are Rangzi village and Xiazi Village, located in Qian’an Country in Songyuan City.
China started a project in 2009 to promote scientific grain storage.
Leveraging this program, Jilin Province has built 469,000 units of modular granaries, and more than 1.5 million farmers have also built homemade granaries that are off the ground to achieve cubic grain storage.
As a result, a number of cities and counties in Jilin Province have almost eliminated the ‘ground-piled grain’ issue.
However, this issue still exists in many other places and can result in a grain damage of 11.8% on average.
Cargill’s donation will help build scientifically-designed modular granaries to achieve cubic storing of grains and prevent mold growth on the grains, thus to increase grain quality and farmers’ income.
Based on the calculations, the new granaries could decrease grain damage notably to 3% compared to the ‘ground-piling’ method.
With these granaries, the farmers can also keep the grain in stock for a much longer time than the traditional ‘ground-piling’ method.
This way, they can hold the grain and sell it later at higher prices, giving them increased income.
This is especially important since they are facing a more market-oriented environment as China adjusts its corn reserve program this year.
Cargill started to cooperate with Jilin Provincial Grain Bureau to help local farmers build granaries in Jilin Province since last year.
In 2015, the company donated RMB200,000 and helped 150 households with safe and more efficient corn storage.
“This is the second year that we work with Cargill on the grain storage program,” Feng Xizhong, Deputy Director of Grain Storage Department of Jilin Grain Bureau.
“Last year, our cooperation has effectively helped reduce 150 households’ loss in Da’an County.”
“We are glad to see that Cargill is continuing its effort with this donation to another 250 households targeting the ‘ground-piled grain’ issue.”
