In late September, due to the residual circulation of Typhoon "Haikui", Meizhou in Guangdong Province experienced sustained heavy rainfall. Citrus orchards in Meixian District, Xingning City and other areas suffered severe waterlogging, with some orchards reaching a depth of 1.5 meters. Mature pomelos were soaked in water and faced the risk of rotting at any time. At a critical moment, the agricultural machinery department of Meizhou City urgently activated the agricultural emergency response, deploying 280 tractors from surrounding counties and forming 18 emergency drainage teams, which were dispatched to various disaster stricken towns and villages. A race against time of "grabbing and protecting fruits" quickly unfolded.
At the citrus planting base in Yanyang Town, Meixian District, farmer Chen Yongqiang's 10 acre honey pomelo orchard was completely flooded. Seeing that the ripe honey pomelos were about to be destroyed, he was so anxious that he turned around. Thanks to the people from the agricultural machinery station bringing tractors to help, otherwise my efforts this year would have been in vain! "Chen Yongqiang pointed to the tractor that was working. Both tractors on site are equipped with high-power water pumps, each capable of draining 300 cubic meters per hour, equivalent to the water volume of 120 standard bathtubs. The tractor, with its high chassis design, can travel freely in water up to 1 meter deep. Technicians extend the suction pipe of the water pump to the low-lying area of the orchard, and connect the drainage pipe to a drainage channel 50 meters away, forming an efficient drainage system. After 12 hours of continuous operation, all the accumulated water in Chen Yongqiang's orchard has been drained. Although some honey pomelos have slight signs of water immersion on the skin, they can still be sold normally through timely ventilation and drying, reducing losses by nearly 120000 yuan.
In addition to drainage, tractors also undertake the tasks of clearing silt and dredging channels. In Longtian Town, Xingning City, multiple tractors are pulling scrapers to concentrate and clean up the silt in the orchard to the roadside, avoiding soil compaction that affects the respiration of fruit tree roots; In Xiyang Town, Meijiang District, tractors also assist in cleaning up debris in irrigation channels to ensure smooth drainage and prevent secondary waterlogging. To accelerate the drainage progress, the emergency team implements a 24-hour shift system, and technicians carry maintenance tools with them to handle tractor malfunctions at any time. According to statistics from the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Meizhou City, a total of 280 tractors and 560 water pumps were used for emergency drainage, with a cumulative drainage of 1.2 million cubic meters. The drainage work for 250000 acres of orchards was completed, minimizing losses for farmers to the greatest extent possible. Local farmers have expressed that they used to only know that tractors could cultivate land and harvest crops, but they did not expect them to play such a significant role in disaster relief. In the future, they will pay more attention to the multifunctional application of agricultural machinery. This incident also made the agricultural machinery department realize that in the future, the emergency functions of tractors can be further optimized, such as installing emergency lighting, rescue traction devices, etc., to enhance the role of agricultural machinery in disaster prevention and reduction.
