Unpaid Wheat Spraying Bills Get Attention

A Chinese contractor complained about a deadbeat agricultural bureau's unpaid bills by posting a video showing a banner demanding payment. This item has attracted a lot of attention as it crystallizes the widespread phenomenon of unpaid bills at the grassroots level in China.

A still image from the video and an article explaining the dispute has been posted online this week showing a drone hoisting a banner with the message: "Shanghe County Agriculture Bureau: It’s been three years—pay up!" 

Drone displays a banner demanding payment from Shanghe County Agricultural Bureau.

The company displaying the banner is Shandong Junshen Hydrocarbon Biotechnology, Ltd. which won a government contract in May 2023 to spray the wheat crop in six townships of Shanghe County, on the outskirts of Jinan--the capital of China's Shandong Province. Every spring China conducts a nationwide spraying of the winter wheat crop called "one spray, three defenses" that douses wheat fields with a mixture of pesticides, fungicides, and foliar fertilizer. In past years the spraying was performed by teams of farmers marching through the fields carrying tanks on their backs and spraying the wheat manually. Now it is often performed by drones operated by contracted companies. In 2023 China's Finance Ministry distributed 1.6 billion yuan (about $235 million) to 22 provinces for wheat spraying. Funds are distributed from provincial finance departments to counties. Shandong Province announced that 608 million yuan ($90 million) was disbursed to local authorities in 2023 to spray the wheat crop, including an emergency program to prevent wheat stripe rust.

A representative from Shandong Junshen company told a reporter that the company received a contract from the Shanghe agricultural bureau worth 3.685 million yuan in 2023. The company said they finished the work in 7 days but payment has consistently been delayed. He said only 270,000 yuan was paid initially and a 2.8 million yuan balance remains after a December 2024 agreement called for installments to be paid by January 2026. The representative said some of the company's workers face financial hardships, and the delay of payment has disrupted the company's business.

A reporter claimed that the agricultural bureau denied detailed knowledge of the matter. Later an official from the bureau told the reporter that an agreement is under negotiation.

With this month's wheat harvest approaching, many localities have posted notices about their wheat spraying activity. 

Banners like this are more common featuring local government support for a company's spraying of wheat in Henan Province earlier this month. Source: Henan Economy Net.

A local official in Henan poses for a photo filling a drone with chemicals to be sprayed on wheat fields.

Drones spray wheat fields with pesticide, fungicide and fertilizer.