New farmers are the foundation of a new countryside, injecting new momentum into rural development

Immersed in the countryside, whenever the evening breeze carries the scent of rice and rushes to my face, the moving colors of dusk are always intoxicating. I often think that amid the great tide of urbanization, the beautiful scenery of the new countryside is as picturesque as a poem. If this resource can be well developed according to local conditions, it will not only retain modern people's nostalgia, but can also become a rich mine for increasing farmers' income, injecting new momentum into rural development.

Against the background of the objective existence of the urban-rural dual structure and the migration of population to cities, today's rural areas face complex changes. In some places, because of accelerating net population outflow, villages have gradually evolved into hollow villages, becoming a forgotten “Shangri-La”; in other places, people do not hesitate to sacrifice the environment and consume resources, eating “the food of future generations” in exchange for temporary economic benefits. “We want both mountains of gold and silver, and even more, green mountains and clear waters.” How can a balance be found between protecting the environment and achieving development?

Starting from actual conditions and combining new countryside construction with the development of rural tourism is undoubtedly a path worth exploring. However, as land transfer accelerates and new countryside construction moves deeper, new problems have also emerged. Awkward situations such as “new houses but no new village, a new village but no new appearance” and “new in the first year, old in the second year, dirty and messy in the third year” appear from time to time; in developing rural tourism, farmers' overall quality has also become a weak point. The more new countryside construction moves toward its inner substance, the more important the cultivation of new-type farmers becomes.

Looking back at history, since the policy of allocating land to households was implemented, farmers have long worked hard on their “one mu and three fen of land.” This provided a stable foundation for rural reform and development, and to a certain extent also fostered a smallholder mentality. After the agricultural tax was abolished, the state continued to increase investment in “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers,” greatly reducing the burden on farmers. At the same time, the mentality of “waiting, relying, and asking” among some people also quietly grew. On the other hand, “a thousand threads above, one needle below”: in the past, during the implementation of some policies down to rural areas, a small number of village and group cadres used crude and simple working methods, which triggered farmers' distrust and affected the implementation of the new development strategy. Measures such as land field consolidation and the “one large and four small” greening project were promoted in a “one-size-fits-all” manner, leaving “legacy issues” in some villages. These circumstances make it easy for some villagers to misunderstand new policies and new ideas, and even to develop resistance, believing that this reflects only the “government's view of performance” rather than the “village and group's view of development.”

⟦NL> Faced with such a development situation, as a university student village official, one must first have the courage to untie the knots in people's hearts and find the leverage to resolve problems; second, one must have the determination to cling to the mountain without letting go, and cultivate new-type farmers in combination with various projects. Taking Jifang Village as an example, by using rural tourism to promote new countryside construction, we accelerated the implementation of “central village construction” and the “rural clean sanitation project,” further innovated the operating mechanism of village-level work, consolidated the building of grassroots Party organizations, and opened up a “second front” in the building of mass organizations such as those for youth, women, and militia; focusing on the hot and difficult issues in increasing rural youth income and helping them become successful, we actively carried out practical technical training, information consulting, and outside study visits, emphasizing the effectiveness of guiding and assisting rural youth. At the same time, through multiple measures, we shared land dividends by means such as shares and franchising, cultivated more than 100 new-type farmers, and thereby drove the broad masses of villagers to become rich through industry and participate in village governance. In this way, not only were cadre-mass relations improved, but it also helped realize the internal transformation toward green development. In just two years, this little-known small village became a somewhat famous “Flower and Fruit Mountain” in the province, and it made me realize once again: only by grasping “people” can one grasp the key.

The movement of the great peng is not due to the lightness of a single feather; the speed of a fine steed is not due to the strength of one foot. If we handle the relationship between farmers and land well, attach importance to the project of cultivating modern new-type farmers, and arouse all villagers to join the great tide of rural reform and innovation, the tomorrow of China's villages will certainly be even better.