Elderly Agriculture: The Semi-Farming Model of Left-Behind Elderly in Rural Areas
Convenient mechanical tillage and farmland management are the intrinsic needs of elderly agriculture
At present, the vast majority of rural areas across the country have already formed a household livelihood model of “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor.” This household livelihood model is called the labor force reproduction model or family reproduction model, which is to say that for an ordinary peasant family, the young children go to the city to work and do business, while the elderly parents stay in the village to farm. As a result, the source of peasant family income has changed from previously only farming income to the sum of two incomes: farming income plus wage income. Peasant family income has increased, while rural living costs are relatively low, so there is surplus money every year, life is relatively easy, and family reproduction can proceed smoothly.
Overall, the per-household cultivated land area in rural China is relatively small. When land was distributed to households, in order to achieve fairness, the land was generally divided into several grades, and then each grade was distributed equally according to the number of people, thus forming a smallholder management pattern in which the average cultivated land area of peasants is relatively small and the plots are also very scattered. When there was relatively little outbound work, the drawback of scattered plots was concealed by surplus labor and did not become a prominent problem. At that time, the focus of peasants' concern was the size of the managed area and the burden of agricultural taxes. After the abolition of agricultural taxes, as large numbers of rural laborers flowed out, the land of peasants who went to the city was transferred to relatives, friends, and neighbors for cultivation, further intensifying the accumulated drawback of scattered plots of cultivated land.
In other words, when peasants go to the city to work and do business and obtain wage income, the left-behind families retain agricultural income by having the elderly parents farm at home. But when elderly parents farm, the demand for convenient land cultivation becomes strong. How to merge scattered and fragmented small plots of cultivated land into large plots for contiguous management, thereby facilitating mechanical tillage and farmland management, has become an intrinsic need of elderly agriculture.
“Elderly Agriculture” Is Mainly Engaged in the Production of Bulk Agricultural Products and Self-Sufficient Agriculture
In the structure of “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor,” the reason why “semi-farming” is maintained is that the elderly parents in the family no longer have any advantage in going to the city to work and do business, have fewer employment opportunities, but still meet the conditions for engaging in agricultural production, and therefore stay in the village to farm. This kind of “semi-farming,” in which elderly family members stay in the village to farm, is different from “full farming” in agricultural management. They have no ambition for agricultural management, nor the enthusiasm and ability to connect with the market, and are only willing to grow grain and other bulk agricultural products. The reason is that the prices of bulk agricultural products are stable and their production techniques are mature, so both purchasing agricultural materials and selling products are relatively easy. In addition, they also produce for the purpose of self-sufficiency. Therefore, the issues they care about are mainly how to reduce labor input in the production process and facilitate field management, with particular attention to contiguous land management, because this can greatly facilitate machinery entering the fields, farmland irrigation, and field management.
In rural areas across the country, the “semi-farming” in the structure of “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor” mainly refers to engagement in the production of bulk agricultural products and self-sufficient agriculture, and generally does not include agriculture oriented toward market production. The “semi-farming” typified by “elderly agriculture” mainly grows grain, while also engaging in courtyard economy for self-sufficiency, and selling any surplus at local markets. By contrast, commercial farmers engaged in agricultural production for the market often must invest enormous funds, expand production scale as much as possible, and use labor most effectively to earn profits from the market. Such family management is a “full farming” structure that is greatly different from the “semi-work and semi-farming” structure existing in most peasant households across the country.
Simply put, commercial farmers engaged in production for the market are not within the “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor” structure in the general sense. And this kind of commercial farmer is precisely the so-called new type of agricultural management entity that current central policy strongly supports, mainly including family farms, large grain-growing households, and farmers' cooperatives, and also including other commercial farmers who produce for the market and earn money from the market, especially some households that grow cash crops but on a not-large management scale.
The “semi-farming” we discuss mainly refers to “elderly agriculture,” which grows bulk agricultural products on household contracted land and engages in self-sufficient courtyard economy in one's own courtyard. At present, nearly one quarter of China's cultivated land has undergone transfer, while another three quarters of cultivated land is still managed by ordinary peasant households, the vast majority of which belongs to this kind of “semi-farming.” Moreover, most of the nearly one quarter of cultivated land that has undergone transfer has also been transferred spontaneously among peasants, with only a small part transferred to so-called “new types of agricultural management entities.” Spontaneous land transfer among peasants may form moderate-scale management within villages. These moderate-scale management households may obtain income no lower than that from outbound work without having to go to the city to work. We call such households “middle peasants.”
From another perspective, about two thirds of China's cultivated land is currently used to grow grain, and the vast majority of this is grown on a small scale by peasant households, with few truly large grain-growing households. Because there is no need to face the market, there is no problem of connecting with the market, and small peasant households can all grow grain relatively easily. In addition to growing grain, there are also peasant households that grow cash crops but on a very small scale and with very small investment. Their main source of income does not rely on agriculture but on the young people in the family going to the city to work. These peasant households that grow cash crops for the market still belong to the “semi-farming” in the structure of “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor.”
Thus, at present the vast majority of China's cultivated land is cultivated by “semi-farmers” represented by “elderly agriculture,” while “full farming” commercial farmers cultivate only a rather limited portion of the country's cultivated land, far below the proportion of one quarter. Therefore, when the state formulates policies on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, including agricultural policy, it must consider the situation of “semi-farming” and cannot assume that all peasants are engaged in production for the market. What “semi-farmers” care about most is the contradiction between small peasant households and large-scale production, not the contradiction with the large market.
“Semi-Farming” Is Not Only Economic Activity, but Also Social and Cultural Reproduction
The “semi-farmers” represented by “elderly agriculture” grow bulk agricultural products and engage in self-sufficient production, and there is no problem of connecting with the market. They carry out agricultural production on their own contracted land, planting in spring and harvesting in autumn, somewhat busy during the busy farming season and somewhat free during the slack farming season. Between busy and slack farming periods, they carry out field management and engage in some side occupations. Their agricultural labor tasks are not full, employment is insufficient, and agricultural income is not high. Over the course of a year, the pattern of “three months farming, three months celebrating the New Year, and half a year leisure” unfolds rhythmically according to the seasons. What to do in which season is all arranged, while the time used for agricultural production, such as morning or evening, can also be freely arranged. In a certain sense, agriculture has become an activity interspersed within peasants' leisure. As long as mechanization can reduce labor input, farming is like growing flowers or exercising the body. And mutual aid among neighbors during busy farming seasons, and participation in the cycle of village social obligations during slack farming seasons, make “semi-farming” not only an economic activity, but also a process of social and cultural reproduction.
The young children have gone to the city to work and do business, while the elderly parents stay in the village to farm. Whether the farming income is more or less is related to whether the contracted land is more or less. When the cultivated land area cannot be expanded, agricultural production that unfolds with the seasons will leave a large amount of slack farming time, and field management outside the busy farming seasons is also a very easy matter. The seasonality of agriculture itself and the difficulty of supervising the agricultural production process make it naturally suited to family management. Middle-aged and elderly people who lack employment opportunities for outbound work engage in grain production not connected to the market, producing the highest output of agricultural products with the highest efficiency and obtaining the highest agricultural income on a given cultivated land area, while also being able to enjoy life during slack farming periods. This is one of their meaningful ways of life and also a part of the entire rhythm of production and life.
The Development of Agricultural Machinery, Agricultural Technology, and Agronomy Has Made Elderly Agriculture Fully Feasible
Although growing grain on one's own small contracted plots may involve only two or three months of labor input each year, which from an economic perspective seems like serious underemployment, viewed purely from the perspective of agriculture, because it must unfold with the seasons, agricultural labor necessarily has busy and slack periods. Current mechanization and other large-scale production technologies have greatly reduced the labor intensity during busy farming periods, but cannot shorten the cycle of crop production, especially grain production, so there is inevitably a relatively long slack farming period. This makes it impossible to achieve full employment in agricultural production, and thus makes middle-aged and elderly people already in a “semi-retired” state most suitable for engaging in agricultural production. They half produce and half rest, treating agricultural production as a means of leisure, and arrange their own time for production within the rhythm of the seasonal unfolding of agricultural production.
There is a key point here, namely the issue of the intensity of agricultural production itself. At present, China's agricultural mechanization is advancing extremely rapidly, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides have further reduced the physical labor of peasants in accumulating farmyard manure and hoeing weeds. The development of agricultural machinery, agricultural technology, and agronomy has greatly reduced the labor intensity of agricultural production, thereby making elderly agriculture fully feasible. This is precisely the reason for the existence of the nationwide general structure of “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor.”
Of course, as mentioned earlier, if through land adjustment small plots are merged into large plots so that peasant households can cultivate contiguous land, this can make peasants' agricultural production and field management more convenient, but there is still a lot of work to be done in this regard. And the “semi-farming” structure typified by “elderly agriculture” still requires strong village community organizations to coordinate common production affairs beyond individual households, in order to solve “affairs that are difficult for a single household to handle, cannot be handled well, and are not cost-effective to handle.”
In the structure of “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor,” middle-aged and elderly parents farm, and these farming parents will continue to age, so that one day they will no longer have production capacity and will withdraw from agricultural production, but they will still have enthusiasm and interest in engaging in courtyard economy. As long as they can move, they want to do something. This is no longer economic activity, but a way of keeping life full and interesting. In the village, even if they can no longer farm, there are still relatives and friends in the acquaintance society to visit, and there are still all kinds of things to worry about. They grow old day by day in this intimate coexistence between people and between people and nature. Finally, fallen leaves return to the roots, and they rest in peace in the soil.
When the middle-aged and elderly farming parents have grown old, the formerly young children have themselves become parents. If they have obtained income and employment in the city sufficient for a decent and settled life, they will settle down in the city, and may even bring the whole family to live in the city. If they fail in the city and cannot stay there or are unhappy there, they will return to the countryside in a semi-retired state to take over farming from their parents. Farming income is not much, intensity is not high, half production and half leisure; it is both economic production and social and cultural production, and also a process of rediscovering the meaning of life. They may continue to replicate a new “semi-work and semi-farming based on intergenerational division of labor” structure. With China's sustained economic growth, it is true that more and more peasant workers who go to the city will settle down decently in the city and no longer return to the countryside to engage in “semi-farming,” but at least in the next twenty years, some peasant workers who go to the city will still find it difficult to settle down decently in the city, and they may return to the countryside to continue their parents' “semi-farming.”