Want to become a new-type professional farmer? Learn these things first

Wang Fei, 33 years old, is a new-type professional farmer in Xumazhuang Village, Liudianji Township, Xiayi County. Last year he was also named one of the county's “top ten new-type professional farmers,” which allows him to enjoy more preferential policies on a priority basis. In 2012 he returned to his hometown and rented more than 100 mu of land, built a family farm, and grew greenhouse vegetables, fruit trees and grain crops. He said: “There is work to do and money to be made all year round, and life is no worse than that of city people.”

Xiayi County is one of the 30 national-level pilot counties in our province for cultivating new-type professional farmers. This year it will train 950 new-type professional farmers. Since classes began on May 27, it has already trained 160 students in three specialties: wheat production, protected vegetables, and edible fungi.

Our province has allocated 96 million yuan this year for training new-type professional farmers, and plans to train 58,500 new-type professional farmers of various types. Among them, each national-level pilot county will cultivate and certify 500 to 1,000, and each provincial-level pilot county will cultivate and certify 300 to 500 new-type professional farmers.

What benefits are there to being a new-type professional farmer?

Because the main task of cultivating new-type professional farmers is undertaken by county-level governments, the specific rules vary from place to place.

For example, Xiayi County stipulates that the free policies new-type professional farmers enjoy include: technical training, obtaining scientific and technological materials, assessment and certification of new-type professional farmers, obtaining various kinds of scientific and technological information and market information, vegetable production technical consultation and guidance, soil testing and formulated fertilization services, agricultural product quality and safety testing services, and promotion of agricultural products; reward policies include: a reward of 100 yuan per person for obtaining a new-type professional farmer certificate, rewards for new-type professional farmer pacesetters, rewards for industry leaders, rewards for skilled producers, rewards for famous and excellent brands, and rewards for large-scale production; priority policies include: enjoying the state's preferential agricultural policies, applying to undertake agriculture-related projects, access to financial credit, enjoying expert technical guidance and services, enjoying higher levels of protection in social security, medical security, agricultural insurance, old-age security and other areas, obtaining new technologies, new varieties and new information, contracting land, business sites and machinery and equipment contracted out by the state or collectives, applying for promotion to a higher-level professional technical title for farmers and certification as rural practical talent, applying for provincial and municipal demonstration specialized cooperatives and handling agricultural input business licenses, and participating in the selection and appointment of village and group cadres and the selection of advanced individuals.

How do you sign up?

According to policy, the main work of cultivating and certifying new-type professional farmers is the responsibility of the agricultural departments of county-level governments. The registration procedure is generally: first sign up in your village or group, the village or group reports the list to the township for review, and the township then submits the list to the county leading group for new-type professional farmers for review and public announcement.

What are the requirements for signing up?

Production-and-operation-type new-type professional farmers mainly include large specialized households, family farm owners, and key members of farmers' cooperatives; professional-skills-type new-type professional farmers include agricultural laborers who work long-term and steadily in new-type agricultural operating entities such as agricultural enterprises, farmers' cooperatives, and family farms; social-service-type new-type professional farmers include agricultural social service personnel who have long been engaged in pre-production, mid-production and post-production agricultural services, such as agricultural machinery service personnel, unified prevention and control plant protection workers, village-level animal epidemic prevention workers, rural information workers, rural brokers, land arbitration mediators, and soil testing and formulated fertilization workers. Our province also includes returning entrepreneurial farmers and demobilized veterans in the target group for cultivating new-type professional farmers.

In principle, the age of those being cultivated must not exceed 55.

What methods are used for the training?

A “segmented, practice-oriented, participatory” training model is used. Courses are arranged in stages according to the agricultural production cycle and farming seasons, and training is carried out by category and by industry for the production-and-operation type, professional-skills type and social-service type.

Emphasis is placed on practical skills operation, and training models such as farmer field schools and sending teaching to the countryside are promoted. At the same time, modern and information-based means are fully used to carry out online education and training, mobile internet services, online information technology consultation, whole-process tracking management and assessment and evaluation, and to open online classrooms for new-type professional farmers.

New-type professional farmers

New-type professional farmers refer to modern agricultural practitioners who take agriculture as their profession, have certain professional skills, and whose income mainly comes from agriculture. They mainly include production-and-operation-type, professional-skills-type and social-service-type professional farmers.

Production-and-operation-type professional farmers refer to agricultural laborers who take agriculture as their profession, possess certain resources, have certain professional skills, have a certain ability to invest funds, and whose income mainly comes from agriculture. They are mainly large specialized households, family farm owners, leaders of farmers' cooperatives, and so on.

Professional-skills-type professional farmers refer to agricultural laborers who fairly steadily engage in agricultural labor in new-type production and operation entities such as farmers' cooperatives, family farms, large specialized households, and agricultural enterprises, and take this as their main source of income, and who have certain professional skills. They are mainly agricultural workers, agricultural employees, and so on.

Social-service-type professional farmers refer to agricultural social service personnel who, in socialized service organizations or as individuals, directly engage in pre-production, mid-production and post-production agricultural services, take this as their main source of income, and have corresponding service capabilities. They are mainly agricultural social service personnel such as rural information workers, rural brokers, agricultural machinery service personnel, unified prevention and control plant protection workers, and village-level animal epidemic prevention workers.