Improving Farmers' Quality and Building a New Force of Farmers with All Efforts

Transforming the agricultural development model makes talent the key, as this is the endogenous driving force and fundamental guarantee for the transformation. To upgrade traditional agriculture and modernize agriculture, it is necessary to increase investment in human capital and substantially improve farmers' comprehensive abilities in production, operation and management. This is a matter of paramount importance for achieving agricultural modernization. Therefore, transforming the model must rely on scientific and technological innovation, on the drive of talent, and on giving agriculture the wings of science and technology, but in the final analysis it still depends on improving the quality of agricultural workers. To accomplish the tasks of expanding scale, adjusting structure, strengthening industry and achieving sustainability, and to implement sound policy designs well, it is still necessary to raise the quality of workers.

Transforming the model is an important measure for raising labor productivity, resource utilization efficiency, agricultural competitiveness and capacity for sustainable development, and it urgently requires a large number of high-quality workers to carry out production and operation. We must also clearly recognize that although improving quality is indeed the focus of transforming the model, it is even more a difficulty. Statistics show that the overall cultural and technical quality of China's agricultural workers is not high, with as many as 95% having only a junior high school education or below, and fewer than 10% having participated in specialized vocational skills training. For a long time, agriculture has had low returns, and farming is not as good as going out to work. The phenomenon has become widespread that the "post-70s" generation is unwilling to farm, the "post-80s" generation does not know how to farm, and the "post-90s" generation does not even talk about farming. The average age of the agricultural labor force is close to 50, and there is a severe shortage of composite and entrepreneurial talent with certain professional skills and management capabilities.

To achieve the grand goal of transforming the model and to eliminate worries about "who will farm the land" and "how to farm the land well," it is necessary to comprehensively improve the quality of agricultural workers and make every effort to build a contingent of new farmers who are cultured, understand technology, know how to operate and can lead others. It can be said that improving quality is where the fate of agriculture lies and is tied to the destiny of the nation; it is even a project of fundamental importance for a century. It is necessary both to generate talent internally and to bring talent in, both to plan for the long term and, even more, to grasp the present, and both for the government to give support and for society to provide backing. It is the foundation of the foundation for transforming the model and strengthening industry.

To improve the quality of agricultural workers, starting from within, it is necessary to strengthen farmer education and training and to achieve "education first, training always present." Education and training are the core content and important means of improving farmers' quality. It is necessary to strengthen training for large specialized households, family farm operators, leaders of farmer cooperatives, and managers of agricultural enterprises, so as to improve their scientific and cultural quality and their ability to demonstrate and lead. In terms of ways to improve quality, the approach should shift from school education to a combination of adult vocational education and practical skills training; in terms of improvement goals, it should shift from a single technology to comprehensive abilities such as operation and management and cultural quality. Through multiple channels, establish a lifelong education system for farmers suited to the needs of farmers' development and agricultural industry development, explore an education and training model of "segmented, practice-oriented and participatory" learning suited to the characteristics of adult learning and the laws of agricultural production, and improve agricultural workers' ability to use advanced science and technology and business concepts to transform traditional agriculture.

To improve the quality of agricultural workers, starting from the outside, it is necessary to encourage high-quality talent to return to farming and to promote the transformation of farmers from an "identity" to a "profession." Attracting high-quality talent to flow from cities to the countryside both eases the pressure on urban employment caused by the economic downturn and improves the quality of agricultural workers. Statistics show that since the beginning of this year, the number of migrant workers has tended toward zero growth, and an upsurge of returning home to start businesses is surging through the countryside. At the same time, under the policy incentives of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation," many educated and skilled university graduates and aspiring young people have also thrown themselves into the vast hot land of rural areas. These fresh blood supplies not only enrich the ranks of new farmers but also change people's single and stereotyped impression of farmers. They are no longer bent over the yellow earth with their backs to the sky, squatting at the door smoking dry tobacco; instead, they wear glasses, operate machines, use computers and discuss business. Although they are called farmers, can you say they are not doing the work of workers, not thinking like intellectuals, not maneuvering freely in the business arena? For example, blue-collar farmers (agricultural workers) who use their own professional skills to provide services such as plant protection and agricultural machinery in agricultural social service organizations; white-collar farmers (technical farmers) who use advanced agricultural production equipment and new technologies to "remotely control" agricultural production in science and technology parks and control rooms; and gold-collar farmers (boss farmers) who closely combine agriculture with the market to start businesses and become rich. It can be said that the emergence of these new farmers is both a process of farmers transforming from an "identity" to a "profession" and a process of improving the quality of agricultural workers.

To improve the quality of agricultural workers, from the perspective of social support, it is necessary to provide conditions, raise status, and make new farmers an enviable profession. Make full and good use of the policy incentive "baton" to guide more people of insight and aspiring young people to farm and invigorate agriculture and to start businesses and innovate. Focus on introducing a group of advanced models of new farmers starting businesses and becoming rich, and establish a social trend of taking agriculture as a profession, starting businesses in agriculture, finding farming honorable, and finding farming prosperous. Actively carry out selection and commendation activities for outstanding new farmers, give material and spiritual rewards to new farmers who have made outstanding contributions, continuously raise their social status, and publicize and promote various replicable and promotable new farmer training models.

New farmers, new hope. Giving full play to people's principal role and improving the quality of agricultural workers is a strategic task for transforming the model and promoting development. As promoters and beneficiaries of transforming the agricultural development model, new farmers will certainly inject new vitality into China's modern agricultural development!