Who is really troubled by the aging of farmers?
The key to resolving the problem of “who will farm the land tomorrow” is to make farming a respectable profession and agriculture an attractive undertaking and a promising industry
According to media reports, a chairman of a kiwifruit planting cooperative in Chongqing recently encountered the troubles of “elderly farmers.” This cooperative has transferred more than 800 mu of land, and the farmers it hires have an average age of over 65. Among the more than 30 “elderly farmers,” seven or eight have high blood pressure. The cooperative specially bought a blood pressure monitor and must measure the farmers' blood pressure before they go into the fields.
Why not hire strong laborers? This chairman said that rural labor is in short supply. In the past, workers were only scarce during busy farming seasons, but now people are scarce all year round. Young people in their twenties and thirties do not know how to farm and are unwilling to farm, most people in their forties and fifties work elsewhere, and those left to farm are all elderly people over 60.
The aging and advanced aging of the rural labor force has become a common phenomenon in China's countryside. Although new types of agricultural business entities have developed rapidly in recent years, most of those working in the fields are still elderly people. The fundamental reason young people are unwilling to farm is still that agriculture is not attractive enough. First, there is no “money prospect”: after toiling hard for a whole year, the income from one mu of land is not as much as a few days of odd jobs. Second, there is no “future”: being a farmer for a lifetime and farming for a lifetime, what is there to look forward to?
At present, China's economic development has entered a new normal, and the challenges facing national food security are unprecedented. The trouble of the aging of farmers is in fact the problem of “who will farm the land tomorrow.” The key to solving this problem is to make farming a respectable profession and agriculture an attractive undertaking and a promising industry. Guiding traditional farmers to transform into new-type professional farmers will become an important means of solving the shortage of rural labor in China.
To achieve this transformation, rural reform needs to continue to gain momentum. We need to deepen reform of the rural land system, further innovate methods of land transfer and large-scale operation, guide the standardized and orderly transfer of land management rights, and actively develop moderately large-scale operations in various forms. We need to actively and steadily advance reform of the rural collective property rights system, revitalize rural collective property rights, and give farmers more property rights. Reform measures such as the household registration system, equalization of public services, and new urbanization will all help narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, make the allocation of resources between urban and rural areas more balanced, and attract more young people to return home to start businesses.
To achieve this transformation, we must actively promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture into modern agriculture. Both the Central Rural Work Conference and Document No. 1 have proposed introducing modern industrial organization methods such as industrial chains and value chains into agriculture and promoting the integrated interaction of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. We must not only use mechanization, standardization, and informatization to transform traditional agriculture, but also look deeper and farther ahead, no longer limited to the primary industry. Primary processing, fine processing, sales, circulation, leisure and sightseeing…… the extended industrial chain can be subdivided into countless links and give rise to unlimited opportunities for added value. Agriculture has broad space and great potential.
To achieve this transformation, we must increase efforts to cultivate new types of agricultural business entities, especially new-type professional farmers. We need to create conditions for young, knowledgeable, skilled new-type professional farmers who understand management and can run businesses to grow. We need to create a favorable development environment for them, increase grain subsidies, provide technical support and professional training, and improve social management and the rural financial system so that they can stay in rural areas to develop with peace of mind. At the same time, we must formulate and improve relevant policies, create a social atmosphere that respects farming and farmers, attract more young college students and other young people interested in agriculture, provide corresponding social security and financial rewards, and guide them to find employment and start businesses in rural areas.