How to Scientifically Cultivate New-Type Professional Farmers

New-type professional farmers are a new requirement of modern agricultural development in the new era, possessing special characteristics of the times and cultivation needs. The cultivation of new-type professional farmers is important foundational work for major grain-producing areas to advance the professionalization, scaling, and organization of grain production, and to ensure food security, food safety, ecological soundness, and social stability. As a key grain-producing area, Anhui Province fully emphasizes the development and innovation of new-type professional farmer cultivation work, and many outstanding highlights have emerged in the work, specifically manifested in the following aspects:

I. Advanced Concepts in Education and Training, with Closely Linked Stages

Since launching the pilot work of new-type professional farmer cultivation, the Anhui Provincial Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School has continuously explored and innovated in the construction of education and training systems, gradually forming a comprehensive supporting education and training system with academic education as the foundation, concept training as the guide, and science and technology training as the core. That is: academic education paired with agricultural training to ensure the effectiveness of education and training; concept training paired with industry training, while setting training courses according to the needs of the industrial chain, transforming previous specialized training into industry training, and focusing on key technologies and key links in agricultural development; theoretical training paired with practical training, simultaneously carrying out on-site practice, field inspections, and other projects, putting the content of "dual-teacher training" into practice.

II. Standardized and Rigorous Certification Procedures, with Practical and Scientific Standards

Certification management is an important means of cultivating new-type professional farmers, an important way to establish conditions and standards for the professionalization of modern farmers, safeguard the self-development of new-type professional farmers, and build a modern agricultural human resources platform. The two areas of Jieshou and Nanling in Anhui Province have formulated scientific and practical certification standards from four major aspects: basic requirements, production scale, output efficiency and income level, and demonstration and driving capacity, along with supporting standardized and rigorous certification procedures. They established expert review groups to review and evaluate the materials of applicants who had personally applied and initially passed township government examination and public notice, and went to the field for verification, providing expert group opinions, which were reported to a review committee formed by agricultural committee leaders for a second review. According to a voting system, those with a vote rate of above 60% were included in the scope of cultivation targets. After the responsible vice mayor listened to the report and approved the results, the candidates were publicly announced for 7 days on the government website, the agricultural committee website, and in the townships where the cultivation targets were located. After no objections, the final group of certified targets was confirmed, and the municipal government issued new-type professional farmer certificates.

III. Actively Supporting University Students in Agricultural Entrepreneurship

Influenced by China's agricultural traditions and conditions in rural areas, there has long been a practical problem for university students seeking employment in the agricultural field: "unable to go down, unable to stay, unable to flow." Anhui Province has actively explored and practiced in this regard, building a good industrial platform for university students to engage in agricultural entrepreneurship through means such as building industrial parks and major grain functional areas and constructing new agricultural management systems. Through two paths of practical training and active introduction, on the one hand, free secondary and tertiary education is provided to backbone farmers; on the other hand, a policy environment supporting university student agricultural entrepreneurship is built in areas such as priority certification, policy subsidies, land transfer, and financial loans, attracting university students to engage in agricultural entrepreneurship, building and elevating the structure and level of agricultural entities, and truly creating a modern agricultural career environment for high-level talent with "a good development environment, many substantive policies, and a low entry threshold."

IV. Fully Leveraging the Core Leading Role of Agricultural Broadcasting and Television Schools

As education and training institutions supervised by the government, agricultural broadcasting and television schools possess the public attribute of state-run education, are the main channel for broad-spectrum agricultural science and technology training and the main front for farmers' secondary vocational education, and are an important subject of new-type professional farmer education and training. Anhui Province leverages the core leading role of provincial, municipal, and county-level agricultural broadcasting and television schools, innovates ideas, carriers, and models for farmer education and training, actively carries out parallel and supporting work of vocational education and farmer training, cooperates with agricultural universities in running schools, integrates training resources such as the Sunshine Project farmer entrepreneurship training program and the "green" certificate program, scientifically sets course content, and supports industrialized teaching models, laying a good training foundation for adapting to the talent needs of major grain-producing areas. At the same time, agricultural broadcasting and television schools at all levels regularly hold exchange meetings and report meetings to summarize experience and jointly seek development.

V. Joint Efforts of Departments and United Personnel to Jointly Advance Cultivation Work Since the launch of China's pilot work on new-type professional farmer cultivation, due to factors such as inadequate publicity and outdated leadership concepts, the prominent problem has emerged of "farmer cultivation grasped by the agricultural committee, difficult to gain attention at the government level." In response, Anhui Province established the main principle for new-type professional farmer cultivation of "government-led, agricultural committee-hosted, agricultural broadcasting and television school-implemented," with the government taking the lead, all departments unifying their concepts, and elevating professional farmer cultivation work to a strategic height for joint promotion. At the same time, it created connecting points, linking professional farmer cultivation with the cultivation of business entities, strengthening the connection between new-type professional farmer cultivation and the work content and tangible interests of personnel from all sides, mobilizing the participation enthusiasm of various departments and personnel including agricultural committees, agricultural broadcasting and television schools, agricultural technology promotion centers, finance bureaus, and seed companies, providing a good organizational foundation and macro environment for new-type professional farmer cultivation, and fully advancing the smooth implementation of cultivation work.