What new changes do agricultural innovations bring to people's daily lives?

Online fresh food sales are booming; professional farmers go to school to learn marketing; soybeans and cotton "test the waters" of target prices; treating mountains and rivers to leave a good field for future generations... Since the beginning of this year, new changes have quietly taken place in China's agricultural sector, consumer demand has become more diverse, and agriculture is "embracing" the internet, striving to improve the agricultural ecological environment. Agricultural innovations have brought new changes to people's daily lives.

Farmers "Going Online": "6 mu of peaches sold for 10,000 yuan more"

"Still going to the supermarket to buy grain and oil? That's just so outdated." says Xiaolin, a post-80s white-collar worker living in southern Beijing. Nowadays, he buys fresh food, grain and oil online. There are frequent promotions, prices are cheap, and delivery is included. "American cherries, Thai durian, New Zealand oysters... With the internet, my family's dinner table follows the world's seasons."

In recent years, agricultural e-commerce has developed rapidly. Taobao, Womai, Yihaodian, JD.com, Benlai Life, Tuotuo Gongshe... Currently, there are more than 3,000 agricultural product e-commerce platforms nationwide, and in 2013 the transaction volume of agricultural product e-commerce exceeded 50 billion yuan.

"I've been growing honey peaches for decades. In the past, I sold them at the field to small traders, or took them to nearby markets. This year the county opened an online store to help sell them. Not only do I not have to worry about traders driving down prices, but the sales channels are also broader. My 6 mu of peaches brought in more than 10,000 yuan more than in previous years!" says Liu Heman, a farmer from Maoping Village, Yedian Town, Mengyin County, Shandong Province, happily.

Yang Na, director of the Informatization Promotion Division of the Market Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, says that the development of agricultural product e-commerce helps reduce circulation links, enables urban residents to buy high-quality, low-priced agricultural products, and helps farmers increase income. But it also imposes new requirements on cold-chain preservation and logistics distribution, and related supporting facilities should be improved in the future.

Certified Professional Farmers: "Trained Experts" Farm Better

"These fruits were pre-ordered before they even bloomed, so there's no problem of unsellable produce." says Wang Fei, a post-80s farmer in Xiayi County, Henan Province. A month ago, his late-autumn yellow pears had a bumper harvest. Wang Fei is a new-type professional farmer certified and issued a certificate by Xiayi County, Henan Province. He not only has good agricultural skills but also understands marketing. Through land transfer, he rented a total of 110 mu of land.

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture have jointly issued a document, opening the doors of secondary vocational schools to farmers at large, enrolling large-scale specialized households, family farm operators, heads of farmers' cooperatives, rural brokers, and others. Farmers can choose from five majors: crop cultivation, livestock and poultry breeding, aquaculture, agricultural engineering, and economic management, and complete their studies in stages through methods such as half-farming, half-studying.

It is understood that this year the Ministry of Agriculture held training courses and launched the new-type professional farmer cultivation project, with the central government arranging 1.1 billion yuan in farmer training subsidy funds.

Experts point out that vigorously cultivating new-type professional farmers is the fundamental way to solve "who will farm the land and how to farm it." By strengthening education and training, certification management and policy support, and vigorously promoting farmer field schools and the model of bringing education to villages, it helps professional farmers make use of modernization and informatization achievements and promotes industry quality improvement and efficiency enhancement.

Soybean Farmers: "The Target Price Gives Us a Safety Net"

"Our village is far from the state grain reserve depot. In the past, when selling soybeans, even if we got to the depot we still had to wait in long lines, and we couldn't get a good price, so every year we had to sell to traders. For the past two or three years, the price has never exceeded 2.3 yuan per jin. This year the announced target price is 2.4 yuan, giving us a safety net. We no longer have to wait at home for the price to rise!" says Li Douhong, a soybean farmer from Sandaogiao Village, Woniuhe Town, Zhalantun City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

For many years, the minimum purchase price and temporary storage systems objectively caused problems such as domestic prices remaining continuously higher than international prices and increased imports. Since the beginning of this year, China has abolished the temporary storage policies for cotton and soybeans and launched pilot target price subsidy programs for cotton in Xinjiang and soybeans in the three northeastern provinces and Inner Mongolia. On the premise of ensuring farmers receive income, the state sets an expected price based on planting costs. If the market price is lower than the target price, farmers are subsidized based on the difference; if the market price is higher than the target price, no subsidy is paid.

Cheng Guoqiang, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, says that implementing the target price system helps let prices be formed entirely by market supply and demand. On the basis of summing up experience, the minimum purchase price policy for wheat and rice should gradually be replaced by target price subsidies, and the target price system should gradually be applied to important agricultural products such as corn, rapeseed, and sugar.

Grassroots Agricultural Officials: "Leave a Good Field for Our Descendants"

At Ruili Plastics Technology Co., Ltd. in Huan County, Qingyang City, Gansu Province, large amounts of waste plastic film enter a crusher via a conveyor belt, then after washing and kneading, crushing and spin-drying, are conveyed to a high-temperature melting box to become liquid, and after cold quenching, the waste plastic film "transforms" into building material raw material. To encourage farmers to recycle waste plastic film, the company purchases it at 300 yuan per ton, and with support from the Gansu Provincial Agricultural Ecological Environment Protection Management Station, rewards farmers an additional 200 yuan per ton.

"We currently implement plastic film recycling demonstration projects in 5 counties and districts, with a recycling rate reaching over 85 percent. We hope to explore a way to fundamentally solve 'white pollution' and leave a good field for our descendants." says Xu Shude, director of the Dingxi City Agriculture Bureau.

Since the beginning of this year, China has focused on improving the rural ecological environment. It has implemented comprehensive treatment for the restoration of heavy metal-contaminated farmland. For more heavily contaminated farmland, rice is no longer planted, and cotton, mulberry for sericulture, and other crops are planted instead. It also focuses on controlling the application amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and implements planting structure adjustments in areas with groundwater overexploitation.

It is understood that in the future China will increase financial support for the "rest and recuperation" of farmland, rivers, and lakes. In comprehensive agricultural development, measures of "protect, adjust, convert, retire, reduce, and advance" will be adopted according to local conditions to promote sustainable agricultural development.