Cultivating New-Type Professional Farmers to Boost Modern Agricultural Development

At the end of 2013, the Central Rural Work Conference made overall arrangements for the cultivation of new-type professional farmers, and 2014 became a breakthrough year for this work. In the face of widespread public concern about "who will farm the land and how to farm it well" in rural areas in the future, farmers' education and training work proactively moved forward, targeting large specialized households, family farm operators, key members of farmers' cooperatives and agricultural successors as its main service recipients, vigorously cultivating new-type professional farmers, and exploring the establishment of a "trinity" cultivation system for new-type professional farmers comprising education and training, certification management and policy support.

First, the new-type professional farmer cultivation project was launched and implemented. With the support of the Ministry of Finance, the central government allocated 1.1 billion yuan in subsidy funds to launch and implement the new-type professional farmer cultivation project, selecting 2 entire provinces, 14 entire cities and 300 demonstration counties nationwide to carry out key demonstration cultivation, establishing and improving the training system, and demonstrating and driving cultivation work across the country. Second, farmers with secondary or higher vocational education qualifications were vigorously trained. To meet the needs of modern agricultural production and operation, the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the Ministry of Education, issued the "Implementation Plan for the Training of New-Type Professional Farmers in Secondary Vocational Schools," making institutional arrangements for farming farmers to receive secondary and higher vocational education, and safeguarding farmers' right to receive agriculture-related vocational education. Third, mechanisms and models for farmer education and training were explored and innovated. Cultivation targets were selected around leading and characteristic advantageous industries, focusing on new-type agricultural production and operation entities, with production and operation-oriented professional farmers as the main focus; greater emphasis was placed on the application of information technology, using cloud computing and big data technologies to achieve online training, mobile internet services, online technical consultation and tracking management and evaluation for cultivated farmers. Fourth, the construction of conditions and capacity for farmer education and training was strengthened. The construction of a multi-level, wide-coverage new-type professional farmer education and training system was accelerated, the integrated construction of air classrooms, field classrooms, mobile classrooms and the smart farmer cloud platform was promoted, the "Ministry of Agriculture New-Type Professional Farmer Mobile Classroom" construction project was implemented, and the supporting capacity for education and training was continuously strengthened.

At the same time, localities also strengthened guidance, increased investment, expanded the coverage of pilot demonstrations, explored and innovated working systems and mechanisms, and related policies for strengthening agriculture, benefiting farmers and enriching farmers were tilted toward new-type professional farmers. A contingent of new-type professional farmers who are educated, understand technology and know how to run businesses is rapidly taking shape. In 2014, the number of professional farmers cultivated in just the two provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi, which advanced as a whole, exceeded 100,000. According to preliminary statistics, the number of new-type professional farmers of various types cultivated nationwide is expected to exceed 1 million, and more and more new-type professional farmers are propping up the azure sky of modern agriculture.