After a bumper harvest, farmers still face three worries

This year, grain production in Linyi County, Shandong Province, is encouraging. The average summer wheat yield per unit area was 584.7 kg, with a total output of 496,000 tons, achieving a "twelfth consecutive increase" in summer grain production. The autumn corn yield is expected to average 609.5 kg per unit area, with a total output of about 517,000 tons. Linyi County's total annual grain output is expected to exceed one million tons.

With such a bumper grain harvest, County Magistrate Lin Chunyuan is very happy, but he also has some worries.

In recent years, Linyi County has coordinated project funds, strengthened agricultural infrastructure construction, and carefully implemented projects such as small-scale irrigation and water conservancy and land consolidation. The county's high-standard farmland with guaranteed yields despite drought or excessive rain has reached 705,000 mu, and it has made great efforts to build a 500,000-mu high-standard demonstration area that is "irrigable in drought, drainable in floods, connected by roads, and linked by canals."

"Every project requires supporting funds from the county, and for the entire agricultural project investment, the county's supporting fund rate has reached 50%," Lin Chunyuan said. Last year, the vast majority of Linyi County's livelihood investment went to agriculture.

Linyi is a major agricultural county with little industry. Investing in agriculture benefits farmers, but for the locality it is a loss-making business. "The state's reward and subsidy for major agricultural counties is somewhat small. Last year, Linyi County received a reward of 20 million yuan, which works out to only 2 fen per mu of land," Lin Chunyuan said.

"If the state's reward were greater, our enthusiasm for growing grain would be higher," Lin Chunyuan said.

Seeing this year's drought, Lin Chunyuan has another worry. Nowadays, farmland in many places is being transferred to large grain growers. Large-scale operation is conducive to agricultural development, but special attention must be paid to avoiding increased risks.

"Everyone hopes for a good year, but it is impossible to have favorable weather every year. Once a disaster occurs, large grain growers will suffer heavy losses. With current agricultural insurance, even if a mu of land has a total crop failure, the compensation is only a little over 300 yuan. The transfer fee for a mu of land is about 1,000 yuan, and adding the costs of agricultural materials and machinery and equipment, insurance plays a relatively small role. I hope the protection provided by agricultural insurance will be strengthened," Lin Chunyuan said.

Lin Chunyuan's third worry is that some farmers now have low enthusiasm for investing in agriculture because the comparative returns from growing grain are relatively low. He suggests that for agriculture to develop sustainably, the returns from agricultural production should be raised through measures such as promoting technology and increasing investment, so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of farmers for growing grain.

The above problems are common and are difficult issues that need to be solved in the development of modern agriculture in our country.

At present, various localities are gradually increasing investment in agricultural production, consolidating the foundation for agricultural development. Many places are actively exploring effective measures for financial support for agriculture and benefits to farmers. Agricultural professional cooperatives, supply and marketing cooperatives, and others are taking the lead in piloting, playing a bridging role between farmers and financial institutions, and striving to solve the problem of farmers' financing difficulties. With the development of agriculture, farmers are obtaining more returns from the land. New agricultural business entities such as large grain growers, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives are constantly emerging, and the problem of "who will farm the land" will be effectively solved.