Cultivating hundreds of millions of new-type professional farmers to solidify the foundation of modern agricultural development

Hundreds of millions of farmers go to the cities for employment, so who will till the vast fields? Entering the new century, with the massive transfer of the rural labor force, elderly farming, women's farming and primary-school-level farming have become a focus of attention for the Party and the state as well as all sectors of society. If farmers are not cultivated into highly qualified and highly skilled professional farmers, ensuring national food security and the quality and safety of agricultural products, and especially developing modern agriculture, will become empty talk. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "In rural economic and social development, in the final analysis, people are the key. Without people, without labor, there can be no food security, no modern agriculture, and no new socialist countryside construction, and the protection and inheritance of traditional farming culture will also be affected." This raised a major issue for modern agricultural development and also pointed out the essence of the question of "who will farm the land." Vigorously cultivating new-type professional farmers is the fundamental way to solve the problem of "who will farm the land and how to farm it well," is the foundational support for modern agricultural development, and is a major measure for deepening rural reform and building a new type of agricultural management system.

Cultivating new-type professional farmers means cultivating the present and future of modern agriculture. This year's Central Document No. 1 proposed developing new types of agricultural management entities such as specialized large households, family farms and specialized cooperative organizations. The most important and core element of new types of agricultural management entities is people; farmers are the core subjects in the new type of agricultural management system. Accelerating the construction of modern agriculture requires comprehensively improving the quality of laborers and effectively transforming the mode of agricultural development. In the future, the main entities engaged in China's agriculture will, in terms of organizational form, be leading enterprises, family farms, cooperatives and so on, and in terms of individual form, be new-type professional farmers. Therefore, cultivating new-type professional farmers means cultivating the basic constituent units and cells of all kinds of new types of management entities, and it will play an important subjective and foundational role in accelerating the building of a new type of agricultural management system that combines intensification, specialization, organization and socialization.

"A moderately prosperous society or not depends on the folks back home." Whether the folks back home can achieve moderate prosperity fundamentally depends on empowering them to achieve it and cultivating them into new-type professional farmers. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that for China to be prosperous, farmers must be prosperous; we must enrich farmers, improve farmers and support farmers. The 2012 Central Document No. 1 proposed for the first time that new-type professional farmers should be vigorously cultivated. The Ministry of Agriculture advanced the cultivation of new-type professional farmers as a major foundational project to enrich, improve and support farmers. In 2013, pilot work on cultivating new-type professional farmers was carried out in 100 counties. In 2014, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly launched the new-type professional farmer cultivation project, carrying out demonstrative cultivation in 300 counties, and selected 14 cities as well as Shaanxi Province and Shanxi Province for overall advancement, fully relying on the advantages of agricultural broadcasting and television schools at all levels nationwide, which have complete organizations, sound systems, broad coverage, close ties to the grassroots and rich experience, to accelerate exploration of cultivation methods and systems suited to different regions and different levels of economic development. Focusing on the "three-type coordinated" cultivation goals of the production and operation type, the professional skill type and the social service type, it actively builds a "trinity" new-type professional farmer cultivation system integrating education and training, certification management and policy support.

Strengthen education and training services to make farming professionalized. In accordance with the concept of "education first, training always available," focus on farmers engaged in farming, and carry out "segmented, practice-oriented, participatory" systematic training and regular follow-up services by category, level and industry, while increasing vocational education efforts. In April 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education jointly issued the "Training Program for New-Type Professional Farmers in Secondary Vocational Schools (Trial)," opening a new era of education in which secondary vocational education is open to adult farmers and accelerating the process of farmers becoming professionalized. Attaching equal importance to skills training and vocational education, it comprehensively improves farmers' qualities in terms of concepts, ideas, ethics, technology and capabilities, so that farmers can farm and farming becomes more professional.

Build public foundational platforms so that new-type professional farmers have a stage for development. First, the new-type professional farmer education and training platform. Establish and improve a "one main body, multiple participants" new-type professional farmer education and training system with national agricultural broadcasting and television schools as the main body and with agricultural vocational colleges, agricultural research and extension institutions, farmers' cooperatives and agriculture-related enterprises and other social resources as supplements. Accelerate the building of a "1+N+X" new-type professional farmer cultivation network in which one farmers' science and technology education and training center at the county level provides overall coordination, several (N) education and training institutions with agricultural broadcasting and television schools as the main body complement and share responsibilities, and a number (X) of on-site teaching bases (field schools) distributed along the agricultural industry chain extend coverage, enhancing the capacity to cultivate new-type professional farmers. Second, the new-type professional farmer education and training credit recognition platform. Establish a national new-type professional farmer education and training credit bank, promote the connection between vocational training and vocational education, advance mutual recognition and articulation of learning outcomes, and enhance the service capacity to support lifelong learning for new-type professional farmers. Third, the whole-process service smart platform for new-type professional farmers. Strengthen the integrated construction of aerial classrooms, fixed classrooms, mobile classrooms and field classrooms with agricultural broadcasting and television schools as the main body, comprehensively integrate the smart farmer cloud platform, carry out education and training, certification management and follow-up services, and enhance the informatized service level for new-type professional farmers. Fourth, the international exchange and cooperation platform for new-type professional farmer cultivation. Carry out international comparative research on new-type professional farmer cultivation, introduce new-type professional farmer cultivation models and high-quality teaching resources, establish bilateral and multilateral exchange and cooperation mechanisms for new-type professional farmer cultivation, and enhance the development capacity of the new-type professional farmer cultivation undertaking. Fifth, the new-type professional farmer development promotion platform. Run the China New-Type Professional Farmer website well, build the China New-Type Professional Farmer WeChat platform, hold the New-Type Professional Farmer Development Conference, promote interactive exchange, dialogue and cooperation and joint operations, and enhance new-type professional farmers' capacity for self-development.

"Let agricultural operations be profitable, let agriculture become a promising industry, let farmers become a respectable profession, and let rural areas become beautiful homes where people can live and work in peace and contentment" interprets the true vision of the future of agriculture and rural areas. China's agricultural modernization requires cultivating hundreds of millions of professional farmers. Implementing the new-type professional farmer cultivation project has started a powerful new engine for modern agricultural development. In the process of modernization, the new engine will lengthen agriculture's short leg, shore up rural areas' weak spots, not let rural areas fall behind, and let farmers build beautiful homes on the fields of hope!