Farm Managers: New Hope for China's Grain Production, Achieving Mutual Benefit and Win-Win for All Parties
According to media reports: It is already the spring plowing season, and Sang Jijun, a villager from San'er Village, Pingchuan Town, Linze County, Gansu, is busy in the fields directing a tractor plowing the land. Unlike before, he is now a salaried “farm manager”. In 2010, Linze County promoted land transfer, and a local seed company called Origen contracted 5300 mu of land in San'er Village, Pingchuan Town. That same year, Sang Jijun transferred out his family's 18 mu of land at a price of 1160 yuan per mu. Just as he was preparing to leave home to seek another way forward, the head of this company came to his door, wanting to hand over the 23 mu of land contracted by the company to Sang Jijun to manage. Just like that, Sang Jijun, who had farmed all his life, became the company's “farm manager”. “The land rent is more than 20,000 yuan a year, and the management fee from the company is 15,000 yuan a year. At the end of the year I net more than 30,000 yuan. This is better than farming!” Sang Jijun counted on his fingers: “Seeds and fertilizer are all uniformly delivered by the company. Watering and plowing are also paid for by the company. I just sow, tend, and harvest according to the seasons. During harvest season, when a lot of labor is needed, the company also pays to hire workers. Things I used to worry about, like prices and sales, are no longer my concern.” Origen Company contracted 15,000 mu of land in Linze County. This land was divided into more than 500 small farms of various sizes, all of which hired farmers skilled in growing seed corn to manage and operate them. Because the risk is borne by the enterprise, hundreds of local farmers who transferred their land are willing to serve as the company's “farm managers”.
“The emergence of “farm managers” is not simply a change in the identity of farmers from generation to generation, but signifies a deep transformation in our country's mode of agricultural production. This transformation has brought new hope for our country's grain production.
In a certain sense, our country's grain problem is not a problem of production, but a problem of circulation. The fundamental point is that grain prices are relatively low, farmers' returns from producing grain are low, and this dampens enthusiasm for production. Although the state began implementing the minimum grain purchase price policy in 2004 and has raised the minimum grain purchase price year after year in recent years, the rigid rise in the prices of means of production and labor has led to returns from growing grain remaining relatively low. In pursuit of higher economic returns, many farmers adjusted their planting structure and grew crops with good economic returns; combined with factors such as the large outflow of rural labor, a large amount of grain farmland was left uncultivated. If we rely solely on the traditional household-by-household mode of grain production, it is bound to cause a shrinkage of our country's grain production. With the emergence of “farm managers”, this situation will be changed.
“Farm managers” have achieved the combination of capital and advanced productive forces
China, which has already entered the world's second-largest economy, has enormous capital in society constantly looking for investment directions. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made developing agricultural production, especially grain production, a top priority. The No. 1 document of 2013, the “Several Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating the Development of Modern Agriculture and Further Enhancing the Vitality of Rural Development”, pointed out: “In accordance with the requirements of scaled, specialized, and standardized development, guide farming households to adopt advanced and applicable technologies and modern production factors, and accelerate the transformation of agricultural production and operation methods. Create a favorable policy and legal environment, adopt various methods such as rewards and subsidies, and support joint-household operations, specialized large households, and family farms”.
Although capital from various sectors of society is strong in strength, many of them are non-agricultural capital and are not familiar with agricultural production, especially grain production. Factors such as the technical and seasonal nature of grain production are little understood or even not understood by many kinds of social capital. To enable this capital to play an effective role, it must be combined with the most active factor in grain production and advanced labor productivity——labor.
The agricultural producers capable of serving as “farm managers” have accumulated quite rich labor experience over years and years of agricultural production. Relying on traditions passed down from generation to generation and constantly learning advanced scientific farming techniques, they have become skilled producers. However, their innate shortcoming is that the cultivated land they contracted is too little. At the same time, they do not have much savings, cannot transfer in and expand contracted cultivated land area, and are even less able to increase production inputs. When small-scale grain cultivation does not yield the expected profit, in order to support their families, they have no choice but to switch to growing cash crops with good economic returns, or leave their hometowns to work or do business elsewhere. The entry of social capital into the field of grain production gives these skilled grain producers a stage on which to display their abilities. On the one hand, they can transfer out their own contracted land and obtain transfer fees; on the other hand, they can contract to manage more cultivated land provided by social capital and obtain salaries. Without changing their occupation, they can engage in grain production with practiced ease and obtain much greater rewards than before. Why not do it?
“Farm managers” have achieved the docking of capital with local “soil and water”
Marx analyzed in Das Kapital that in capitalist society, “if there is 10% profit, capital is sure to be used everywhere; with 20% profit, it becomes active; with 50% profit, it will take risks; for 100% profit, it dares to trample all human laws; with 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even at the risk of being hanged”. Our country follows the socialist road, and “almighty capital” cannot do whatever it wants; it must act within the provisions of the Constitution and laws. Therefore, just like capital entering other fields, social capital entering the field of grain production also has a problem of “not acclimatizing”.
“Farm managers” are the bridge linking capital with local producers. When social capital finds a “farm manager”, it is equivalent to finding the “golden key” to opening grain production. If social capital enters a certain region and, while unfamiliar with local conditions, rashly hires personnel from elsewhere to engage in grain production, it may achieve initial success. However, the possibility of such success is very small. Because basic production factors such as geography, climate, and hydrology differ from place to place, even using the most advanced production methods may not necessarily yield the same production returns. This requires local “guides”, relying on them to adapt to the local “soil and water”. And such “guides” are the local “farm managers”.
“Farm managers” are the cornerstone of capital expansion. Unlike the production of cash crops, the benefits of grain production depend to a large extent on intensification and scale. When social capital first enters the field of grain production, it is impossible for it to have a very large scale. After experimentation reaches a certain level, it needs to expand scale, and the first thing in expanding scale is transferring cultivated land. Transferring cultivated land requires capital support, but capital support alone is still not enough. Under market economy conditions, farmers who have been harmed by unscrupulous merchants develop a strong “defensiveness” toward social capital. Even if social capital speaks in glowing terms, farmers may not necessarily transfer their cultivated land to them. This requires local farmers to “speak from personal experience”, and “farm managers” are the only choice.
“Farm managers” have achieved mutual benefit and win-win results for multiple parties
For China, with its large population, limited cultivated land, and low per capita resource possession, achieving stable and sustainable development of grain production and ensuring 95% domestic self-sufficiency in grain is an extremely difficult task facing China's decision-makers. In today's world, where more than 1 billion people still do not have enough to eat and the grain market is monopolized by a few major countries, solving the food problem of more than 1.3 billion Chinese people is especially urgent.
The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: “Accelerate the development of modern agriculture, enhance comprehensive agricultural production capacity, and ensure national food security and the effective supply of important agricultural products; uphold and improve the basic rural operating system, and build a new type of agricultural operating system that combines intensification, specialization, organization, and socialization; accelerate the improvement of the institutional mechanisms for integrated urban and rural development, promote equal exchange of urban and rural factors and balanced allocation of public resources, and form a new type of worker-peasant and urban-rural relationship in which industry promotes agriculture, the city supports the countryside, workers and peasants benefit each other, and urban and rural areas are integrated.” The emergence of “farm managers” embodies the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is an important aspect of the transformation of the mode of grain production, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results in many aspects.
At the national level, it not only allows social capital to fully play its role, but also safeguards national food security. The frenzied “speculation” by social capital in land, real estate, and other areas has kept land prices and housing prices high, leaving ordinary people “lamenting at the sight of houses”, unable to afford to buy or live in homes, and has also led to rising prices. Under reasonable guidance by the state, social capital entering the agricultural sector and developing grain production not only promotes the stability of the real estate market, but also promotes the intensive and scaled development of grain production, laying the foundation for national food security.
From the perspective of social capital, it not only gains room to display its abilities, but also stands to profit. From the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and this year's Central No. 1 document, it can be clearly seen that the state guides and encourages social capital to enter the agricultural sector, and will introduce a series of preferential policies. Industries that once seemed unprofitable will become “fertile ground” for investment, and grain production will become an industry with steady profits.
From the perspective of farmers, it not only liberates productive forces, but also promotes income growth. The grand blueprint set by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is: “Ensure that by 2020 the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects is achieved; realize a doubling of GDP and per capita income of urban and rural residents compared with 2010”. To achieve this goal, relying only on existing production methods, farmers would by no means be able to achieve it no matter what. The emergence of “farm managers” not only enables a considerable number of farmers to quickly achieve the goal of doubling their income, but also makes the goal of doubling the income of all grain-growing farmers a reality.