Fewer assumptions, steadier progress in rural entrepreneurship

The threshold for rural entrepreneurship is not low; entrepreneurs need to understand themselves and find the right positioning, and the precision of support policies should also keep improving

A friend wanted to start a business in a rural area. He had struggled in the city for many years and accumulated a lot of experience, so he thought it should not be difficult. But after asking around, he backed off: "Business model, capital, logistics, market - none of these hurdles can be avoided. The problems of rural entrepreneurship are even more numerous than starting a business in the city."

There are many more "unexpected" things like this. Some sigh that, unlike the booming online shopping in the city, farmers are not skilled at using the internet, making product promotion quite difficult; some worry that rural areas urgently lack new-type talent who understand the market and have technical skills, and e-commerce outreach to rural areas runs into trouble... In fact, rural entrepreneurship is not easy. Never make "assumptions," or you will encounter "unexpected" difficulties.

In recent years, policies benefiting farmers have gotten better and better, and the development momentum of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" has been good. College students aiming to make their mark, entrepreneurs carrying rural nostalgia, and migrant workers returning home like birds to the forest have all rushed to seize the agricultural "outlet." According to Ministry of Agriculture statistics, the cumulative number of people returning home to start businesses nationwide exceeds 4.8 million, and the average annual growth rate of migrant workers and college students returning home to start businesses has remained at around double digits in various places. They are educated, understand technology and know how to operate a business, injecting fresh blood into rural development. Some use scientific concepts to transform traditional methods and achieve higher quality and efficiency in agriculture; some target farmers' pain point of "difficulty selling" and use a single internet connection to link production and sales, promoting higher farmer incomes; some seek blank spots in new rural business forms, develop the multiple functions of agriculture, and activate new momentum for rural development.

Entrepreneurial enthusiasm inevitably faces the test of reality. Many entrepreneurs crossing into agriculture call themselves new farmers. Apart from their identity, "new" also means a lack of experience and relatively little understanding of rural areas and farmers. From a practical perspective, agriculture is an industry that deals with living things, with long production cycles and high risks; rural infrastructure has many historical shortfalls, and the level of public services is relatively low; farmers need a relatively long time to accept new things. From the perspective of entrepreneurs' motives, some want to change their environment because urban development has not gone smoothly; some do not understand agricultural laws and are eager for short-term returns. Starting a business with such motives makes it hard not to "hit snags." From the perspective of the rural entrepreneurial environment, the market prospects for high-quality agricultural products are good, but bottlenecks such as storage and logistics remain blocked; specialty agricultural products are doing well, but farmers' awareness of contracts is still weak, and upstream risks are hard to control. These problems did not form in a single day. Facing the threshold of rural entrepreneurship, while enthusiasm runs high, a calm mind and steady mood are even more necessary, along with full preparation to meet difficulties.

Returning from the city to the countryside and crossing from other industries into agriculture means facing a completely different social environment, market form and interpersonal relationships. The key for entrepreneurs is to understand themselves and find the right positioning. First compare their own strength with the requirements of agricultural entrepreneurship to determine whether they can cross the "threshold," and never act blindly and impulsively. Even after making up their minds, different entrepreneurial entities - industrial and commercial capital, returning migrant workers, young students and traditional farmers - are in different situations and should proceed from their own capital, technology and other strengths to find suitable entrepreneurial projects, rather than blindly seeking big and fast results.

For those who have the will and ability to start businesses, the government cannot be absent, and it must not let the threshold of entrepreneurship become an obstruction on the road to success. Strengthening training is imperative, and all kinds of entrepreneurial entities should be helped to "catch up" as soon as possible. Support policies should be more precise. The same funding problem affects different groups differently: traditional farmers lack collateral, young students lack startup capital, and agricultural enterprises have a single financing channel. Support policies should precisely match the needs of different groups, changing from "one-size-fits-all" and "one-pot" approaches to customized and follow-up services, ensuring that preferential policies can be implemented precisely. The government should also avoid taking everything into its own hands from production to sales, and instead create a good environment so that rural entrepreneurship can develop healthily and sustainably.

Talented people starting businesses in rural areas helps promote the flow of various resource factors into rural areas and accelerates efforts to shore up weak links in rural development. Only by letting entrepreneurs set off easily and move forward steadily can they, while realizing their personal dreams, also bring new vitality to rural areas.