Agricultural modernization cannot do without its own masters
I believe everyone has seen such reports more than once: large-scale grain growers driving advanced large machinery to farm, yet what the real countryside actually looks like, you may not really know clearly. In reality, those born in the 1970s are unwilling to farm, those born in the 1980s do not know how to farm, and those born in the 1990s do not even mention farming. When a beautiful vision meets these three "not farming" attitudes, what kind of awkwardness should that be? (China News Service, May 30)
As more and more rural people flow to the cities, the urbanization rate keeps rising, while the agricultural population is also shrinking at the same proportion. Now that the goal of synchronizing the "four modernizations" has been set, the "three not farming" phenomenon, in which those born in the 1970s are unwilling to farm, those born in the 1980s do not know how to farm, and those born in the 1990s do not even mention farming, already signals that a potential resistance is taking shape, posing a problem of no small consequence for agricultural modernization. How to solve this problem concerns not only whether agricultural modernization can truly be achieved, but also the current issue of food security. If there are no farmers, how can we even talk about safeguarding it?
The most obvious feature of today's farming workforce is the so-called "38-99" composition. In some areas, it is hard to find even able-bodied women during the busy farming season. In some places, before starting work, some large land contractors first have to measure the blood pressure of elderly hires, and even worry that they should not work too hard during labor, lest occupational injuries occur due to age-related diseases. This is the current state of the farming workforce in many areas. At the same time, the decline in the number of farmers, low-efficiency cultivation of land, and even abandonment have cast yet another lingering shadow over agricultural modernization.
These dual disadvantages urgently require injecting "fresh blood" into the "38-99" farming workforce, so that those who have the ability to work and can meet the needs of agricultural production return to agriculture as quickly as possible.
In some places, farmers transfer their land out, or turn their land into shares, and then work in leading enterprises, agricultural cooperatives, and other organizations, achieving nearby employment. Their income is much higher than from simply farming. This should be one method for addressing the current shortage of the farming workforce.
But in the long run, agricultural modernization can hardly be achieved by relying solely on traditional farmers and traditional planting techniques. As time advances, farmers born in the 1950s and 1960s will also enter old age, and the "three not farming" complex of those born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s must be sorted out and resolved.
The cultivation and expansion of professional farmers should begin with the people in the "three not farming" group.
To advance this work, the first thing needed is to ensure that being a farmer is no longer a symbol of identity and status, but rather a reshaping of a profession and a reshaping by the market. Only when professional farmers have mastered sufficiently advanced agricultural production technology and market transaction knowledge, have equal social security mechanisms and development opportunities, and have opened up channels between agriculture and other industries, can this be enough to attract talent in a "reverse flow" toward agriculture.
Second, policy support is needed to give agriculture prospects. Comprehensive support must be given in land transfer, natural disaster prevention and control, financial credit, and technical guidance, stabilizing farmers' production expectations for agricultural investment, consolidating the foundation for agricultural scale operation, and laying a solid foundation for agricultural modernization, so that people with knowledge and ability are willing to return to the countryside, especially to participate in agricultural production.
Third, let agriculture generate greater economic added value. It is necessary to change the current state of traditional agriculture, promote the level of agricultural informatization, accelerate the integration of agricultural industrialization and agriculture with the secondary and tertiary industries such as tourism, realize the "connecting the secondary and tertiary industries" style development of the primary industry, and make agricultural income more diversified, more value-added, and more economically secure.
No matter how fancy the policies sound, only by doing everything possible to make agriculture an industry with prospects and to let farmers live with dignity can people be willing to farm. Only when there are high-level professional farmers with a sufficient stock can agricultural modernization have a "backbone," and can this historic tough battle of agricultural modernization be won.