Cultivating new farmers requires both real measures and distinctive features
June holds a different meaning for 170 new-type professional farmers in Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province. They not only received the "New-Type Professional Farmer Certificate" but will also be formally incorporated into the social insurance system and enjoy social insurance subsidies. Also in June, 20 professional farmers in Shaanxi Province received admission notices one after another and will enroll in September to receive three years of full-time higher vocational education. Since the Ministry of Agriculture launched the pilot program for cultivating new-type professional farmers in 2012, various regions have conducted research and exploration on whether professional farmers should receive training, how to train them, and what prospects exist after training. At the National Exchange Meeting on New-Type Professional Farmer Cultivation Experience held in June this year, an answer was provided.
Education and training: even farming requires learning and further study
20 farmers in Shaanxi Province received university admission notices and will enroll in September to receive three years of full-time higher vocational education. Once the news came out, it struck like thunder in farmers' social circles. Farmers are going to receive higher education - is it really necessary? Some people had previously raised doubts: could ordinary people understand the professional knowledge taught by experts, could it be linked to actual farming, and should old farmers who have farmed for many years continue to learn and pursue further study? Huang Biwen, a new-type professional farmer from Jiuluwo Village, Luobo Town, Wuming District, Nanning City, Guangxi, gave a resounding answer of his own at the exchange meeting.
"When engaging in winter potato planting, I faced new technical difficulties and a lack of planting resources, and I felt powerless despite wanting to act. Farming now can no longer be handled the way my grandparents' and parents' generations did, with just a hoe and a bag of seeds. It requires a spirit of courage to innovate and take responsibility, professional knowledge and skills, and a high level of market management ability. All of these need to be learned from others," said Huang Biwen.
Yuan Qi, who graduated from China University of Political Science and Law in 2006, chose to return to farming in Jiawang District, Xuzhou City after graduation. But where would the technology come from, and how would the market be created? Fortunately, with the opportunity provided by Jiangsu Province's new-type professional farmer cultivation program, he studied under Professor Huang Baojian of Nanjing Agricultural University and learned to analyze agricultural product marketing strategies based on market changes, competitive concepts, and central policies, to identify enterprise positioning according to market demand, and to use science and technology to uncover blind spots in demand. He not only became prosperous himself but also led 276 farming households, introducing, demonstrating, and promoting 13 new crop varieties and 3 agricultural technologies. Now nearby farmers all hope to work with Yuan Qi.
In order for farmers to acquire advanced technical experience related to relevant planting varieties, there must first be a team of technical elites. Jiangsu selected and recommended a group of experts, professors, and local talents from agricultural departments at all levels across the province, agricultural technology extension institutions, agricultural research institutes, agricultural colleges and schools, and agriculture-related social organizations, forming a provincial, municipal, and county-level "10,000-person teacher database" to meet the needs of cultivating new-type professional farmers. At the same time, it organized principals of grassroots agricultural broadcasting and television schools and farmer education and training management personnel to go to the United States, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, and other places for training and study, broadening their horizons and enhancing their capabilities.
Model exploration: new approaches using local resources
Farmers receiving higher education has attracted high attention because it is novel and also an honorable matter. Many farmers began to feel eager, but does that mean all new-type professional farmers should pursue further study? Answers varied from place to place.
The 20 farmer university students about to enroll in Shaanxi both have the need and the ability. Shaanxi requires at least a high school education or above, as well as professional farmer qualifications. Teaching, training, and curriculum arrangements are different from those for ordinary students, with more practical courses, and agricultural experts may even go to the fields to teach how to prune branches.
Yang Xiaohong, Deputy Director of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Agriculture, introduced that Shaanxi established a "Professional Farmer Development Project," allocated a special fund of 50 million yuan, actively improved basic conditions, and strengthened the "four classrooms": the "fixed classroom" based on agricultural broadcasting and television schools, the "aerial classroom" centered on online training, the "field classroom" built with a "one-stop" standard including training classrooms, instructors, practical training sites, and entrepreneurial resources, and the "mobile classroom" brought by agricultural science and technology direct service vehicles.
Taicang City, Jiangsu Province, attempted agricultural higher vocational education reform and modern professional farmer cultivation. Starting in 2013, the Taicang municipal government bore all tuition fees and established "Taicang classes" at Suzhou Agricultural Vocational and Technical College and Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Forestry respectively. So far, each has enrolled two cohorts, with nearly 200 students in total, resolving the three major difficulties constraining current agricultural specialty enrollment in colleges, employment difficulties, and the shortage of grassroots rural talent, cultivating a group of high-quality technical and skilled talents rooted in local agriculture and rural areas who "can go down, stay, and be useful," and creatively proposing the "Southern Jiangsu model" of modern professional farmer cultivation.
Changsha City, Hunan Province, sought a way forward through dialectical development, transforming farmers from "wanting me to learn" in the past to "I want to learn" now. It combined unified classes with independent training, coordinated by cities and counties, jointly organized by multiple departments, and undertaken by township agricultural schools and field schools, building a normalized mechanism for cultivating new-type professional farmers. It combined course teaching with field practical training, emphasizing on-site visits and field teaching, and established an on-site teaching model of "three classrooms" and "four bases." The "three classrooms" are the fixed classroom, mobile classroom, and field classroom. The "four bases" are agricultural enterprises, practical training bases, field schools, and science popularization education bases, breaking the regional limitations of field practical training and realizing a cross-regional practical training model. It combined short-term intensive training with normalized management, strengthened long-term follow-up management of students, built an information database for all students, and innovated a "WeChat+" management model. "More than 70 WeChat groups and QQ groups for new-type professional farmer cultivation classes have been established citywide, and lecturing experts have been invited to open columns in the WeChat groups. Currently, more than 6,000 students have participated," introduced Vice Mayor Chen Zhong.
Certification and support: making farming a dignified profession
Cai Yanqing and Yin Qin from Tianfu Ecological Park in Huaqiao, Kunshan, held the "New-Type Professional Farmer Certificate" in their hands. With this certificate, they have new protection: they can not only be incorporated into the social insurance system but also enjoy social insurance subsidies.
Certifying professional farmers is about holding up a "protective umbrella" for them and escorting them forward. In March 2016, Kunshan City took the lead in formulating the "Measures for the Certification and Management of New-Type Professional Farmers," clearly specifying subsidy measures for new-type professional farmers included in the social insurance system: for those working in professional farmer positions at new-type cooperative farms and signing labor contracts of more than one year and paying social insurance premiums as required, the Kunshan City finance department provides full social insurance subsidies for the portions paid by both the unit and the individual for certain insurance types; the fixed subsidy standard for those insured through unit employment is determined by the unit contribution amount calculated at the minimum social insurance contribution; the fixed subsidy standard for those insured through flexible employment is determined at 50% of the minimum contribution amount for flexible employment insurance.
The Policy and Regulations Section of the Kunshan Human Resources and Social Security Bureau explained that for those insured through unit employment, the fixed subsidy standard is calculated according to the minimum social insurance contribution, requiring each person to pay 751.66 yuan per month in social insurance premiums; for those insured through flexible employment, each person must pay a minimum of 503 yuan per month in social insurance premiums, and according to 50%, insured persons can receive a subsidy of 251.5 yuan per month. Taking Cai Yanqing from Tianfu Ecological Park in Huaqiao, Kunshan, as an example, because he is insured through unit employment, he will receive a full social insurance subsidy, amounting to 9,019.5 yuan per year. In addition to social insurance subsidies, new-type professional farmers will also enjoy preferential policies such as education funding, entrepreneurship support, and model farmer awards.
Subsequently, in May 2016, the Suzhou municipal government issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Promotion of Certification and Management of New-Type Professional Farmers," giving the "New-Type Professional Farmer Certificate" higher value. In addition to improving farmers' technical skills, it also made them truly feel that agriculture is a promising industry and that farming is a respectable profession.
As the cultivation of new-type professional farmers continues to deepen and support continues to improve, a group of new-type professional farmers is gradually growing up. High-quality young farmers are becoming large-scale growers, family farm owners, and leaders of farmer cooperatives. College students, returning migrant workers, and veterans are continuously joining the ranks of new-type professional farmers. "Bespectacled" new-type professional farmers are emerging, injecting fresh blood into the development of modern agriculture. According to statistics on the 13,000 young farm owners who applied nationwide in 2015, 58.9% had a high school or secondary specialized school education.
New-type professional farmers who are educated, understand technology, are good at business, and capable of management can solve the realistic problem of "who will farm the land." They are the main force in modern agricultural construction and the backbone of new rural construction, and can inject new vitality into agricultural and rural economic development. In 2014 and 2015, 1.1 billion yuan in special funds was allocated respectively, training 1 million new-type professional farmers each year. In 2016, central fiscal investment increased to 1.39 billion yuan, and more farmers with greater quantity and higher quality will join the ranks of modern agricultural construction.