Help more professional farmers receive higher education

According to media reports, 20 farmers in Shaanxi Province recently received university admission letters. This September, they will enter campus just like other university students and receive three years of full-time higher vocational education.

After reading the news, this author felt deeply moved and applauds and loudly cheers this measure. This is because:

First, agriculture is the source of food and clothing and the foundation of survival, the foundation of the entire national economy, and has strategic significance for safeguarding national security and social stability. China has a population of 1.3 billion, and having enough to eat is a matter of paramount importance. However, in many rural areas today, young and middle-aged laborers go to cities to work, the new generation of farmers born in the 1980s and 1990s is increasingly far from the land, and they generally lack the willingness and skills to engage in agricultural production. In many places, the heavy burden of agricultural production has had to be borne by women and the elderly. Therefore, professional farmers becoming the main force in agricultural production is already a call of the times and an inevitable choice.

Second, professional farmers take agricultural production as their main occupation, and agricultural operating income is their main source of income. Although maximizing profits is also the pursuit of professional farmers and a characteristic of their rational economic behavior, this does not mean that everyone labeled a professional farmer is an expert in agricultural production. They also need to study and receive training in theory and skills. Whether increasing yields or becoming prosperous, both require the support of agricultural technology. When professional farmers attend university, they make up for the shortfall in technical knowledge.

Third, professional farmers successfully gain university admission after passing "multiple thresholds" such as online registration, review, academic subject examinations and interviews, and after three years of full-time study they will obtain a junior college diploma just like ordinary students. This is a reform of the university admissions model and broadens the original channels. At the same time, because separate classes are set up and courses are offered according to actual needs, it also breaks through the old teaching methods and builds a platform for professional farmers to receive higher education. General Secretary Xi Jinping said: "The Chinese people living in our great motherland and great era all share the opportunity to make their lives wonderful, all share the opportunity to make their dreams come true, and all share the opportunity to grow and progress together with the motherland and the era." Letting professional farmers enter institutions of higher learning, enabling them to master more knowledge and skills, produce more agricultural products of higher quality, and live a decent life is, for professional farmers as individuals, an opportunity to fulfill their life dreams, and for agricultural modernization, a driving force to accelerate the development process.

It can be foreseen that when these professional farmers are equipped with modern agricultural science and technology, they will have greater creative vitality and a foundation for innovative development. Naturally, more constructive forces will be added to the hope of accelerating modern agricultural development, and food security will also be built on a more solid foundation. It is hoped that the measure of promoting professional farmers to attend university can be spread in more places.