How can the problem of who will farm the land be solved? The way out is here
Editor's note: "Shoring up weak links" is a key part of the structural reform of the agricultural supply side, and it is also a specific requirement put forward by the No. 1 Central Document for rural work this year. At present, China's agricultural development, especially modern agricultural development, still has many deficiencies and difficulties in the industrial system, production system, and management system. In the final analysis, this is because there are "weak links" in three areas: talent support, scientific and technological support, and equipment support. For agriculture to develop, it is necessary to explore the deep-seated reasons behind agriculture's "weak links" and the paths to shoring up agriculture's "weak links."
At the National New-Type Professional Farmer Training Experience Exchange Meeting held not long ago, Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin said that the special funds invested by the central government in 2016 for training new-type professional farmers will increase from 1.1 billion yuan in 2014 and 2015 to 1.39 billion yuan. This means that since the No. 1 Central Document first proposed "new-type professional farmers" in 2012, in response to the urgent and major question of "who will farm the land and how to farm it well," China has been continuously increasing its training of new-type professional farmers, striving to fundamentally shore up the "weak link" in agricultural talent as soon as possible.
So, what exactly is the current situation of "who will farm the land"? How can the "weak link" in agricultural talent be shored up?
A "mix" of new and old farmers will exist for a long time
In a white T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of leather shoes, 39-year-old Liu Fuli walked over from the field ridge holding a straw hat, while two tractors busied themselves in the fields behind him.
Liu Fuli is from Xindi Village, Xinzhou District, Wuhan. After graduating from secondary school in 1996, he had always worked away from home and done business. At the beginning of this year, Liu Fuli decided to return home to look for opportunities, and it happened that Lin Huowang, secretary of the Party branch of Xindi Village, was looking for a "capable person" to return to farm the land. The two hit it off immediately. Liu Fuli invested more than 500,000 yuan to transfer 800 mu of land, all planted with rice.
Today, more and more farmers like Liu Fuli are returning home to start businesses. Most of these returnees have accumulated a certain amount of capital, and their ideas and models for farming are clearly different from those of traditional farmers. "In the past, farmers were used to farming their own few mu of land, and at most they gathered together the land of relatives and friends to farm, but 'capable people' understand policy and the market. From machinery and seeds to technology, they basically follow an industrialized and large-scale approach, and one person can drive along a whole area," Lin Huowang said.
In Jinjing Town, Changsha County, Hunan, the young "agricultural boss" Huang Long is well known. Huang Long began small-scale land rental experiments as early as university. After graduating from Hunan Agricultural University with a major in plant protection, he went home and contracted more than 1,000 mu of land in one go, and also set up an agricultural machinery professional cooperative. Now the farmers around him all follow him in farming.
Compared with returnees, the majority of new farmers at present are still local capable people. In rural areas, most local capable people have a specialized skill, such as agricultural machinery operators, brokers, and transporters, and some have even held positions in township or village committees. They have broad horizons and flexible minds, and are good at seizing policy environments and market opportunities. More importantly, because of local personal connections, they show the advantages of a familiar-society network in land transfer, hiring labor, and purchasing agricultural materials. Shang Yue, a villager from Xuwei Township, Huaiyuan County, Anhui, has never left his local area in his life, yet he is the largest farm owner in the whole county. The agricultural machinery professional cooperative he leads has transferred more than 10,000 mu of land.
New business entities composed of returnees, local capable people, and a small number of entrepreneurs and white-collar workers have begun to change China's agricultural management pattern. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, in recent years the newly added land transfer area has reached 40 million mu annually, the national land transfer area has exceeded 33%, there are nearly 900,000 family farms, and more than 1.4 million farmers' professional cooperatives. However, scattered small farmers still make up the majority. Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Rural Economic System and Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, believes that the phenomenon of new and old farmers farming mixed together will exist for a long time, but as new business entities grow, the problems of "who will farm the land" and "how to farm the land" will be continuously solved.
Lack of all-rounders who understand management and can provide services
Although new farmers are constantly joining, the "weak link" in agricultural talent is still a key factor restricting agricultural modernization. Liu Tianjin, executive vice president of the China Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School, said that agricultural talent can be simply divided into two major categories: scientific research and practical. Judging from conditions such as China's large population and limited land and the departure of rural labor from their hometowns, the current "weak link" in talent is mainly in rural practical talent, such as management talent and service talent.
Xindi Village in Xinzhou District, Wuhan, has a total population of more than 1,400 and 4,000 mu of cultivated land, with fewer than 300 people farming, most of them over 60 years old. Villager Wang Guiyuan is 70 years old and tends 12 mu of family land with his wife, but finds it a bit beyond him, and he hopes someone will come to transfer the land. Different from Wang Guiyuan's idea, 64-year-old Li Wenqi, a villager from Pingtou Village, Yong'an Town, Liuyang City, Hunan, is unwilling to rent out his land. He feels at ease farming a few mu himself. Ji Shaoqin, director of the Education Division of the Department of Science and Technology Education of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that nowadays some farmers are willing to rent out land and some are not. In both cases, large-scale operation can actually be achieved through land transfer or socialized services. What must now be solved are the two major problems of agricultural management talent and service talent.
Despite rapid growth, the existing rural talent who understand management is still the biggest "weak link" compared with the actual demand for appropriately scaled agricultural operation. Huang Yongzhong, director of the Liuyang City Agriculture Bureau in Hunan, said that there are many people who want to rent land now, but there are still not many large operators who truly have strength, understand management, and are willing to work in agriculture for the long term. Some cannot even pay the rent after one or two years when they encounter a poor harvest or other difficulties, and then cannot continue.
Management talent is insufficient, and service talent is likewise lacking. Zhu Qianshao, 80 years old, from Zhufang Village, Wuyang Town, Nanchang County, Jiangxi, like Wang Guiyuan, hopes to rent out his land, but because the plots are uneven, no one rents it. Local village officials said that someone once wanted to uniformly provide planting services for villagers so that villagers would not need to transfer their land, but not many people participated, and it was not done.
The "last kilometer" of agricultural science and technology extension is also a "short leg." Cheng Hua'an, 61, director of the Yangluo Subdistrict Agricultural Service Center in Xinzhou District, Wuhan, had already retired but was rehired because there was "no successor." This service center has 28 people in total, with an average age of 47, and only 6 are engaged in professional agricultural technical services. For more than 10 years, no fresh blood has come in. Various places report that in addition to aging, the outdated knowledge of agricultural technicians is also relatively common, and they cannot adapt to production needs that are increasingly diverse and demanding.
Agriculture must use benefits to attract talent
Whether the "weak link" in agricultural talent can be shored up as soon as possible depends on many factors, including benefits, the policy environment, and the intensity of talent training, but the key lies in benefits.
In Wangting Village, Suzhou, Jiangsu, Lin Yaping devoted herself to agriculture after graduating from Yangzhou University with a major in plant nutrition. She is now deputy general manager of Suzhou Yuting Modern Agriculture Industrial Park Development Co., Ltd. The "Lin Meimei" strawberry brand she created has annual sales of more than 600,000 yuan.
College students like Lin Yaping who choose to engage in agriculture right after graduation are becoming fashionable. As new farmers, the primary reason they attract college students is agricultural benefits. Liu Furui, chairman of the flue-cured tobacco cooperative in Yonghe Village, Liuyang City, Hunan, said: "There is no question of whether anyone will do agriculture, only the question of whether it makes money. If there are benefits, people will come."
The key to making new farmers profitable is institutional protection. At present, although land transfer is already common, it is still in the stage of standardization. The length of the transfer period, the pricing of land rent, the form of contract signing, and land subsidies and income distribution are basically private agreements, which easily lead to disputes. New farmers often face the problems of transferred land being taken back without reason or rent being arbitrarily raised, while old farmers also have to bear potential risks such as bosses "breaking contracts" or "absconding." All of this requires legal systems and policy measures to standardize and protect, so that both new and old farmers can have "peace of mind."
The intensity of agricultural talent training also affects the speed and quality of new farmers' growth. Modern agriculture has higher and more numerous requirements for good seeds and good methods and market management. Huang Biwen from Jiuluwo Village, Luobo Town, Guangxi, after working in a government office for more than 10 years, returned home and transferred 2,200 mu of land to grow vegetables. With no experience, he signed up for the new-type professional farmer training class in Wuming District, Nanning City, and has now become a new-type professional farmer who is "cultured, technically proficient, business-savvy, and good at management." Huang Biwen's training transformation will become a model for more new farmers. Ji Shaoqin, director of the Education Division of the Department of Science and Technology Education of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that this year the central government will invest nearly 1.4 billion yuan, and the demonstration of the new-type professional farmer training project will be expanded to 8 entire provinces, 30 entire cities, and 800 demonstration counties nationwide. The annual training of 1 million new-type professional farmers will make the fields of hope even brighter.