Rural Elderly Become the Main Force in Farming, as Large Numbers of Young and Middle-Aged People Move to Cities
Recently, good news of a bountiful autumn harvest arrived, with total annual grain output expected to exceed 1.1 trillion jin, achieving an eighth consecutive year of increased production. However, as large numbers of young and middle-aged rural laborers flow into cities and towns, in many places the elderly have become the main force in farming, and aging is gradually becoming a hidden concern for agricultural development. Young people are no longer willing to grow grain, nor do they know how to grow it, which inevitably raises the worry: who will grow the grain of tomorrow?
Move to the city or farm the land? This is a long-standing question. Since the founding of New China, we have experienced two magnificent waves of urbanization.
From 1949 to 1958, large numbers of young and middle-aged rural laborers moved into cities. In the course of industrialization, New China absorbed a large rural workforce, major central cities underwent their first expansion, and the urban economy flourished. When the cities' carrying capacity became overloaded, urban administrators froze the flow of rural population into cities. In 1958 the household registration system was established, the urban-rural dual structure was formally set up, and the channel for rural labor to flow into cities was blocked.
In the course of industrialization, the one-way flow of rural population into cities is irreversible. After 1984, in the modernization process heralded by reform and opening up, first the southeast coast, and later the major and medium-sized cities, saw a flourishing of processing industries and light industry that required large amounts of labor. The loosening of the household registration and ration coupon systems was unavoidable. The abolition of grain coupons and various other coupons made it possible for rural young and middle-aged people to move to cities, and hundreds of millions of migrant workers joined the ranks of those heading into the cities.
There are now many "second-generation migrant workers." They lived with their parents who went to work in the cities from a very young age, and they are now fully integrated with the cities where they live. They are more familiar with cities than with the countryside, and the land has already become very unfamiliar to them. They work in the city, live in the city, consume in the city, and struggle to study in the city's schools; but a single household registration document keeps water still water and milk still milk.
In the process of hundreds of millions of young and middle-aged rural laborers moving in large numbers to cities, we have welcomed eight consecutive years of bumper grain harvests. However, have the repeated bumper harvests increased farmers' earnings?
For the nation, food security is the most fundamental and most basic strategy. With grain in hand, there is no panic in the heart. For a large developing country like China with a population of 1.3 billion, ensuring an effective food supply and achieving self-sufficiency is of great significance. In recent years, China has steadily strengthened its policies to support and benefit agriculture. The policies and measures supporting agriculture and grain production have effectively lightened farmers' burdens. However, as the cost of growing grain rises and prices increase, farmers' earnings from growing grain have been discounted.
In sharp contrast to the low returns from growing grain, income from off-farm work has become the main source of cash for farmers today. In some places, problems have emerged such as part-time farming, hollowed-out villages, and an aging rural workforce. It is reported that in 2010 the per capita wage income of rural residents was 2,431 yuan, and wage income contributed 48.3% to the annual income growth of rural residents.
No one can stop those hurried departing figures in the countryside. Although "lodging in the capital is costly and living there is not easy," the attraction of cities for the rural population, especially for "second-generation migrant workers," is unshakable. For migrant workers, land is merely equivalent to a form of social security, a temporary refuge in case of unexpected misfortune. In 2008, when the international financial storm struck, many migrant workers returned home to take temporary shelter.
Only by raising the level of social security for farmers who go to work in cities, resolving their worries regarding low-rent housing, medical insurance, and their children's schooling, and at the same time freeing contracted rural land from its awkward role as "social security" and making land transfers smoother, can agricultural operations gradually achieve specialization and intensification.
Develop modern agriculture, let a group of new-type professional farmers who are knowledgeable, understand business, and know how to manage grow grain, and let specialized, mechanized, and intensive agricultural production become an important model of China's agricultural production against the backdrop of urbanization. Only when agricultural production breaks free from the shackles of the natural economy and becomes an efficient, low-consumption "emerging" industry will the nation's pro-agriculture policies produce an amplifying effect. We can both ensure that farmers who move to cities obtain more affordable and reliable social security beyond land, and shape a new model of efficient and safe grain production, so that grain-growing farmers have a sense of achievement and belonging both spiritually and materially.