How are new-type professional agricultural machinery operators cultivated? This question is worth asking.

In today's busy "Three Summers" and "Three Autumns" seasons, amid the wheat and rice seas that ripple in the wind, it is hard to see farmers sweating profusely; more often shuttling back and forth are the agricultural machinery operators sitting in the cabs of combine harvesters. At present, China's agricultural production methods have entered a new era dominated by mechanized operations. The quality of agricultural machinery operators directly determines the quality of machinery operations and, to a large extent, determines the quality of agricultural production. Yet in many regions, more than 70% of agricultural machinery drivers are over 50 years old, skilled operators are in short supply, and the overall quality of operators is not yet high enough. Therefore, cultivating a high-quality team of agricultural machinery operators is extremely urgent.

In recent years, the state has continuously increased its support for work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Agricultural machinery management departments and training institutions in various places have coordinated and communicated through multiple channels, securing support from various policy funds such as new-type professional farmer cultivation, "certificate-based rewards and subsidies", and special agricultural mechanization training programs, effectively promoting the development of operator training. The Ministry of Agriculture has carried out a major agricultural mechanization education and training campaign nationwide for 7 consecutive years, training an average of 4 million agricultural machinery practical talents annually. However, from the local level, operator training lacks clear special funding and can only rely on local agricultural machinery departments to "each show their own magic powers", which is also an important factor causing unbalanced regional development in operator training. It is suggested that the state increase public financial investment in operator training so that it keeps pace with the transformation of agricultural operation methods and comprehensively improves operators' ability to serve agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

To attract more operators to participate voluntarily and further improve the practicality of training, training methods such as field operations, multi-department coordination, and government-enterprise collaboration have been increasingly widely applied and welcomed by operators. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture system, through "government-enterprise collaboration", held advanced agricultural machinery maintenance skills training classes and agricultural machinery cooperative chairman training classes, driving the rapid improvement of the quality of two types of personnel: agricultural machinery repair workers and agricultural machinery cooperative managers. But it cannot be denied that the current training content for operators is still relatively narrow, mostly focused on tractor and combine harvester drivers and agricultural machinery repair workers, and cannot yet meet the requirements of comprehensive and full-process mechanization. In addition, limited by various reasons, current training gives less consideration to differences among participating operators, especially differences in their educational foundations and degree of mastery of professional knowledge, and the training is not yet sufficiently targeted and systematic. Many operators also report that current training leans more toward theoretical knowledge; if it were more combined with practical operations, the effect would be further improved.

In improving the education and training capacity for operators, agricultural mechanization systems in various places have adopted multiple methods to focus on improving the infrastructure, teaching equipment, and teaching staff of training institutions. For example, the Shaanxi Provincial Agricultural Machinery Bureau selects 10 agricultural mechanization schools and tractor driving training institutions each year, with an annual investment of 2 million yuan, used for county-level training institutions to purchase equipment, renovate and expand training venues, increasing training by more than 500 person-times annually. But as early as more than ten years ago, China's training system for operators was relatively sound; various agricultural universities had agricultural mechanization and even agricultural machinery maintenance majors; of more than 300 provincial and municipal agricultural secondary schools nationwide, 1/3 were agricultural mechanization secondary schools; and agricultural machinery departments in each county (city, district) had agricultural machinery adult training classes. With the reform of national educational institutions, however, these agricultural mechanization training institutions have been greatly weakened. As of the end of 2014, the total number of agricultural mechanization education and training institutions nationwide had dropped by 20% compared with 2003, and institutional personnel had decreased by more than 9,000 compared with 2003. For some time to come, the question of "who will train agricultural machinery operators" cannot be ignored.

The success of any undertaking cannot be separated from the support of talent. The great cause of China's agricultural modernization likewise requires a large number of new-type professional farmers with scientific and cultural literacy, mastery of modern agricultural skills, and advanced business concepts, and the 54 million agricultural machinery operators are the core force of this team. They are not only operators of advanced agricultural machinery, but will also be users, demonstrators, and disseminators of modern agricultural technology!