"New Farmers" innovate the production Mode of Ecological Agriculture

Recently, with the introduction of the National Agricultural Sustainable Development Plan (2015-2030), promoting the transformation and upgrading of agriculture has become a hot issue in urgent need of attention. The emergence of the group of "new farmers" coincides with the needs of the development of ecological agriculture, and its behavior is highly unified with the goal of "promoting the development of eco-friendly agriculture" put forward in the first document of the Central Committee. it has played a great role in promoting ecological agriculture and food safety.

Du Zhixiong, deputy director of the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has paid close attention to and studied the "new farmers" group for a long time, and has published a number of related works in the past few years. Recently, teacher du Zhixiong accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from Xinhua News Agency and made an in-depth discussion on the concept of "new farmers", the current situation of development and the survival of "new farmers".

The "new farmer" independently chooses the ecological mode of production to realize the social value.

Reporter: the term "new farmer" has not been around for a long time, and there are different opinions on its definition at present. How do you understand the concept of "new farmer"?

Du Zhixiong: the concept of "new farmer" began to appear in 2013, but there is still a lack of scientific and authoritative definition. In early 2014, according to my understanding of the phenomenon of "new farmers", I made a different definition: generally, it refers to those who are different from the traditional small farmers in the mode of production and circulation, with a new modern business concept, natural and legal persons involved in the whole industry chain of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. The core word of this concept is farmers. First of all, it refers to the producers who are directly engaged in agriculture, and secondly, it also includes agriculture-related practitioners who provide support for agricultural production.

Reporter: what is the difference between "new farmers" and traditional agricultural practitioners?

Du Zhixiong: the essential characteristic that distinguishes "New Farmers" from ordinary farmers is that she is based on ecological consciousness and is the application and innovation of an environment-friendly and resource-saving "ecological mode of production". What I use here is "application" and "innovation". That is because in practice, we can find that some "new farmers" not only use existing eco-agricultural production technologies, but also attach great importance to innovation and development of new eco-agricultural technologies according to local conditions. This is particularly valuable. Compared with traditional agricultural practitioners, the biggest difference of "new farmers" is that they produce according to the mode of eco-agricultural production. Due to the extensive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the traditional mode of petroleum agricultural production, on the one hand, it is easy to lead to serious quality problems of agricultural products, so that they can not meet the needs of the society, and more importantly, it also makes the agricultural production environment, such as soil and water quality seriously deteriorated, seriously undermining the sustainability of agriculture. "New Farmers" appeared under this background in order to change this situation. Therefore, I have always stressed that the ecological mode of production is the gene and soul of the "new farmers".

Reporter: where do you think the value of "new farmers" is reflected after the emergence of this group?

Du Zhixiong: what I would like to emphasize here is that the "new farmers" are a group of people with "ecological consciousness". The origin of their behavior is not advocated by anyone, but a kind of active cognition that comes from the heart. Moreover, at the beginning, many "new farmers" engaged in agricultural production were not entirely considered from the perspective of profit. The reason why "new farmers" are valuable is that their actions are consistent with the pursuit of the whole country and society, advocating agricultural ecological mode of production and pursuing high standards of product quality. it is consistent with the transformation of agricultural development mode and the pursuit of balanced development of agricultural products quality and quantity proposed by the state. It should be said that in the past year or two, with the general improvement of social ecological awareness and awareness of the quality and safety of agricultural products, more and more agricultural producers have used environment-friendly and resource-saving technologies in agriculture, and they have greatly expanded the ranks of "new farmers."

Reporter: do you think there is any inevitable connection between "New Farmer" and "Internet +"?

Du Zhixiong: this also involves the concept of "new farmers". In fact, many people tend to have a more general and practical understanding of the concept of "new farmers". For example, the "Chinese New Farmer Research report (2014)" issued by Ali Research Institute refers to those engaged in agricultural e-commerce as "new farmers", and so on. In practice, there are indeed many "new farmers" who use "Internet +" to market their products. "Internet +" is actually "social value +". However, I think that the definition of "new farmers" must not be separated from its essential characteristics-the application and innovation of eco-agricultural production mode in agricultural production is conducive to promoting the transformation of China's agricultural development mode. If we do not emphasize this point, there is no difference between the "new farmers" and the old ones.