Agricultural modernization should first of all be the modernization of small farmers.

Agricultural modernization is a good word. Since 1984, China has been pursuing modernization. Without agricultural modernization, it is naturally impossible to have the modernization of China as a whole. Because agricultural modernization is a good word, there will be no objection if it is proposed to speed up the realization of agricultural modernization, so there is no objection to national policy support or even financial subsidies in order to realize agricultural modernization. In the name of agricultural modernization, all kinds of national resources have been invested.

The question now is, what exactly does agricultural modernization mean? What is the focus of agricultural modernization under China's national conditions at the current stage? Which agricultural modernization should be supported by the state? Which agricultural modernization should be guided by policies? What other agricultural modernization is an inherent part of the market itself?

At present, the general understanding in China is that agricultural modernization is modern agriculture. The expression of modern agriculture in the No. 1 document of the Central Committee in 2007 is: "equip agriculture with modern material conditions, transform agriculture with modern science and technology, promote agriculture with modern industrial system, promote agriculture with modern management model, lead agriculture with modern development concept, and develop agriculture with cultivating new farmers."

In recent years, the central agriculture-related documents especially emphasize the cultivation of new agricultural operators, while local governments make great efforts to promote the transfer of rural land management rights to form large-scale operators. The government's financial funds for supporting agriculture are also heavily subsidized to agricultural enterprises.

In other words, under the name of current agricultural modernization, agricultural enterprises and new agricultural operators have received the most policy support and agricultural subsidies. The average peasant household is not supported because the operation scale is too small and the labor productivity is low, which is a typical traditional agriculture and small-scale peasant economy.

However, the problem now is that China still has more than 200 million farmers, more than 200 million agricultural labor force, more than 600 million rural population, and more than 200 million migrant workers who go to cities to work and do business. most of these migrant workers do not really live in the cities. Their parents and children are still in the countryside, and even they will return to the countryside when they are old. Therefore, if the calculation is based on the rural and agricultural population. At present, the total number of farmers should be more than 800 million and close to 900 million.

Most of the peasant families with more than 200 million households and more than 800 million people work part-time. Middle-aged and elderly parents farm at home, while young children go to work in cities. It is the middle-aged and elderly parents who farm at home, have agricultural income and employment, and have a lower cost of living in rural areas, which makes farmers' families have a relatively high income and live a better life. Without agricultural employment and income, the whole peasant family goes to the city, the economy is bound to be difficult, and the inability to live in a decent and secure home is bound to lead to serious social problems. In this sense, it is the agricultural employment and income of farmers that ensure the quality of life of peasant families and the order of the country in development.

It is obvious that whether peasant families can withdraw from agriculture is not determined by the law of the development of agriculture itself, but by the national conditions of China's current development stage.

China is in the middle-income stage and is likely to fall into the middle-income trap. At the current stage of China's development and its position in globalization, it is impossible for cities to provide decent, high-income and stable employment for all migrant workers in cities, nor can they rely on the state to ensure a decent life for farmers in cities.

On the other hand, it is farmers who can still obtain employment and income from agriculture, so that migrant workers in cities can enter or retreat. If you succeed in going to the city, you will live in a decent and comfortable place, and if you fail to go to the city, you can go back to the countryside to farm. With agricultural income, we can solve the problem of food and clothing, and then we can draw more slowly.

And it is precisely because farmers in cities can return home after failure, so that China has a strong ability to cope with the economic cycle. It is precisely because of this that China does not have large-scale urban slums that generally exist in developing countries.

In other words, China's current stage of development determines that agriculture must provide employment and income for more than 200 million households and 800 million farmers. It is the agricultural employment and income of farmers that make the countryside a stabilizer and reservoir for China's modernization and enable China to maintain stability in its development.

With the sustained growth of China's economy and the further acceleration of urbanization, more and more farmers will live in cities, but in any case, farmers going to cities is a slow process, and 900 million farmers will have to rely on agricultural income and employment for a long time in the future.

This determines that the pattern of China's small-scale peasant economy will exist for a long time. Moderate scale operators will appear, but it is impossible to replace the small-scale peasant economy in the short term. According to the current calculation of 200 million farmers in China, there are 2 billion mu of arable land in the country, with an average of 10 mu per household, but if each household manages 100 mu as the standard of family farms, 2 billion mu of arable land can only accommodate 10 million family farms. From 200 million farmers to 10 million family farms, this road still has to go slowly.

At present, 200 million farmers in China cultivate the largest amount of land in China and produce the most important agricultural products in China. Obviously, these farmers should not be excluded from agricultural modernization. Even agricultural modernization must mainly target these 200 million farmers, cheer and cry for these 200 million farmers, respond to their difficulties and solve their problems. The country's main financial funds for supporting agriculture should also be used to solve their problems.

The bad thing is that at present, most of the country's agriculture-related policies and the general orientation of the media are greedy for foreign countries, dislike the poor and love the rich, and under specious worries such as who will farm in the future, abandon small farmers through agricultural modernization. even support capital to defeat small-scale farmers: typically, they give scale operation various policy support and financial subsidies, but abandon small-scale farmers.

Under the background of urbanization, under the conditions of market economy, and under the situation of a large number of rural young adults coming to cities to work and do business, those who are still unable to leave agricultural income and employment are mainly middle-aged and elderly farmers who lack employment opportunities in cities. These middle-aged and elderly farmers can not do without agriculture, which does not mean that they can only rely on a single family to grow good land.

There is a contradiction between small farmers and socialized large-scale production. Whether and how the state can provide basic social services for small farmers and solve the common production affairs that are difficult for them to do well are the basic premise of whether small farmers can continue to obtain employment and income from agriculture. Without the support of the state, basic production conditions and social services, small farmers will go bankrupt, they will not be able to stay in rural areas, they will be displaced, and they will become the greatest unstable force in China's modernization. The main goal of the country's agricultural modernization at present and for a long time in the future is to meet the urgent needs of small farmers and to solve their problems and difficulties for more than 200 million small farmers.

Only more than 200 million small farmers can still obtain employment and income from agriculture, and farmers can still live in rural areas, can China's modernization continue to move forward under the stabilizer and reservoir in rural areas. At the current stage of China's development, agricultural modernization not only cannot abandon the modernization of small farmers, but must also serve small farmers as the focus of agricultural modernization. it is to use modern technology, equipment, information and organizations to help small farmers' agricultural modernization.