Law on Agricultural Technology Popularization: increasing funds for Agricultural Technology extension year by year

Grass-roots professional and technical posts are not less than 80%

Beijing, 24 Apr (Renmin Ribao)-- according to the draft amendment to the Agricultural Technology Popularization Law, the professional and technical posts of agricultural technology extension institutions at the county and township level are not less than 80% of the total number of posts.

The draft standardizes the staffing and structural ratio, and stipulates that the people's governments at or above the county level shall reasonably determine the staffing of national agro-technical extension institutions to ensure the performance of public welfare duties; the main posts in national agro-technical popularization institutions are professional and technical posts, and the professional and technical posts of county and township agro-technical popularization institutions shall not be less than 80% of the total posts, and that of other agro-technical popularization institutions shall not be less than 70%.

The draft also standardizes the qualifications of agro-technical personnel, stipulating that the professional and technical personnel of national agro-technical extension institutions shall have the corresponding professional and technical level and meet the requirements of post responsibilities; the newly employed professional and technical personnel shall have a college degree or above, and shall pass the professional and technical level assessment organized by the relevant departments of the people's government at or above the county level. With the approval of the relevant departments of the people's government at the provincial level, newly employed professional and technical personnel in areas exercising regional ethnic autonomy and in poverty-stricken areas determined by the state may be relaxed to technical secondary school or above; in order to properly solve the problem of the convergence of the new and old systems, if the existing personnel do not reach the corresponding professional and technical level, the transitional measures shall be determined by the relevant departments of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Regional agro-technical extension institutions may be set up

Beijing, 24 Apr (Renmin Ribao)-- the draft amendment to the Agricultural Technology Popularization Law has added a provision that regional agro-technical extension institutions can be established.

According to reports, grass-roots national agro-technical extension institutions were set up on a township basis in the past. In recent years, with the improvement of local traffic, information and other conditions, in order to facilitate the concentration and management, some places have explored the establishment of agricultural technology extension institutions according to the region.

In accordance with the requirements of the Central Committee's document No. 1 of 2009 for the general improvement of township or regional agricultural technology popularization and other public service institutions throughout the country, and the spirit of the relevant documents of the State Council, combined with the actual situation, according to the principle of scientific rationality and concentration of strength, as well as the distribution of agricultural characteristics, forest resources, water systems and water conservancy facilities in the county. Set up county, township or regional national agro-technical extension institutions in accordance with local conditions.

At the same time, the draft stipulates that the management system of national agro-technical extension institutions at the township level should be improved, which shall be specifically determined by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Funds for agricultural technology extension will be increased year by year.

Beijing, 24 Apr (Renmin Ribao)-- in order to solve the problems of insufficient investment and weak guarantee capacity in agro-technical popularization, the draft amendment to the Law on Agricultural Technology Popularization stipulates five specific safeguard measures.

These five measures include:

The first is to establish a mechanism for the steady growth of funds for agro-technical popularization, and the people's governments at all levels shall guarantee the funds used for agro-technical popularization in their financial budgets and increase them year by year in accordance with the provisions. The relevant provisions refer to the Agricultural Law and the relevant documents of the Central Committee and the State Council.

The second is to ensure the working funds of grass-roots agro-technical extension institutions, which are determined according to the scale and performance of local services, and jointly borne by finance at all levels; the central government subsidizes major agro-technical popularization.

The third is to ensure the working conditions of agro-technical popularization, and the people's governments at all levels shall take measures to ensure that national agro-technical popularization institutions have access to necessary working conditions such as test and demonstration places, office premises, extension and training facilities and equipment; local people's governments at various levels shall ensure that the test and demonstration places, means of production and other property of national agro-technical popularization institutions are not infringed upon.

Fourth, encourage and support graduates of colleges and universities and scientific and technological personnel to engage in agro-technical popularization at the grass-roots level.

Fifth, governments at all levels may adopt ways such as purchasing services to guide all kinds of organizations and individuals to participate in agro-technical extension services; to carry out agro-technical extension services for all kinds of business organizations or individuals, the state shall give preferential treatment in terms of taxation and credit.