Semi-farming: the self-balance of Peasant families

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When I returned to my hometown for the Spring Festival this time, there were several new buildings in the village. Young people all go out to work, so the responsibility of building houses is of course borne by the elderly. I can't help feeling that the old people in the countryside are really busy, not only farming and raising children, but also building houses. Almost every household in the village has built buildings, with two floors low and four or five storeys high. To build such a building, it will cost at least 200000, and as many as four or five hundred thousand. Building a house is a major event for every family in the countryside. Building a house, marrying a wife and having children are the three major tasks of life. A young family can live a comfortable life only when it has a house and a small family of its own. Nowadays, if young men in rural areas want to get married, buildings are a necessary condition. Girls with good conditions require not only buildings in the countryside, but also commercial houses in the city.

Uncle Kikyo, 64 years old, is an old carpenter in the countryside. he is skillful in craftsmanship, and he can draw, carve and write calligraphy. he has brought nearly 20 apprentices. He said that he had built three houses in his life, the first was when he was 27 when he was married and separated, he built a dirt house; the second time he built a green brick house with a layer of dirt on it in the 1990s, with a total of two storeys. At that time, such a green brick house was the best in the village; the third was a four-story reinforced concrete building that had just been built in recent years, and the foundation was particularly deep. He said that the earthquake of magnitude 7 or 8 could not be knocked down.

Uncle Kikyo's sons and daughters didn't take the money to build this house. This is a question in my mind. The old couple planted more than a mu of land, and the income from farming is very meagre. What is known is that the government has compensated 100000 yuan for the construction of highways in the past two years, but it is far from enough to build a four-storey building. After talking carefully with Uncle Kikyo, I learned that it took two and a half years from the start of the building to the construction of the frame, and many of the jobs that should be hired were not invited, all by Uncle Kikyo himself. He uses his spare time to lay foundations, pick bricks and carry sand. As long as he can do it, he will not hire anyone. This is a semi-contracted worker.

According to Uncle Kikyo, there is a difference of more than one hundred thousand yuan between the semi-contractor and the full-contract union to build a building. At present, many houses in rural areas are semi-contracted workers. If you ask carefully, you will know that the buildings of many families in rural areas are built by their parents with the money they have saved and semi-contracted workers in their leisure time. Some young people come back with some money when they work outside the home, while others don't.

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For ordinary families, it is almost impossible to build such a building without the help of the elderly. Many young people told me that they didn't know how to live without the support of their parents. Even if they stay in the village, it will be very difficult for them to accomplish so many things that their parents do: they have to work in the fields, take care of their children, and build houses. They prefer to go out to work.

The children of most families are left at home a few months after birth by their grandparents, and if they are brought to the city, not to mention that education, health care and other security do not cover the groups of migrant workers, even if various institutional conditions are available, to bring children to the city at least one person at home to take care of the children. If you bring your grandparents from your hometown to the city, you will not only lose a share of your hometown's income, but also increase the pension burden of young people. Working income is very limited, although it is not very good for children to stay at home, it is probably the best choice for many families under the current conditions.

Young people just got married, and the small family they set up belongs to the initial stage of the family life cycle, and all aspects need the support of their parents. The elderly should take care of their children, let them have a stable place to live when they work home, have a place for reunion during the Spring Festival, comfort the tired body and mind of working in big cities, and have basic living security when they return home during the off-season. Wandering emotions can also have some sustenance.

It is not a bad thing for the elderly to stay in the countryside. They can work in the fields in the countryside. They can bring their grandchildren to chat and bask in the sun. They have fields, greens and friends. They work hard but live healthier lives than they do in cities. It is very common for two old people in rural areas to take three or four grandchildren. Several sons go out to work, and their children are handed over to their parents. Such "work intensity" and "work efficiency" are limited to the rural acquaintance society. Because "this hug and that hug will be over for a day", there is almost no need to worry about safety. When they enter the city, the elderly become pure consumers, but they are productive forces in the countryside.

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Of course, the above analysis is that for general agricultural areas, there are no such problems in coastal rural areas, suburban rural areas or resource-based villages. For the general agricultural villages that account for the majority of the country, it can be said that the balance of farmers' families hangs by a thread, which is based on the half-work and part-time farming model based on the intergenerational division of labor. Here, half-farming is particularly important. It can be said that semi-ploughing has maintained the safe value of the burden coefficient of rural families in general agricultural areas, so that parents can provide necessary support for their children, families of their children can make a smooth transition, and villages are promoted by villages and cities. The process of urbanization has been carried out smoothly.

In this sense, semi-ploughing does not hinder urbanization, but promotes steady urbanization. Semi-farming, to put it more colloquially, means that parents cultivate land, raise children and build houses at home. With only part-time work, the balance will immediately turn out of balance, leading to family instability and even social unrest. Semi-ploughing is also very simple and easy to implement, so that parents can stay in the countryside and have land to grow. For parents, although it is very hard, it is also a kind of enjoyment to be hard in the place where we have lived and worked for generations. I have to say that part-time farming is an exquisite family structure. If we forcibly promote the transfer of land, or forcibly destroy the village, we can imagine the consequences. It is easy to destroy the village, but it may be very difficult to restore the already fragile ties in the local society.

The old man in the countryside, smoking a self-made cigarette, sat in the shade of a tree or walked in the field with a look of satisfaction in his eyes. This sense of meaning and spiritual satisfaction was tied to the local land. At present, the half-work and part-time farming model also goes beyond the general political and economic significance, but also related to the local civilization and the dignity of many people.