Get rid of the confusion of "who will farm?"

Editor's note: "filling boards" is a key part of the structural reform on the agricultural supply side, and it is also a specific requirement for this year's rural work put forward by the No. 1 document of the CPC Central Committee. At present, there are still many deficiencies and difficulties in China's agricultural development, especially modern agricultural development, in terms of industrial system, production system, management system and so on. In the final analysis, it is because there are "shortcomings" in three aspects: talent support, science and technology support and equipment support. In order to develop agriculture, we must explore the deep-seated reasons behind the agricultural "deficiency" and the ways to make up for the agricultural "deficiency".

At the national experience exchange meeting on the cultivation of new professional farmers held not long ago, Zhang Taolin, vice minister of agriculture, said that the special funds invested by the central government for the training of new professional farmers will increase from 1.1 billion yuan in 2014 and 2015 to 1.39 billion yuan in 2016. This means that since the "new professional farmers" was first put forward in the No. 1 document of the Central Committee in 2012, in view of the urgent and important problem of "who will cultivate the land and how to grow the land well", our country is constantly increasing the training of new professional farmers. strive to fundamentally make up for the "deficiency" of agricultural talents as soon as possible.

So, what is the current situation of "who will farm the land"? How to make up for the "deficiency" of agricultural talents?

The "mash-up" of new and old farmers will exist for a long time.

With a white T-shirt, jeans and leather shoes on his feet, Liu Fu, 39, came from the ridge of the field with a straw hat in hand, and two tractors were busy in the field behind him.

Liu Fuli, a native of Xindi Village, Xinzhou District, Wuhan City, has been working and doing business abroad since he graduated from technical secondary school in 1996. At the beginning of this year, Liu Fu decided to go home to look for opportunities, just as Lin Huowang, secretary of the party branch of Xindi Village, was looking for "capable people" to go back to his hometown to farm land. The two sides hit it off. Liu Fuli invested more than 500,000 yuan to transfer 800 mu of land, all of which were planted with rice.

Nowadays, more and more farmers like Liu Fuli return to their hometown to start a business. Most of these capable people who return to their hometown have accumulated a certain amount of capital, and the ideas and models of farming are obviously different from those of traditional farmers. "in the past, farmers used to grow a few mu of land of their own, and at most they gathered together the land of their relatives and friends to grow it, but the 'able man' understood the policy and the market, and from machinery, seeds to technology, it was basically the idea of industrialization and scale, and a large area was driven by one person." Lin Huowang said.

In Jinjing Town, Changsha County, Hunan Province, Huanglong, a young "farmer boss", is famous. Huang long began a small-scale land lease experiment as early as when he was in college. After graduating from Hunan Agricultural University majoring in plant protection, he contracted more than 1000 mu of land at home and set up a professional cooperative for agricultural machinery. Now all the farmers around him follow him in farming.

Compared with the talented people who return to their hometown, at present, the majority of the new farmers are the local capable people. In rural areas, most of the local talented people have skills, such as agricultural machinists, brokers, transporters, and so on, and some have served in township or village committees. They have broad horizons, flexible minds, and are good at seizing policy environment and market opportunities. More importantly, due to the local local connections, they show the advantages of acquaintance society in the transfer of land, employment, purchase of agricultural materials and so on. Shang Yue, a villager of Xuwei Township, Huaiyuan County, Anhui Province, has never left the local area in his life, but he is the largest farmer in the county. The agricultural machinery professional cooperative led by him has transferred more than 10,000 mu of land.

The new type of business main body, which is composed of capable people returning to their hometown, local capable people and a small number of entrepreneurs and white-collar workers, is beginning to change the pattern of agricultural management in China. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, in recent years, the annual land transfer area has reached 40 million mu, and the national land transfer area has exceeded 33%. There are nearly 900000 family farms and more than 1.4 million specialized farmers' cooperatives. However, scattered small farmers still account for the majority. Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Economic Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, believes that the phenomenon of mixed farming between new and old farmers will exist for a long time, but with the growth of new operators, the problems of "who will farm land" and "how to farm land" will continue to be solved.

Lack of "generalists" who know how to operate and serve.

Although new farmers continue to join, the "deficiency" of agricultural talents is still the key factor restricting agricultural modernization. Liu Tianjin, executive vice president of China Agricultural Radio and Television School, said: agricultural talents can be simply divided into two categories: scientific research and practicality. Judging from the situation that our country has a large population and little land, and the rural labor force leaves home, the current "shortage" of talents mainly lies in practical talents in rural areas, such as management talents, service talents, and so on.

Xinzhou District, Wuhan, a total of more than 1400 people, 4000 mu of arable land, less than 300 people farming, most of them over the age of 60. Wang Guiyuan, a 70-year-old villager, is a little powerless to work on 12 mu of land with his wife. He hopes that someone will transfer the land. Unlike Wang Guiyuan, Li Wenqi, a 64-year-old villager from Pingtou Village, Yongan Town, Liuyang City, Hunan Province, is reluctant to rent out the land. He feels relieved to grow a few mu of land. Ji Shaoqin, director of the Education Department of the Science and Education Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: at present, farmers are willing to lease land and those who are not willing to rent land. In fact, large-scale operation can be carried out through land transfer or socialized services. what needs to be solved now is the two major problems of agricultural management personnel and service personnel.

Despite the rapid growth, the existing talents who understand management in rural areas are still the biggest "deficiency" compared with the actual demand for appropriate scale operation of agriculture. Huang Yongzhong, director of the Agricultural Bureau of Liuyang City in Hunan Province, said: at present, there are many people who want to rent land, but there are still not many large operators who really have the strength, understand management, and are willing to work in the agricultural field for a long time. Some can't even pay rent when they encounter a poor harvest or other difficulties for a year or two.

There is a shortage of management talents as well as service talents. Zhu Xiuyan, 80, from Zhufang Village, Wuyang Town, Nanchang County, Jiangxi Province, like Wang Guiyuan, wants to rent the land, but no one rents it because the land is uneven. Local village cadres said that some people once wanted to unify planting services for the villagers, and the villagers did not have to transfer the land, but there were not many people involved and did not succeed.

The "last kilometer" of agricultural science and technology promotion is also "short legs". Cheng Huaan, 61, director of the Yangluo Street Agricultural Service Center in Xinzhou District, Wuhan, was originally retired because he was hired back because of "no successors". There are 28 people in this service center, with an average age of 47. Only 6 people are engaged in agro-technical professional services, and no fresh blood has come in in the past 10 years. It is reflected in various places that, in addition to aging, the aging knowledge of agricultural technicians is also relatively common, which does not adapt to the increasing and demanding production demand.

Agriculture should attract talents with benefit

Whether the "deficiency" of agricultural talents can be made up as soon as possible depends on many factors, such as benefit, policy environment and the intensity of personnel training, but the key lies in benefit.

In Wangting Village, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, Lin Yaping has devoted herself to agriculture since she graduated from plant nutrition at Yangzhou University. Now she is the deputy general manager of Suzhou Yuting Modern Agricultural Industrial Park Development Co., Ltd., and she created the "raspberry" strawberry brand with annual sales of more than 600,000 yuan.

College students like Lin Yaping who choose to work in agriculture after graduation are becoming fashionable. As a new farmer, the primary motivation to attract college students is agricultural benefit. Liu Furui, director of the Yonghe Village flue-cured Tobacco Cooperative in Liuyang City, Hunan Province, said: "there is no question of whether there are people to do it or not. there is only the problem of making money but not making money, and if there are benefits, some people will come."

The key to making new farmers profitable is institutional guarantee. At present, although land transfer is common, it is still in the stage of standardization. The length of the circulation period, the pricing of land rent, the form of contract signing and the distribution of land subsidies and income are basically private agreements, which are prone to disputes. New farmers often face the problem that their transferred land is repossessed for no reason, or rent increases at will, while old farmers also have to bear potential risks such as boss "breaking the contract" and "running away". All these require legal systems, policies and measures to standardize and guarantee, so that new and old farmers can be "reassured."

The intensity of agricultural personnel training also affects the growth speed and quality of new farmers. Modern agriculture has higher and more requirements for improved varieties, good laws and market management. Huang Biwen, from the old Luhu village in Luobo Town, Guangxi, returned to his hometown to grow vegetables after working for more than 10 years. Inexperienced, he signed up for a new professional farmer training class in Wuming District, Nanning City, and now he has become a new type of professional farmer who is "educated, technical, operational, and good at management." Huang Biwen's training transformation will become a sample of more new farmers. Ji Shaoqin, director of the Education Department of the Science and Education Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: this year, the central government has invested nearly 1.4 billion yuan, and the demonstration project for the cultivation of new-type professional farmers will be expanded to eight provinces, 30 cities, and 800 demonstration counties across the country. every year, the training of 1 million new vocational farmers will make the fields of hope more sunny.