"Young people don't know how to farm, and old people can't farm so much." Who will farm in the 21st century? The title of farmers calls for new farmers
[Reporter Li Tengfei from China News] On October 31, the official WeChat account of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security posted an article, which made Li Yongping and Yu Jiang celebrities.
In the following month, their names and a certificate in their hands frequently appeared in comment topics on various media platforms.
According to the press release titled "Shijiazhuang, Hebei: Two Farmers Awarded Farmer Titles", Li Yongping and Yu Jiang passed the evaluation of Shijiazhuang's new professional farmer titles by virtue of their hard theoretical knowledge and rich practical experience in production. The city is the first to obtain a new type of professional farmer with a junior professional title.
"Planting a land and raising a pig, can you be evaluated for a job title?" "Farmers are also starting to introvert?" "If you have a job title, will you pay five social insurances and one housing fund?" Hot words that are often seen in urban workplace circles appear in the In the rural farming circle, the strong contrast set off a wave of public opinion, and questions such as "is it necessary" and "what's the use" followed.
On September 23, the Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival, Changsha Longping Rice Farming Park held a rice harvesting competition to compete in field skills such as harvesting, threshing, and grain harvesting.
(Photographed by China News Agency reporter Yang Huafeng)
There are only "6038 troops" left in the countryside, and the aging force is forcing agriculture to improve efficiency
"Professional technology series: new professional farmers; professional name: agricultural product processing; qualification name; farmer assistant engineer..." Opening Yu Jiang's professional title certificate, the first page displayed this information.
How can farmers get involved with engineers?
The emergence of this combination, which is different from the daily cognition of Chinese people, stems from the changes in the agricultural environment.
In 2013, the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences conducted a survey and statistics. The average age of farmers in the province has reached 58.6 years old, mainly the elderly.
At the provincial agricultural work conference that year, Xu Ming, the then vice-governor of Jiangsu, specifically raised this issue and asked for great attention.
Data show that in the past 20 years, China's rural areas have been in a state of net population loss, and the rural population has dropped from 808 million in 2000 to 509 million in 2021.
With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, a large number of young and middle-aged laborers in rural areas have been transferred, leaving only the "6038 troops" (old people, women).
Following "Who will feed the Chinese people in the 21st century", "Who will farm the fields in the 21st century" has become another hot topic that the whole society pays attention to.
"Young people don't know how to plant land, and old people can't plant so much land." In June last year, at the group discussion meeting of the 17th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Wu Zhiming, member of the Standing Committee, introduced his feelings of research in Gansu and other places. "This is part of the current situation of China's agriculture and rural areas. The changes in the countryside are a natural phenomenon that does not depend on human will. It is also a reality that the young 'second generation of farmers' and 'third generation of farmers' will most likely not return to farming."
There is a shortage of human resources in rural areas. How to plant more land with fewer people requires a large number of high-quality talents to fill the gap and improve the output efficiency of agriculture.
Aiming at the common problems of aging farmers, part-time jobs, fragmentation, and sideline jobs at the national level, Gao Qun, an associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Management of Nanchang University, once told the media that under the background of rural revitalization, farmers' professionalization is a kind of Direction of development.
The issuance of professional titles is a good strategy for selecting, retaining, educating and employing talents in rural areas.
Chen Li, a 42-year-old native of Changsha, Hunan, is an old farmer who has been farming for 15 years.
In 2021, he was rated as a "Senior Farmer", and this year he was awarded the first batch of "Rural Revitalization Agronomist" junior titles in Hunan Province.
(China-Singapore video screenshot)
Participating in the title of "agricultural technology" can make you rich and bring wealth to all
Obviously, Li Yongping and Yu Yang are talents that need to be retained in rural areas.
On October 10 this year, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Implementation Plan for the Evaluation of Professional Titles of New Professional Farmers in Shijiazhuang City". , rural e-commerce, farmers’ professional cooperative services and other professional skills, and their income mainly comes from new-type professional farmers who have reached a certain level of agricultural production and operation.
According to the document, professional farmers who have mastered agricultural expertise are formally included in the scope of talent evaluation, which aims to further guide and encourage all kinds of talents to start businesses in the frontline of rural areas.
"The person in charge of the deer and horse planting professional cooperative in Luquan District, Shijiazhuang" - this is Yu Jiang's identity when he participated in the evaluation of the title of farmer.
According to Tianyancha information, the registered capital of Luma Cooperative is 1 million yuan, and its business scope includes the planting and sales of wheat, corn, fruits and vegetables, and Chinese medicinal materials; agricultural technology promotion and agricultural technology services; poultry and livestock breeding.
According to Yu Jiang, the cooperative requires participants to be serious farmers, "there are certain requirements for planting scale and agricultural technology."
In 2011, Yu Jiang, who was engaged in chemical fertilizer sales in the city, decided to resign and return to his hometown to farm.
According to his self-report, relying on the popularity and reputation accumulated by his parents, he got 8 mu of land from the villagers on credit, and planted all of them with corn and wheat.
Afterwards, in order to create economies of scale, he began to form cooperatives, allowing farmers to join in the form of land or capital shares.
By 2021, the number of shareholders of the cooperative has reached 102, with a land area of more than 3,000 mu.
In the cooperative in Yujiang, the land spraying work is done by drones, and the technicians have drone driving licenses. The tractors used to cultivate the land work more than 100 mu of land every day.
Like Yu Jiang, Li Yongping also owns his own business.
In 2015, Li Yongping's Yongfei Family Farm was established. Its business scope includes crops, grains, seedlings, flowers, Chinese herbal medicines, fruit trees, fruits and vegetables, edible fungi, afforestation seedlings, greening landscape seedlings, forest tree breeding, seedling planting and sales.
In addition, the prevention and control of crop diseases and insect pests; land consolidation, soil remediation; technical consultation on agriculture and forestry planting are also the service items of the farm.
Today, the farm operated by Li Yongping has driven more than 500 households, covering an area of more than 1,200 mu, updated and promoted more than 20 varieties, and increased income by more than 1.1 million yuan.
Farmers in many places have been evaluated as "high-level" what to do next?
"Assessing titles for farmers" is not new.
In 2018, the No. 1 Central Document pointed out that to implement the rural revitalization strategy, it is necessary to break the bottleneck of talents, "vigorously cultivate new types of professional farmers, and encourage localities to carry out pilot projects for the evaluation of professional farmers' titles."
At the local level, in July 2017, Zhejiang Province proposed to break the constraints of household registration, region, identity, and personnel relationship, and include new professional farmers in the scope of evaluation of agricultural professional titles, with unified evaluation and unified certificates.
Three years later, four people including Bo Yongming became the first batch of "professional farmers" with senior professional titles in Zhejiang Province.
At the same time, Gansu, Shandong, Hubei, Ningxia, Guangdong, Jilin and other places have successively carried out the evaluation of professional farmers' professional titles, and many professional farmers have been evaluated as "positive and senior".
Different from the evaluation of professional titles by ordinary professional and technical personnel, the evaluation documents of farmers' titles in many places all mention that it is necessary to break the restrictions of "education, papers, and qualifications" and focus on examining their technical level, performance contribution, economic and social benefits, and exemplary driving effects. hero.
The evaluation of Shijiazhuang does not require the majors, papers, scientific research, etc. of the participants, but the number of acres of grain planted, the number of dairy cows raised, and the number of acres of aquaculture are listed as the basis for the evaluation.
In an interview with China News, Li Ling, a professor at the School of Applied Science and Technology of Beijing Union University, emphasized that the farmer title evaluation system must also have supporting measures and strict evaluation conditions to ensure that the entire process of farmer title evaluation is standardized, open, fair and transparent , to ensure the sustainability of the review.
Li Ling suggested that policy support should be increased so that farmers who have obtained professional titles can receive special support in terms of funds, credit, and technology promotion, as well as targeted training and tailor-made services, so as to obtain clear benefits. Affordable.
In this way, it can not only mobilize the enthusiasm of professional farmers to participate in the certification, but also innovate the way of agricultural subsidies. Farmers who have obtained professional titles can improve their production and management conditions, enhance their leadership capabilities, and play a leading role.
According to the reporter’s review, the Shijiazhuang farmers’ professional title evaluation plan proposes that a one-time reward of 2,000 yuan will be given to new-type professional farmers who have obtained intermediate professional titles; for individuals with new-type professional farmers who have obtained junior professional titles, counties (cities, districts) are encouraged to give certain subsidies. one-time grant.
Farmers with professional titles selected by the Ningxia pilot evaluation, farmers with the title of "deputy senior" are at the same level as associate researcher and associate professor, but apart from a one-time bonus ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 yuan, there are no other supporting benefits.
Li Ling said that there are quite a few relevant certificates issued to farmers by various departments at present, but the ultimate goal of policy implementation is not to give them any titles, but the key lies in how to do a good job in system guarantees, conduct standardized assessments, and train them to be more practical. Talents, let these people play a greater role in rural revitalization, and promote common prosperity in the countryside.
(End) ("China News")