China eyes more professional farmers amid rural reform

In fur coat and boots, Wang Cuifen is hardly your stereotypical Chinese farmer. The 46-year-old grows wheat and corn like her rural peers, only her farm covers 133 hectares, having acquired land-use rights from other villagers in Gaomi, east China's Shandong Province. "Unlike my parents, I view farming as a profession and a career," Wang said. She constantly travels to attend agricultural training courses. Wang is one of a rising number of professional farmers who are more technologically astute and often rent land from other farmers. A central rural work conference in December said China would train more such professional farmers as part of rural reform and agricultural modernization. The initiative came as China struggled to improve agricultural efficiency amid a decrease of rural labors. China introduced a household contract responsibility system in rural areas in the late 1970s, greatly emancipating productive forces in the countryside, but the farming pattern of the small-scale peasant economy and the meager income from croplands could hardly attract the younger generation of farmers. As about 260 million former residents of the countryside have become migrant workers in cities, farmland is left unattended or in the care of the elderly. A survey shows that 32.5 percent of Chinese farmers are over 50 in 2006, while only 7.7 percent of youngsters from the countryside are willing to take up farming. The ageing agricultural population has also slowed the uptake of new technology and and equipment. The transfer rate of agricultural technological achievement during the 11th five-year period only stood at 40 percent, far lower than developed countries. "A key to food security is a large number of professional farmers who have a good command of technology," said Liu Tongli, deputy director of Shandong provincial agricultural management office. Like doctors and lawyers, professional farmers earn money from farming and possess specialized knowledge, said Prof. Zhu Qizhen, of the China Agriculture University, suggesting a complete farmer education and training system be set up soon. Other experts said the rise of professional farmers could also capitalize on the country's ongoing campaign to promote new rural production bodies, such as big specialized farms and cooperatives, to increase farm income. Last August, the Ministry of Agriculture announced training bases to be built in 100 counties over three years, expected to train 100,000 professional farmers.