中国需要专业的农民

In his annual Government Work Report, Premier Li Keqiang talked about the "new type of skilled farmer" that the country needs - also known as the "new professional farmer."

"On the premise of keeping household operations stable, we will support the development of large family farming businesses, family farms and pastures, farmers' cooperatives, leading agricultural enterprises, and other emerging agribusinesses; cultivate a new type of skilled farmer."

Yu Xuewen, a deputy at the ongoing session of China's top legislature, is one of the farmers the premier is talking about.

"We have been developing organic tea for over a decade. Currently, sales and exports, as well as the plantation area of our tea, rank first domestically."

Yu Xuewen came to Beijing from a small village in Wuyi County of east China's Zhejiang province twenty years ago. Since his hometown is famous for tea, Yu naturally started as a tea merchant. In 1998, after learning about organic tea at a training course provided by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yu decided to upgrade his product.

He studied the planting and cultivation of organic tea. At the same time, he opened an organic tea plantation back in his hometown.

After years of toil, Yu succeeded in making his organic tea well known in China. It has also gained fame in foreign markets.

"Our tea is mainly exported to the US. The amount accounts for around 20% of our production."

Professor Zhu Qizhen from China Agricultural University explains that a new professional peasant needs to meet certain new requirements if he or she is to rely on farming as the essential source of income.

"What makes the farmer new instead of being traditional is that he must have some knowledge about certain skills, he must be literate, and know something about management as well."

During the development of Yu Xuewen's organic tea business, he created an industrial chain that links the farmer, the plantation, and the tea brand to the market.

"Our company sets unified standards for managing and processing products, but the management of each plantation is attributed to its contractor. And each plantation has an ID so that the quality of the tea is guaranteed to be traceable."

Yu Xuewen's industrial chain of organic tea and other pollution-free teas covers about ten thousand farmers. Many contractors employ their own children who otherwise would have a hard time finding jobs, thus alleviating unemployment among the younger generation of farmers.

Nurturing new professional farmers like Yu Xuewen is certainly not an easy task. It calls for more education for farmers so that they can learn new technologies and skills.

But Professor Zhu Qizhen emphasizes education isn't all.

"The farmers should also have land. Without land, one can never be a new professional farmer. That's why a land transfer plan is necessary. The government has been promising to transfer more land use rights to those who are good at farming. And after ensuring that farmers have land to rent, it is also important for the government to provide subsidies, supporting policies and service for farmers."

Subsidies serve as stimulus for farmers to devote themselves to the land. However, there's a risk for abuse.

As another deputy, the party chief of Huafeng village in Zhejiang province, Zhu Zhangjin points out, subsidies are given to farmers only according to the coverage of the land contracted by them. Efficiency of land use is not considered, so many peasants don't bother to farm all the land they control. This leads to a significant amount of acreage being wasted.

To fix the loophole, Zhu Zhangjin has brought his own suggestion to this session of the National People's Congress.

"My advice is that the subsidies should be linked to the crops that are being planted on a certain piece of land. The more one plants, the more subsidies he gets. The less one plants, the fewer subsidies there are for him. If one doesn't grow anything on his land, he shouldn't get any subsidies at all."

Zhu Zhangjin believes with an effective land subsidy system in place, farmers will have more impetus to make good use of their lands, which is also vital to the nurturing of new professional farmers.

As a representative of the group, Deputy Yu Xuewen speaks about how to be a new professional farmer.

"You must adjust yourself to the times. It's crucial to keep studying extensively to improve yourself. Also, don't be content to stand still, or be too pessimistic either. Never succumb to the view that farmers are destined to be poor and underprivileged."

For CRI, this is Zhou Jingnan.