China will help farmers to build up modern agriculture

The proportion of professional farmers with a high school education or above should be above 35% by 2022.

China has vowed to realize agriculture modernization by 2035 and make “decisive progress” in improving agricultural quality, the latest government guideline showed. According to the guideline issued by seven government bodies, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China will enter a period of important strategic opportunity in the next five years as the focus on agriculture turns to higher quality development.

The guideline promoted three main methods as a way to achieve this goal: industrial cooperation, efficiency elevation, and international competitiveness. Respectively, the scale of livestock and poultry farming must reach 66% and the proportion of demonstration areas for aquaculture should take up at least 65%. Agricultural productivity must get 55,000 yuan（8203 dollar） per capita and the integrated mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvest should reach 71%, with the fertilizer and pesticide efficiency at above 41%. In terms of the quality of farmers, the guideline aims to train more farmers with professional skills by 2022. Specifically, it stressed that it is necessary to cultivate more than 5 million professional farmers with systematic knowledge and advanced skills, and the proportion of professional farmers with a high school education or above should be above 35%. The guideline also aims to improve grain dealers and agriculture-related enterprises’ international competitiveness, calling on more of them to go overseas and uplift the export volume of agricultural products to an average annual rate of 3%.

(People’s Daily)