At present, agriculture in China is moving from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and the pattern of agriculture, countryside and farmers is undergoing positive changes, and various social forces and social capital are actively marching into the field of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Under this background, a group of new farmers with enthusiasm and ideals for the cause of agriculture, countryside and farmers have been born, which have injected new elements and energy into the transformation of traditional agriculture and become a new force to lead new farmers, develop new countryside and support new agriculture.
On February 7th, 2015, Ali Research Institute released the Research Report on New Farmers in China (2014). According to the report, by the end of 2014, the number of new farmers had exceeded 1 million in a narrow sense.
According to the analysis of Ali Research Institute, the narrow sense of new farmers refers to those who use the Internet as a tool to engage in agricultural production, circulation and service, and its core is "agriculture+Internet"; In a broad sense, new farmers refer to people who have internet thinking and serve the fields of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and their core is "agriculture, rural areas and farmers+Internet". The services referred to here include not only production-related services, but also regulatory services and research services.
In fact, the connotation and extension of new farmers are far from being summarized by the above analysis. In addition to using Internet tools and Internet thinking, all kinds of people who use other brand-new ideas, ways of thinking and modes of production and marketing, embark on the road with entrepreneurial dreams and pursue new life values, and aim to innovate agriculture, change farmers and transform rural areas should be included in the group of new farmers.
This is a group of dream catchers and entrepreneurs walking on the land of China; This is the promoter and leader of a new wave of contemporary rural construction in China; This is a subversive and upgraded version of traditional farmers and new professional farmers. They come from a wide range of sources, and many people cross the border, including returning entrepreneurial college students, urban white-collar workers, college student village officials, online merchants, scientific and technical personnel, NGOs and other people from all walks of life.
Before and after the Spring Festival, semi-monthly reporters went deep into Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Jilin, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hainan and other places, extensively visited new farmers, entered their spiritual world, understood their happiness in the process of starting a business and the hardships behind them, and judged the far-reaching significance of this group in promoting agricultural modernization in China. (Thematic Planning: Wang Yongxia)
-New Farmers: Pursuing Dreams and Farming the Blue Ocean (Part I)
Zhang Chi, an IT person: Let the summer lilies touch the net in full bloom.
When the reporter came to the agricultural base run by Zhang Chi, a new farmer in Guyi Town, Qionglai, Sichuan, he was carefully examining the newly-developed lily buds in the soil. These seeds were planted in December last year, and now it is the key period to break ground.
Zhang Chi once worked for a well-known IT company in Beijing, and he was well versed in the operation of the Internet and new media, with a high annual salary. However, in 2012, he resolutely devoted himself to agriculture, and took several small partners to set up an ideal plump agricultural company in Sichuan and planted lilies. "A trip to Xinjiang gave me a different view of agriculture, and the endless farmland brought me a huge impact. Compared with the environment where there were many buildings in Beijing before, I suddenly felt that I should invest my ideals in a broader land. " Zhang Chi said.
In recent years, many enterprise bosses have been farming in the countryside, and the big sales of Chu oranges, Liu peaches and Pan apples have made agriculture hot, but behind the bosses, after all, there are abundant funds and brand images that ordinary people do not have.
Zhang Chi has his own judgment: "In the era of agricultural reform, the traditional greatness and strength are not necessarily absolute advantages. What agriculture lacks is not capital, but more effective project management, which is in line with the spirit of the Internet. It is necessary to deeply understand the market and customers and leverage external resources. "
After sufficient market research, Zhang Chi finally locked in Lily with high added value as a breakthrough, built a technical team and company structure with the Internet model, and worked out a brand-new new media marketing model and product quality control method. It was this business plan that won 1 million yuan in venture capital.
"In summer, 100 acres of lilies bloom at the same time, which is very ornamental, suitable for creating a’ hundred years of harmony’ wedding theme agricultural leisure sightseeing, forming a customer experience different from traditional rural tourism; In autumn, lily roots are used for medicine and food, and social media such as Weibo and WeChat and B2B integrated marketing platform are used to establish marketing channels directly for high-quality customers across intermediate links. " Zhang Chi has answers about this.
2014 is the third year of Zhang Chi Company’s opening, and it has already started to make profits. This year, Zhang Chi recruited and opened stores in JD.COM and Taobao respectively to spread the brand. In addition to operating its own lily products, it also integrates high-quality resources such as walnuts, jujubes and raisins in Xinjiang. Although Zhang Chi’s Lily is mainly sold offline, the sales volume of online tourists is close to 20%. Zhang Chi said that they are planning to use crowdfunding for marketing in the next season’s lily sales.
In addition to the core technical links, the lily planting base in Relaxation, from planting and mulching, to weeding and fertilizing, and then to harvesting and tidying up the land, was all completed by local traditional farmers and paid wages. Zhang Chi introduced that in 2014, the company paid a total of 310,000 yuan to more than 150 local villagers to help them increase their income and get rich.
After many docking negotiations, Zhang Chi’s company successfully introduced new investment at the end of 2013. After the financial data of 2014 came out, Zhang Chi started the third round of financing: "Now the company’s shares are more valuable than before, and there are more financing sources to choose from."
However, Zhang Chi is not satisfied: "My own strength is definitely small. In addition to planning, having a team and actively docking capital, I have to cooperate."
In the era of mass entrepreneurship, many young intellectuals like Zhang Chi are setting off a new wave of going to the countryside and applying brand-new thinking to the development of modern agriculture. "The Internet is not only a channel and a tool, but also a creative spirit and innovative force." Zhang Chi said that their entrepreneurial dreams are blooming freely like summer lilies in the vast rural land.
Shi Yan, a female postdoctoral fellow: From "Little Donkey" to "Sharing Harvest"
"My name is Shi Yan, and I am a vegetable grower." Holding a cabbage in one hand, Shi Yan stood at the head of the "share the harvest" farm and told reporters. Chinese cabbage is the main vegetable in Beijing in winter. In the vegetable market, the price of a Chinese cabbage is around 3 yuan. "And the Chinese cabbage on our farm is nearly 30 yuan."
Despite the high price of vegetables, consumers are very enthusiastic about Shi Yan’s Chinese cabbage. Hu Fangjing, a citizen of Beijing, receives all kinds of vegetables from the farm every Saturday. In order to ensure that her son, who just turned two, can eat safely, she became a member with an annual fee of 8,000 yuan in advance last year. Average price per catty The price of vegetables in 15 yuan is 2-3 times more expensive than ordinary vegetables in farmers’ markets and supermarkets, but food safety reassured her.
Since its establishment in May 2012, there are more than 1,000 family members like Hu Fangjing, and Shi Yan’s team distributes seasonal vegetables once a week, weighing 8 kg or 10 kg each time.
"Sharing Harvest" is the second CSA (community supported agriculture) farm founded by Shi Yan. CSA is a new agricultural production model, which was born in Japan and Switzerland in 1970s. Based on mutual trust, consumers pay in advance for one year and buy farmers’ harvest for one year; Farmers, as promised, do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides at all to ensure that agricultural products are natural and pollution-free, while operators as intermediaries regularly deliver agricultural products to consumers’ homes.
In recent years, Shi Yan’s study and work have been around agriculture. In 2006, she was sent to the School of Agriculture and Rural Development of Renmin University of China for postgraduate study. In 2008, with the qualification of direct blog, she went to a farm in Minnesota, USA, to "jump the queue" for six months to learn the experience of "community supported agriculture" in the United States; In 2009, with the support of his tutor Wen Tiejun, Shi Yan opened up 20 mu of land at the "Little Donkey" farm at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain in Beijing to practice the CSA project, and served as the main person in charge of the farm. Later, she became a postdoctoral fellow in Tsinghua University, and her research direction was food safety.
Shi Yan said that the team has a dream that can be "quantified": "Every five consumers join, one mu of land can be detoxified; Every 10 consumers join in, and a farmer can farm organically; For every 100 consumers, five young people can stay and work in the countryside; Every 1,000 consumers join, and there will be a more sustainable village. "
It is understood that up to now, more than 500 CSA farms have been opened all over the country. In addition, thousands of family farms are operating according to the CSA model. In November 2015, Beijing will hold the 6th World CSA Conference in Shunyi District. Shi Yan hopes to bring more experience to domestic agricultural development, and let farmers, scholars and policy makers in other countries know about the current agricultural situation in China.
Hu Juan, a returning female college student: the "Goose Commander" by the lake.
"The lake is wide and ripe, and the world is full." Hu Juan, 27, lives in Yiyang City, near Dongting Lake. In 2011, she graduated from Beihang University, majoring in aircraft design and engineering. There is not much pressure to find a job. Most of the students choose jobs to enter the aircraft manufacturing center or the satellite launch center.
Hu Juan said that she didn’t like the noise, indifference and fast pace of big cities, but she missed her hometown in the countryside, which lived by the Dongting Lake before she was 12 years old.
"When I was a child in the countryside, everywhere was very lively, full of vitality, and harmonious. Now, when I go back to the countryside, only the elderly and children rarely hear some voices in broad daylight. Young people have left, and the countryside is getting more and more broken and deserted. I hope to go back there and see if I can do something. "
After many investigations, Hu Juan chose a small island in the middle of the river near Dongting Lake to raise geese. "I inquired through the internet and consulted some experts, knowing that the incidence of geese in poultry is the lowest."
Three months after graduation, she registered Hengxiao Goose Breeding Co., Ltd., and invested more than 100,000 yuan in a small island covering an area of about 200 mu, and began to build goose sheds, plant grass and transform low-lying land.
In order to save money, she didn’t build a house for people to live in, but temporarily lived in a boat. Together with the wind and waves, it is very uncomfortable to sway. In November 2011, she introduced 2,000 young geese and began to cultivate them.
Hu Juan recalled: "That time was the hardest. I have never suffered like that since I was a child." It was winter, and in order to keep the goose shed warm, she and the workers lit several stoves and kept them on for 24 hours. She works in shifts with two workers, and often comes from five or six in the morning to pick up dead branches and leaves for firewood, feed the goslings and add water. I don’t dare to sleep too hard, for fear of any accident.
The island is surrounded by water, and the wind on the river is cold and damp, and the cold is biting. Hu Juan didn’t leave the island for more than two months in the winter when he started his business. The first batch of goslings sold for more than 8 yuan a catty, with an average profit of only 14 or 15 yuan each. Hu Juan’s heart was so happy that he was admitted to the university that year.
The new year has begun, and she told reporters that she is ready to "return to the rivers and lakes" after sitting for a month. "Nothing happened in the past, but now I have suffered, and I have learned some lessons. I believe I can make a career in the countryside."
Zhao Yuanjian, a college student village official: driving young people to return home to start businesses.
In 2008, Zhao Yuanjian, a graduate of Finance Department of Hunan University of Science and Technology, came to Liuyuanqiao Village, Ziyang District, Yiyang City and became a university student village official. He said: "I am very interested in the countryside and agriculture, so I decided to be a village official."
At first, Zhao Yuanjian looked at the deserted village and was very anxious. He was worried that he would muddle along here and waste his youth. Fortunately, there are three agricultural products processing enterprises in the village, and some young people who are unhappy outside have returned to their hometowns to work. After contacting them, Zhao Yuanjian learned that they also have the same confusion: they want to do something in the countryside, but they have no direction and lack technology and ideas.
With the help of the platform of university student village officials, Zhao Yuanjian started a free agricultural training class in the village and invited agricultural technicians to attend classes. Using this class, Zhao Yuanjian got together with the young people in the village to start a business plan and mobilized four farmers to set up Yiyang Jiangnan Agriculture and Forestry Cooperative. Liuyuanqiao village has a tradition of planting seedlings and flowers, but it has always belonged to the mode of going it alone. The cooperative had a difficult start, but it soon showed its advantages, which increased the income of cooperative members by 20 thousand yuan a year.
After the benefits appeared, other farmers came to the door and asked to join the cooperative. "I was particularly touched at the time, and I was able to gain the trust of the villagers, which was more fulfilling than making money." Zhao Yuanjian said. Since then, he has built a leisure and sightseeing agricultural park with a group of young people in the village, and more than 10 agricultural products processing enterprises have also increased. More and more young people have chosen to return home.
After the villagers’ economic life improved, Zhao Yuanjian found that their cultural life was lacking, and most of their entertainment activities were playing mahjong and cards. Zhao Yuanjian discussed with the village cadres, organized the establishment of a women’s waist drum team, organized the villagers to dance square dance, and invited professional coaches. The villagers no longer had nothing to do.
"Agricultural Youth F4": Four Wonderful Flowers of glorious bloom
"Don’t underestimate the wonders. Everything that can change the world is wonderful." They named themselves Farmer4, also known as "Nongqing F4".
These are four young men with mud on their feet-Liu Jingwen, founder of Vigidani, Chen Tongkui, founder of Litchi in Huoshan Village, Zhao Yi, founder of local villagers, and Zhong Wenbin, founder of Xinnongtang. These four young people, who live in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou respectively, have been running on their respective tracks for a period of time, and all of them have finally devoted themselves to agriculture.
Zhao Yi, the only one of the four who majored in agriculture, studied biological science at China Agricultural University, and later founded the tea brand "Local Villagers". He built a transparent and traceable product supply chain, realized the producer real-name registration system, and recruited 400 Virgo netizens as supervisors, determined to sell pesticide-free tea on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
"Of the four of us, only I returned to my hometown to start a business, and I returned to my hometown." Chen Tongkui’s hometown, Boxue Village, Haikou City, is an ancient village with only 300 people. The land in the village is covered by volcanic rocks, which can be described as barren. He returned to his hometown and founded the litchi brand in Huoshan Village, selling litchi planted by the ancient method in the village to the outside world. He said that volcanic mud is rich in minerals, and the litchi planted is the best in the world.
Most of the new farmers are those with homesickness. Zhong Wenbin still remembers the frogs croaking in his hometown of Lin ‘an, Zhejiang Province on summer nights, as well as bamboo forests and tea leaves all over the mountains. However, after his grandparents died one after another, the number of times he went back to his hometown became a handful. A new electroplating factory was built near the village, which polluted the water and soil. He said that his hometown is in his heart and he can’t actually go back.
In the "Agricultural Youth F4", the other three people all deal with land directly, except Zhong Wenbin. He was admitted to the People’s Public Security University of China, then dropped out and was admitted to Zhejiang University. After graduation, he didn’t choose to make quick money, but chose to create a brand of new agricultural hall and build a learning and communication platform for new farmers. Zhong Wenbin said that he finally found the direction of life at the age of 30.
Liu Jingwen once summed up what four people have in common: they listen to their inner voices and are unwilling to slide along a fixed life track. The establishment of Vijdani can be said to be the result of Liu Jingwen’s free-wheeling and straying into the "Peach Blossom Garden". The young man talked about his two lost experiences in Xinjiang, and he still felt deeply. One of them met Aji, an old man, because he got lost. "The old man took us to see the small jujube forest in a donkey cart. The scenery along the road was so beautiful that we wanted to cry."
Vijdani is a transliteration of the Uighur word "conscience". Liu Jingwen set up a farmer cooperative in Xinjiang to help farmers sell dried fruits through the Internet. Liu Jingwen said that there are 2,000 cooperative farmers in the cooperative. These Uighur farmers do not understand Chinese, have never seen the Internet, and live in a place that seems unattainable. However, it is so wonderfully connected.
(Talk about the research team of new farmers in half a month. This article participated in the research: Mao Weihao, Zhou Nan, Hu Xu, Cao Lingjuan, Xiao Sisi, Li Song, Ji Zhepeng, Wang Zheng, Zhang Ying, Liu Weiwei, Xia Guannan, Richard Chang)
-New Farmers: Pursuing Dreams and Farming the Blue Ocean (Part Two)
The new farmers are coming towards us, carrying the spring breeze and marching clangingly. Du Zhixiong, deputy director of the Institute of Rural Development of China Academy of Social Sciences, who has been paying attention to the new farmers’ groups, believes that 2013 can be said to be the first year of new farmers, and the new farmers’ groups made their debut in a different attitude from traditional farmers.
In the view of Bi Huifang, founder of the New Farmers’ Federation, Sichuan is the first province in China to put forward the concept of new farmers, and the New Farmers’ Federation first appeared in Liaoning.
What is a new farmer? Where on earth did they come from? Where to go?
Looking at it in depth, the new farmers highlight their incomparable advantages and irreplaceable characteristics in comparison with traditional farmers and new professional farmers.
According to the definition of Wikipedia, traditional farmers refer to people who take agriculture as their occupation, including people who take planting, animal husbandry, forestry and other natural economic industries as their occupation. Self-sufficiency is its main economic activity mode, working at sunrise and resting at sunset is its main production and life style, and family system is its main production organization form.
In 2012, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee formally proposed to cultivate "new professional farmers". New professional farmers refer to agricultural employees who have scientific and cultural qualities, master modern agricultural production skills, have certain management capabilities, and live in rural areas or market towns with agricultural income as their main source of livelihood.
Compared with the new professional farmers, the new farmers are a breakthrough. In this new era, the word farmer has been given a new concept and meaning. The new professional farmers emphasize the mastery of modern agricultural production skills, which is its core feature. And what are the core features or genes of the new farmers? At present, it is being hotly debated, with different opinions and no conclusion. Simba in the Wild, the founder of the New Farmers’ Alliance, summed up four core values of the new farmers: new cross-border, new thinking, new technology and new circulation. According to the analysis of Ali Research Institute, there are four common characteristics of new farmers: Internet genes, innovation genes, cultural genes and group genes.
The semi-monthly research team on new farmers further summarized the core genes of new farmers into four genes: blue ocean consciousness, ecological concept, internet thinking and self-organization based on the actual research in various places.
Blue ocean consciousness
Wang Xiangdong, director of the Information Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that the new farmers may become the "third wave" of the changes in the agricultural population structure after the educated youth went to the countryside in the late period of the Cultural Revolution, but they are different from the previous two times. Because most people engaged in agriculture are not their own choice, but are organized and arranged, no matter whether the military reclamation people change jobs or the educated youth go to the countryside. But now the new farmers are different. It is their choice to take agriculture as their profession. They have a pursuit of exploring new agricultural markets, that is, opening up the so-called "blue ocean market".
Shenyang, a professor of Tsinghua University, also listed "positioning the blue ocean market" as one of the six characteristics of new farmers.
In the view of Ye Kaifeng, the head of Fuye Farm in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, the career of life should be put on something that is growing and forward-looking. Now, if you are involved in modern agriculture, you are the blue ocean pioneers. "It is a promising sunrise industry to strengthen the green and safety of agricultural products with refined production processes." Ye Kaifeng said that whoever takes the lead in this field first will be the darling of the future market.
After the three-dimensional vegetables were sold to 10 yuan for a kilo, Ye Kaifeng is planning to accurately market his own vegetables planted in the air with mobile APP to seize the opportunities of modern agriculture.
Liu Xiaoyuan, 35, once worked in a well-known foreign company and worked as an executive. In 2010, he saw the infinite business opportunities in agriculture, resolutely resigned from his job, went back to the village and plunged into the cave, and started the road of growing mushrooms in the cave.
The reporter met Liu Xiaoyuan in an abandoned cave in Fenzhuang Village, Xitian Gezhuang Town, Miyun County, Beijing. Compared with traditional greenhouse planting, cave planting has many advantages: it does not occupy a land, avoiding the high cost of greenhouse production; Mushroom growth depends entirely on pure and natural underground spring water; Not disturbed by any pests and diseases. Such original ecological cultivation makes the mushrooms here have good flower shape, thick color and fresh meat and delicate taste. Liu Xiaoyuan introduced that in the next step, he intends to use the space advantage of the cave to develop three-dimensional planting, and by then, his income can be doubled.
In Shanghai Kunshi Fine Agriculture Co., Ltd., Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, pear blossoms are full of dew, attracting tourists from far and near to enjoy the flowers. The fruits and vegetables produced here are hot-selling products on the Internet, and they are often snapped up. It is hard to imagine that it was Huang Xuheng, a doctor of psychology from Taiwan Province, China, who made agricultural management so prosperous. He graduated from Harvard University and taught at Yangming University in Taiwan Province.
Some people say that agriculture is a sunset industry, but Huang Xuheng does not agree with this. He said: "Everyone can’t live without food every day, so agriculture will always be a sunrise industry. The key depends on how to do agriculture." As the general manager of the company, Huang Xuheng has worked out the development road of "exquisite agriculture" combining high-tech planting and sightseeing management for Shanghai Kunshi from the very beginning. Pears should strictly implement "family planning", and only 35 pears are allowed for 3 years to ensure quality.
Drawing on Taiwan Province’s experience, Huang Xuheng also tried sightseeing agriculture in Shanghai. Lawns were planted under the fruit trees, and almost no bare soil was seen. In the gap between fruit trees or grass, it seems to be inadvertently dotted with leisure facilities such as cabins, promenades and swings, which is like a leisure resort.
Up to now, Shanghai Kunshi has developed more than 20 branches, including 50,000 mu of Hebei base and 170,000 mu of Chongqing base. "Since I was engaged in agriculture, my biggest feeling is that I am close to the land and embrace nature, bringing unspeakable physical and mental pleasure." Huang Xuheng hopes that "the Kunshan experience will be extended to other branches, so that more people can understand the charm of exquisite agriculture and participate in the team that is in close contact with the land."
"The innovation of formats is always presented and developed through the connection of inherent formats, the application of new technical means and the exploration of new demands." Wu Guoqiang, vice president of the Central Agricultural Radio and Television School, said that the emergence of new ideas such as leisure agriculture, sightseeing agriculture, experience agriculture, creative agriculture, exquisite agriculture, natural agriculture, smart agriculture, urban micro-agriculture and integrated agriculture was led and promoted by new farmers, which reflected their reference to international fashion agriculture.
Ecological concept
Food is homesickness in the bones. With the rapid expansion of cities, the distance between agricultural producers and consumers is increasing. Although the technology of food processing and preservation is changing with each passing day, food safety has become a problem that cannot be ignored.
Bi Huifang, the founder of the New Farmers’ Federation, said that new farmers should have the soul of new farmers, that is, ecological consciousness, and they must be "zero evil" in the food safety chain. All people who work in the agricultural industrial chain can become a member of the new farmers by virtue of their ecological consciousness, love and good deeds of seriously serving agriculture.
Zheng Xiang, who graduated from Sichuan Agricultural University, originally dreamed of sitting in the laboratory and studying new agricultural technologies. After living in the countryside for a period of time, he found that some farmers rely on chemicals to solve vegetable pests and diseases because of their older age and outdated ideas, and some advanced ideas and green prevention and control technologies are difficult to implement in the fields. Zheng Xiang wondered: "Why can’t we set up a team specializing in pest control?"
With the support of Beijing Plant Protection Station, in 2013, Zheng Xiang, together with more than 10 like-minded post-80s and post-90s, set up the first professional vegetable pest control service team in China-the Flying Tigers. The prescriptions for insect control prescribed by the Flying Tigers are unusual, often without any chemical agents, and they are all ordinary things like mustard and natural fungi. In the words of the team members, "everything has its vanquisher", these seemingly ordinary things are actually good pesticides given by nature.
At first, their alternative practices did not win the trust of farmers. Some people would exclaim in a skeptical tone: "Mustard can also kill insects?" The team members decided to build a model field. They rented a 150-mu vegetable field in Chengzi Village, Taishitun Town, Miyun County, and planted leeks that people recognized as difficult to prevent pests.
Walking into this model field, there are small inventions and new highlights everywhere. In the greenhouse, not only the special trap lamp for leek was installed, but also parasitic nematodes were invited to help kill leek maggots, and the whole process of green prevention and control was carried out.
The achievements of professional pest control of "Flying Tigers" have been gradually revealed. It has been verified by hundreds of greenhouses and greenhouses in many bases, such as the North Vegetable Garden Vegetable Cooperative Corporation in Yanqing County. In the professional prevention and control demonstration area they serve, the pests and diseases have been significantly reduced, and the vegetable yield per mu has increased by 300 kg to 500 kg.
Growing the best grapes is the pursuit of Ge Lingteng, the "king of grapes" in Tiantai County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. It is even necessary to sacrifice production for quality. One year in April and May, a late spring cold made the grapes uneven, and large and small fruits appeared. Employees say that these grapes can still be sold at a lower price, but Ge Lingteng must cut all the grapes. "I would rather not sell it than sell grapes that are not up to standard." Ge Lingteng said.
According to the survey conducted by reporters in the past half month, a group of new farmers have taken the lead in establishing a modern food safety traceability system. When there is a problem in any link of food quality, they can inquire through the traceability information (such as QR code) on the label, and clarify their legal responsibilities, thus building a solid food safety defense line.
Du Zhixiong commented that the new farmers are a group of ecological conscious people and industrial explorers. With a sense of social responsibility and mission, they guide farmers to the road of ecological agriculture development through the transformation of production methods and the application of ecological agriculture technology.
YOYO, a new farmer, left a message in the blog post: After changing into a new farmer, he gained a rare peace and tranquility. Just getting up every day to see the newly sprouted vegetable fields and the increasingly green cucumbers, I already feel full of strength inside, which is refreshing for a long time.
Internet thinking
In the Research Report on New Farmers in China (2014) published by Ali Research Institute, Internet genes are regarded as the core genes of new farmers, which is the biggest difference from traditional farmers and new professional farmers. The new farmer is defined as the product of the organic integration of the internet empowering agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and is the representative of advanced productive forces among farmers.
Like many post-80s generations, Wu Jiayuan, a new farmer in Hainan, can’t live without mobile phones, computers, internet, WeChat and Weibo. In May 2014, a large-scale slow-moving wax gourd appeared in Dafeng Town, Chengmai County, Hainan Province. When farmers were worried about sales, Wu Jiayuan posted on WeChat friends circle and Weibo: "Let’s help a group of melon farmers in Bailian, the old town of Chengmai County, Hainan Province. Everyone hopes that a boss will buy wax gourd as soon as possible, so as to reduce losses."
Unexpectedly, this WeChat and Weibo were widely forwarded, which attracted the attention of the local government and the media. Immediately, a campaign to help melon farmers "buy a love melon and deliver it home for free" was launched online and offline at the same time. In the end, the unsalable nearly 10,000 tons of wax gourd was quickly sold out.
As early as the opening, Jun Tang, the head of Sichuan Datang Happy Farm, joined some local media and self-driving associations to do some activities for marketing. Jun Tang himself is a new farmer activist who is active in Sichuan and even the whole country. At present, the number of fans of Jun Tang individual Weibo and Datang Farm associated with Weibo, represented by "Sichuan Wolf X9", has exceeded 10,000.
Bu Rui, the head of Jilin Changrui Food Co., Ltd., said that her green pork and green chicken are all sold online, especially through WeChat, where friends introduce each other and help promote sales.
"Simba in the wild" believes that new farmers with Internet thinking benefit from the openness and penetration of the Internet. New media has become an inseparable and important medium in the life of new farmers, and the circle culture of agricultural circle is gradually spreading outside the industry. It is precisely because of the empowerment of the Internet that new farmers have the ability to directly connect with the market, thus changing the previous situation of weak farmers’ information ability and starting from the end of the industrial chain to the front desk. Third-party e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and new media social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat have become the main business platforms and important Internet positions for new farmers.
Zhao Hui, 48, studied information technology, and began to engage in the development and application of network products. "What I first did was the agricultural information website, such as planting pests and diseases in the field and the quality and safety of agricultural products. Some farmers came to the company to ask some questions, and I couldn’t answer them for a while. " As a result, he joined forces with the Agriculture Committee and the telecommunications department to open the "Jilin Province 12316 New Rural Hotline Service Platform", with more than 600 experts, who answered various questions of farmers interactively every day. Over the past six years, more than 12 million telephone questions have been answered, which has helped farmers reduce costs and increase income by more than 8 billion yuan.
"In the process of dealing with farmers, it is not enough to give them information, but also to help them solve the problems of buying and selling." Zhao Hui began to borrow a boat to go to sea. He cooperated with Alibaba to promote the development of e-commerce and expand the sales of Jilin products. According to the statistics of Jilin Rice Museum on Taobao, since it was launched on April 8 last year, the number of transactions has reached 68,000, with a total sales of 510 tons of rice, ranking first in the whole network.
"This group of people grew up with the Internet. Compared with the traditional old farmers, they are rooted in Internet genes. They make good use of various Internet tools and media such as Weibo, WeChat, SNS community and social media to learn, communicate, build circles, and even build a network platform service and sell local specialty agricultural products." Zhang Hecheng, director of the Department of Market Economy and Information of the Ministry of Agriculture, said.
Zhang Hecheng said that most of today’s new farmers come across the border, which determines that their vision and career direction are mostly focused on marketing and circulation, and only a few new farmers are personally involved in planting and breeding. It is also the cross-border that brings different perspectives. In recent years, many of the agricultural products sales events show the new marketing thinking of new farmers.
Self-organization
"The new farmer is a humble little ant. To realize our value and mission, we must unite to form an ant army, and professional people do professional things and develop together." Wu Ying, founder of the Global Safe Food Alliance, said.
In Lingtou Village, Yankeng, Fengping Township, Songyang County, Zhejiang Province, there are 182 hundred-year-old wild persimmon trees, which are called "Golden Date Persimmons" by local people. During the harvest season at the end of October every year, villagers often get up at 3 o’clock in the morning, carry two loads of dried persimmons, walk for more than five hours to sell them door to door in the county, and sometimes have to stay in the city for one night to sell them out.
In 2013, driven by a non-governmental organization called Nature Creations, dried persimmons in the village were sold out and sold at a good price. This non-governmental organization visited farmers to trace the origin, creativity and promotion of jujube persimmon. They selected 1,500 kilograms of persimmons from the 10,000 kilograms they bought and put them on the market, and strictly controlled quality, packaging and logistics. Finally, a natural dried persimmon named "Good Fruit" has become a hot-selling item on the Internet.
"The industrial chain of new agriculture is not perfect and needs an organization. Xinnongtang is such a platform to promote the connection and communication of new farmers, so that every single weak new farmer can find a sense of existence and be armed with the power of small partners. " Zhong Wenbin, a member of "Agriculture Youth F4", said. In Zhong Wenbin’s view, every new farmer is like an island. At this time, it is necessary to have a force to keep everyone warm.
Since 2013, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Changsha and other places have organized off-line gatherings of new farmers. Some experts, scholars, government officials and representatives of new farmers have been calling for new farmers everywhere, and the post-80s and even post-90s agricultural practitioners all over the country have called themselves new farmers.
Self-organization, characterized by sharing and holding a group, is a unique feature of online merchants and one of the important genes of new farmers. Ali Research Institute pointed out that through self-organization, new farmers and people from all walks of life who are enthusiastic about the cause of new farmers have set up some platforms aimed at exchanging, helping each other and docking resources for new farmers, such as the New Farmers’ Union, the New Farmers’ Federation and the Farmers’ Home.
Based on these platforms, the cooperation between new farmers in different links of the value chain is deepening, and different new farmers have their own advantages in production, sales, marketing and service. Through self-organized platform organization, new farmers can find a wide range of partners and seize more new business opportunities, thus making the whole value network win-win. (Talk about the research team of new farmers in half a month. This article participated in the research reporters: Mao Weihao, Wang Zheng, Hu Xu, Liu Weiwei, Zhou Nan, Zhang Ying, Xiao Sisi, Xia Guannan, Li Song, Ji Zhepeng, Richard Chang)
-New Farmers: Pursuing Dreams and Farming the Blue Ocean (Part Two)
New farmers are in the ascendant, and their development process has also encountered some bottlenecks and troubles. The semi-monthly investigation team found that from the perspective of new farmers themselves, many people are enthusiastic and inexperienced, and they are not enough to prevent and control market risks; Lack of relevant technology and talent support; There are some contradictions and conflicts with local farmers in terms of concept integration and benefit sharing. From the perspective of government support, it is urgent to increase efforts in land supply, tax relief, financing, subsidies, agricultural insurance, training and other related supporting policies and socialized service systems.
Challenge new farmers: market experience and team training
"Agriculture is a relatively special industry. Without idealism, things can’t be done. The ideals and responsibilities are too heavy and a little beyond reality." "Simba in the Wild", the founder of the New Farmers’ Union, said, "Although agriculture is very hot now and a group of people have entered this industry, we should look at the market calmly and grasp the rhythm and deepen our cultivation."
In Lianxiang, Pengshui County, Chongqing, after accumulating a large amount of assets in the city, the new farmer He Shisu carried more than 10 million yuan and transferred nearly 3,000 mu of land to grow corn and sorghum. Luo Yuanjiang, director of the Agriculture Committee of Pengshui County, is not optimistic about the big project initiated by He Shisu. There are two reasons: first, the site selection is unscientific, and second, the infrastructure is seriously mismatched, resulting in high cost of growing grain.
According to He Shisu, she invested in building an 18-kilometer road leading to the village. In order to fertilize the land, she also pulled a wagon of 50 tons of dried chicken manure and organic fertilizer from Hebei. The cost of purchasing agricultural machinery, supplying electricity, supplying water, building supporting production warehouses and managing houses exceeds 10 million yuan.
In Luo Yuanjiang’s view, many new farmers, who are unfamiliar with rural areas and agriculture, sometimes treat agricultural investment projects too simply just because of their enthusiasm for land, lacking effective means of cost control and risk prevention. Once the capital chain breaks, it will hurt both themselves and others.
Wu Jiayuan, a new farmer in Hainan, said that many people tend to idealize modern agriculture and think that they will be rewarded as long as they work hard. However, without a reasonable plan, as long as there is a link that is not well considered, it will fall short.
For example, Hu Juan, a new farmer in Hunan Province, said that at the end of 2012, her goose-raising business was flourishing, but she didn’t take into account that the environment on the island was humid and the breeding environment had changed. In the first year, the breeding environment was relatively clean, and there were fewer bacteria. Later, the longer it was kept, the more bacteria accumulated in the humid environment, which led to the outbreak. One third of the geese died at the end of the year, and it was too late to save them by inviting experts from the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Bureau.
Hao Dongyun, director of the Biotechnology Research Center of Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, believes that it is not enough to invest only in the construction of new countryside, otherwise it will become a bottomless pit. He contacted many new farmers and put his enthusiasm and money into it. Not only did he lose all his money, but he even deserted his relatives. "The countryside has even become his sadness."
It is difficult to train talents, which also poses a great challenge to new farmers. "I am the youngest vegetable grower in the village, but I am over 50 years old." Lang Guangshan, a vegetable farmer in Tongzhou District, Beijing, told reporters that the reality of losing money has made vegetable farmers less and less. "There are fewer and fewer farmers themselves, especially young people. Among farmers, there are even fewer people who have had experience in planting organic vegetables. How to use farmyard manure and how to ferment it, so that people who use fertilizers don’t know this. "
Shi Yan, a farmer who shares the harvest, said that it is really difficult to find a farmer who can grow vegetables now. "I found someone to grow vegetables and told people that there was no need for fertilizers, drugs or hormones. They shook their heads and said,’ I can’t grow, you are kidding’. Now the people I hired, after a year of training and working for them, changed their thinking. "
Wu Wenliang, a professor at China Agricultural University, said that the future agricultural enterprises are all specialized companies. From the perspective of investment, the future agricultural talents must also be compound talents, who need to know not only agricultural technology, but also the market and solve problems with modern marketing thinking.
For young people who are new to agriculture, choosing agriculture is tantamount to choosing hard work. "Other things aside, it is not easy to persist." Zheng Xiang, the captain of the Flying Tigers in Beijing, said that due to the shortage of personnel, he posted posts on the websites of ChinaHR, Zhaopin.com and Worry-Free Future these two days. "There have been more than 20 people in the team, and the flow speed has obviously accelerated." Zheng Xiang is very helpless. "Many excellent players are forced to leave this job that they feel very fulfilled."
Liu Yanfei, the youngest post-90 s player, has not joined the Flying Tigers for a long time. In his view, although his income is lower, he can learn real skills. However, the ideal fullness can’t match the realistic bone feeling. At present, faced with the pressure of getting married and forming a small family, the young man began to hesitate, and how long he could persist.
Not acclimatized: Conflicts of interests and ideas need to be run in.
"Hometown means that you are dealing with uncles and neighbors, and you are watching your elders grow up. It is more difficult to go back to your hometown to do agriculture. There are too many emotions and too many contradictions in it. " Chen Tongkui, a member of "Nongqing F4", said that he adopted the highest purchase price in the market and made a "three chapters" with the litchi farmers who signed the purchase contract: no herbicides, no fertilizers, low toxicity and low use of pesticides, and hoped that after a period of practice, they would eventually not use pesticides. Some neighbors secretly used chemical fertilizers, and the result was naturally rejection. The original harmonious neighborhood relationship still has a knot.
Another cooperative farmer wants Chen Tongkui to underwrite all his lychees. "If you can’t do it, you will lose your temper and jump up at the entrance of the village, saying that it is a lie for college students to come back. Ripe lychees are not needed, and lychees are not ripe when necessary." Chen Tongkui said, "This is my home. I won’t be uncomfortable, but I do have some grievances." However, he is still willing to help farmers stick to the more time-consuming and labor-intensive traditional production mode and rebuild the trust between users and producers.
Similar contradictions and conflicts have been encountered by Wu Jiayuan, a new farmer in Hainan. He told reporters that when he first returned to the countryside, he found that the older generation of farmers were incompatible with their own ideas. "For example, the problem of planting vegetable varieties, planting varieties at a loss in the first year, absolutely no one dares to plant them next year. At that time, I suggested that I lost money in the first year, and I might make a lot of money if I planted it again next year after seeing the market situation clearly, but few people responded, and some even sarcastically said,’ Will you bear the risk of losing money?’ Fortunately, with the increase of agricultural cooperative organizations, more and more rural talents can accurately judge the market, but it is very difficult to change the old farmers’ long-established ideas. "
Zhao Yuanjian, a university student village official in Liuyuanqiao Village, Ziyang District, Yiyang City, Hunan Province, feels the same way. He said: "Seeing that the school in the village is very dilapidated, I suggested that the school be renovated. After all, the impact of education is far-reaching, but the villagers think that’ if you want to be rich, you should build roads first’, so you built roads first."
In Zhoutian Village, Qiuchang Town, Huiyang District, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, there is a Four Seasons Sharing Farm. The person in charge, Zhang Heping, once worked as a civil servant and went to sea for business. One day, he visited the fields. "I don’t know if I don’t leave, I will be shocked when I leave!" He found that farmers have long been accustomed to spraying pesticides to kill insects and watering vegetables with washing powder. His mother-in-law even "mentioned" him. "The vegetables watered with washing powder not only grow green, but also don’t grow worms!"
"Many farmers have completely subverted the traditional planting methods, and they still don’t know that pesticides will be toxic to the human body, and they are ignorant and fearless." From then on, Zhang Heping decided to abandon business and go into agriculture and explore organic agriculture.
In Shi Yan’s view, it is the key to increase farmers’ income and establish farmers’ trust in CSA model. "In fact, farmers’ willingness to do organic agriculture is still very strong, just because they are too influenced by the market and the weather and bear too many risks, so they often use pesticides and fertilizers as much as possible to protect their income, and the CSA mutual aid model can make farmers get a stable income."
Lang Guangshan, a farmer from Tongzhou, is one of Shi Yan’s partners. For every kilogram of vegetables sold on the farm, Lang Guangshan gets a share of 5.8 yuan, and underwrites 8,000 kilograms of vegetables every month. Excluding the cost of agricultural materials, he can earn at least 200,000 yuan a year. "If you want to get rid of insects, you must fight pesticides; To make vegetables grow fast, it is necessary to apply chemical fertilizers. Everyone has been doing this for more than 20 years. " Lang Guangshan said, "But now I grow vegetable gardens and I won’t do it anymore."
Liu Yi, assistant secretary-general of Sichuan Rural Development Promotion Association, who has long been concerned about the phenomenon of new farmers, said that new farmers have new ideas, new thinking and new technologies, but it is not easy to change the countryside and transform farmers. It takes long-term unremitting efforts, advanced ideas to drive, influence, communicate and exchange, and scientific and effective training and guidance to promote more old farmers to become new farmers.
Policy support system urgently needs to cover new farmers.
Du Zhixiong, deputy director of the Institute of Rural Development of China Academy of Social Sciences, once conducted a questionnaire survey on new farmers. The questionnaire shows that in some places, new farmers rarely get government funds and policy support, and rarely get support in training product certification and brand building. He called on the state to set up a "national prize for ecological (organic) agriculture", and the government, especially the governments below the county level, should pay special attention to the role of new farmers, incorporate their actions into the overall action of national ecological agriculture construction and development, allow them to undertake government-related ecological agriculture projects, and allow them to enjoy preferential policies for new business entities such as family farms and farmers’ cooperatives.
Gao Hongwei, who used to be engaged in the IT industry, has invested and started a farm "vegetable farmer’s house" in Tongzhou District of Beijing since 2012. What he is most worried about at present is "being demolished". There is less and less arable land in Beijing, and there are risks every day. I don’t know when it will be occupied. "Developing organic agriculture requires renting a piece of land for a long time, because the land on the farm uses organic fertilizer, and this land is getting fatter and fatter. We have finally fattened the land. Once the government is demolished or the farmers break the contract, the hard work and investment of several years will be ruined. "
Lack of land is a big problem faced by many new farmers who are trying to expand their business scale. Zhu Yuefang, the head of Zonghan Qingfeng Vegetable Farm in Cixi City, Zhejiang Province, runs more than 600 mu of land. He wanted to expand the scale of operation, but he was hit hard. At the beginning, more than 20 farmers who transferred the land wanted to take back the land and grow it themselves. "I work in a family, and one family went 8 times, but he still tried to take it back." Zhu Yuefang said.
Zhou Jianjun, the founder of Beijing Green Dragonfly Family Farm, said that the government subsidies are only for agricultural products, but the main management mode of Green Dragonfly Family Farm today is to promote the experience agriculture of "renting land for farming", which can not enjoy the policy support to the maximum extent.
Zhao Yuanjian, a college student village official, has enjoyed some preferential policies in starting a business, but in the process of going through formalities in various functional departments and applying for loans from banks, Zhao Yuanjian has encountered many difficulties. "Many policies are relatively empty, and I hope this kind of support policy can be more targeted and operational."
"Now it is impossible to borrow from banks without collateral, and it is difficult for microfinance to meet the capital needs." Cheng Liyue, a new farmer, said that his Yangmei base needed a loan of 5 million yuan, but he couldn’t apply. "We have a national invention patent for waxberry preservation technology, but our small enterprise is in urgent need of funds to grow bigger."
Lin Chun, director of the Information Center of Hainan Provincial Department of Agriculture, said frankly that there is a lack of policy support for the increasing number of new farmers in various places, and they are regarded as entrepreneurs. However, the particularity of agriculture makes it impossible to cover all the general entrepreneurial support policies, such as financing mortgage loans and rural logistics system construction.
"The amount of agricultural insurance compensation is too low, which leads to the fragile risk-taking ability of new agricultural business entities." Yan Weijie, a new farmer in Hengyang County, Hunan Province, was frustrated. He believes that the age limit of industrial injury insurance should be appropriately liberalized in light of the current rural employment situation. "It is difficult to recruit workers in agricultural production. Farmers still have to earn money after they are over 60 years old, and they also have this condition physically. However, according to the insurance regulations of industrial injury insurance in China, the insured person is required to be no more than 60 years old. In this case, once these farmers over 60 years old are injured, they must pay for themselves. "
The No.1 document of the Central Committee issued on February 1, 2015, "Several Opinions on Strengthening Reform and Innovation to Accelerate Agricultural Modernization", put forward: "Guide the standardized and orderly circulation of land management rights and innovate land circulation and scale management methods"; "Improve the support service system for the main body of grain production scale management". Document No.1 of the Central Committee also stressed that it is necessary to support enterprises such as e-commerce, logistics, commerce and finance to participate in the construction of agriculture-related e-commerce platforms and carry out comprehensive demonstrations of e-commerce in rural areas.
"This is good news for the development of new farmers." Chen Liang and Zhang Ruidong, senior experts of Ali Research Institute, think that the growth of new farmers needs strong support, and the government has clearly issued support policies for new professional farmers, but there is no clear policy for new farmers. There are both overlaps and obvious differences between new farmers and new professional farmers. For example, the third-party e-commerce platform should, on the premise of fairness, give necessary entrepreneurial incentives to new farmers, including providing more training support to agricultural product sellers and rural sellers, and support them as key groups of small and micro enterprises.
"Relevant government departments should continue to increase investment, build an agricultural information network and build an e-commerce platform for agricultural products. At the same time, it is necessary to increase the e-commerce training for farmers, so that traditional farmers, professional farmers and new farmers can be’ linked’ as soon as possible, so that more young people can participate in modern agriculture. " William Wang, a professor at the Research Center of Agriculture and Rural Economy of Shandong University of Finance and Economics, suggested.
Zhang Hecheng, director of the Department of Market Economy and Information of the Ministry of Agriculture, has participated in organizing and planning mutual aid salons for new farmers in various places for many times. He enthusiastically looks forward to the future of new farmers: "New farmers are a group of agricultural enthusiasts, investors and service providers who value information, resources, mutual benefit and innovation, and are fashionable farmers. The reason why I advocate and admire new farmers is that every new farmer in today’s society is a strong good coin. We need to actively discover and admire these good coins, and finally hope to promote the healthy development and agricultural modernization of China’s agriculture from point to area. "
Dreaming of the countryside and ploughing the blue ocean. New farmers, pioneer all the way, go all the way!
(Talk about the research team of new farmers in half a month. This article participated in the research: Li Song, Mao Weihao, Zhang Ying, Wang Zheng, Zhou Nan, Hu Xu, Xiao Sisi, Xia Guannan, Richard Chang, Liu Weiwei, Cao Lingjuan, Ji Zhepeng)
