A villager holds tomato seedlings in her hand at a greenhouse in Wanxing Village of Changqing Township, Jiamusi, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, March 9, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)
CHANGCHUN, May 1 (Xinhua) -- In the fields of northeast China, more "new farmers" with new ideas have been springing up of late. They are promoting new technologies and new brands, becoming a strong force in building agricultural modernization.
In Sanye village in the city of Da'an, northeast China's Jilin Province, 65-year-old farmer Zhao Fajiang is busy learning how to use the intelligent farm machinery.
"I learned from the internet that some farmers can master the operating techniques, thus greatly improving the performance of agricultural machinery, as well as the output of farm products," Zhao said.
Nowadays, with the popularization of high-tech agricultural planting equipment such as satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and large automatic machinery, farmers can use cell phones to complete certain operations that could only be done manually in the past, Zhao said.
In the beginning, he was always worried about his lack of skill in operating the complex machinery. However, by asking young people for help, he eventually became more proficient at operating them. "Thanks to these young teachers," Zhao said.
"He is also our teacher," said Ge Yanjun, an official with a sci-tech agriculture enterprise called Baiqiangkeji. "These older farmers have been working the land for decades and have accumulated a lot of experience. The development of modern agriculture relies on the integration of the farmers' wisdom and intelligent equipment."
In addition to many "veterans" who are becoming "new farmers," some young people are also displaying their talents on the black land of northeast China.
Cao Xi, who holds a master's degree in finance, returned to his hometown of Jilin in 2016 and established a company with a young team. They brought many new ideas to agricultural production and created an ecological garden complex, helping 508 households increase their incomes.
In 2019, the company built a rural leisure resort integrating agricultural education and research, organic picking, tourism, planting, breeding, catering and accommodation. The resort has become an A-class rural tourist attraction in Jilin Province.
Chen Huimin, a "post-90s" girl, returned to her hometown after quitting her job at a state-owned enterprise, also giving up the opportunity to study in Britain.
In 2020, she promoted the establishment of the beef cattle agricultural industrialization consortium and the beef cattle industry association in the city of Huadian in Jilin.
More than 5,800 farmers in the city were encouraged to raise cattle, increasing the average household income by 30,000 yuan (about 4,336 U.S. dollars), with over 6,000 surplus rural workers transferred, providing a strong boost to the local beef cattle industry.
Chen also set up a team to promote the beef of Huadian through e-commerce platforms, enabling this high-quality meat to become widely known. Their online stores have hundreds of visitors every day, and the output value of the beef company she worked for has grown to over 100 million yuan. ■
