A man of the soil plows new initiative
Print Edition
Li Chunfeng gets up early every morning to feed the pigs, check the growth of his wheat and rice crops and repair farm fences.
The routine for the 35-year-old farmer hasn’t changed much, even after he was honored as one of “China’s Top 10 Farmers” and got to shake hands with Vice Premier Wang Yang in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing over the Spring Festival holiday.
“I’ve never thought that one could receive such a great honor by just doing farm work,” Li said humbly.
Celebrity farmer
Needless to say, the honor has made him something of a celebrity in his home village of Yaojing in Maogang Town, because the award ceremony was broadcast nationally on the eve of the Chinese New Year. Li was the only farmer from Shanghai among the 10 honorees.
The award wasn’t just an idle choice. Li was one of the pioneers in the Songjiang Family Farm initiative that began in 2007.
The program was conceived to try to encourage people to stay on the land and to coax those who have left for city jobs to return to farming.
Under the project, rural families could sign contracts with village authorities and rent the management rights to land from other families for more than three years.
The government consolidated small family plots into viable farm sizes of between 6 hectares and 10 hectares so that farming would be profitable.
Incentives, such as tax breaks, were given to participating farm families. The average annual income for each household is about 100,000 yuan (US$16,317).
To date, more than 1,200 family farms are sowing more than 10,000 hectares in Songjiang under the program, which has helped save farmland from development, eased the migration of people to inner cities and provided a supply of fresh local food.
First trip to Beijing
The initiative has been so successful that it is now being promoted in other outlying rural areas of Shanghai.
In 2013, the term “family farm” appeared in a national agricultural policy document for the first time.
The awards ceremony was Li’s first trip to Beijing. He was accompanied by his wife. It was a bit of an adventure for them.
“We work year around on the farm and have no time to travel,” Li said.
While in the capital, they visited Tian’anmen Square, the Forbidden City and other popular tourist sites.
The high point of the trip was personally meeting the vice premier and telling him briefly about the “family farm” concept.
“I was very nervous and felt awkward appearing before television cameras,” Li said.
During his stay in Beijing, Li and other honored farmers visited the National Agricultural Exhibition Hall, a vegetable demonstration center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a model farm in a city near Beijing.
“I learned a lot from other farmers,” Li said. “But what encouraged me most was the great effort the county is making to promote agriculture and reward farmers.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
