Across China: Cropland 'nannies' bring Chinese farmers into modern era

A farmer in Gaocheng, China, on Sept 30, 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS

YINCHUAN, NINGXIA (XINHUA) - This spring, Liu Xiaoping has hired a "nanny" to tend his three hectares of black wheat. This new helper - an experienced agricultural manager with government backing - has taken over almost all of the farm work.

Liu, 50, is a farmer in Tazhai Village, in the Shapotou District of Zhongwei City in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. He has spent many years toiling in the fields.

These days, however, despite the sandstorms and sleet, Liu is staying at home, carefree.

"In previous years, I would have been deadly anxious about the huge damage done to the crops by such extreme weather during seeding time," Liu said. "But now the 'nanny' helps with everything, from seeding to harvesting."

The "nanny" of whom Liu spoke is Cui Jian'an, the general manager of a local agri-business that is providing its services under a government scheme to boost the efficiency of agricultural output. Cui instructs local farmers on the best methods for growing crops, while supplying agricultural materials and helping to make the big decisions.

This year, Cui became a cropland "nanny" for the first time, taking control of more than 340 hectares of black wheat, helping with planting and ensuring crop quality.

"It's more scientific and convenient to grow high-quality crops with the help of farming machinery, rather than merely teaching farmers how to plant," said Cui.

Cui has purchased many new farming machines to help with these responsibilities. He also employs 11 workers, who are all kept busy in the farmers' fields. They have planted more than 200 hectares of land and will finish their spring-planting work in a week's time.

With the help of modern equipment, such as seeding machines, manure spreaders and even drones, local farmers are now freed from most of the manual labour that was once their daily grind.

In the beginning, Liu would follow the seeding machines to see if they were sowing properly.

"The machines sowed faster and better than us," he said. "I want to trust them with more crops next year, because I am too old to manage so much land."

Growing farmers' incomes

The fruitful working relationship between Lui and Cui is just one example of a broader government policy of implementing "trusteeship" programmes to help farmers in China, using modern methods to boost productivity and incomes while reducing the burden of manual labour.

The programs offer "nanny services" that include planting, management, technical services and financial support, effectively increasing the efficiency of the cropland.

Last, year, 4.5 billion yuan (S$925 million) of government funding was spent on the programmes in 29 provinces, regions and municipalities.

"The ultimate goal of everything we do is to increase farmers' incomes," said Li Qing, a rural-affairs official in Shapotou District.

The cropland trusteeship programmes have not only realised large-scale management and production, but have also freed farmers from doing heavy farm work and allowed them to make extra money by working outside their hometowns, Li said.

Shapotou District is the first area in Ningxia to pilot the trusteeship program. Last year, authorities introduced a third-party platform and a data centre to conduct real-time supervision of the programme.

"Any agri-business that gets a poor evaluation will be weeded out," said Li, adding that 44 agribusinesses have registered and that more than 800 farming machines will be put into operation this spring.

Official figures show that more than 19,000 rural families in Shapotou benefited from the pilot scheme last year.

Shapotou will spend 6.89 million yuan this year on subsidising registered agribusinesses and lowering farmers' production costs, while the district plans to have 2,000 hectares of cropland under full trusteeship.

"Thanks to the policies, we won't be anxious during the busy farming season, and now I only need to wait for the 'nanny' to fertilise my land," Liu said.

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