Chapter 33 3. Who will farm in China in the future?

Farmers have low incomes and heavy burdens. It is the farmers who are sad, and it is the entire agricultural production that is hurt. For thousands of years, farmers who regard the land as their lifeblood have lost confidence in the land.Planing and eating in the soil, coming in the wind and going in the rain, the hard work all year round is just to fill the stomach.You can't make a fortune by relying on the land, and you can't run to a well-off life.Reality has forced many farmers to leave their land and their homes. The stations are full, the trains are full, and the cities are full. At first it was just some young guys and young girls, but now everyone can walk, young, middle-aged, and old.In the countryside, only the elderly and children who cannot walk are left guarding the vacant houses, and a large number of fields have been abandoned and no one is planting them.

An unprecedented wave of "migrant workers" has formed in China, which has become the most striking phenomenon in rural China since the reform and opening up. In the early 1980s, it was limited to the Pearl River Delta region, with a population of just over 2 million. Now it is estimated that the number of people involved in the "migrant labor wave" nationwide has reached 50-60 million, and at the peak it reached 70-80 million.In major cities across the country, you can see groups, teams, and groups of rural youths or rural men in a hurry, carrying rolls of quilts on their shoulders and carrying a satchel, flocking to the streets of the city like a tide. alley.

There are only 12 countries with a population of more than 60 million in the world, and Nigeria is at the bottom of the list. Because it is the most populous country in Africa, it has been listed as a candidate for the permanent membership of the United Nations.The floating population in mainland China has reached 50 to 60 million!Among the world's most populous countries, there is a world's most populous country! From the perspective of labor flow area, the flow has been expanded from the initial flow limited to the county and province to cross-province flow, mainly from the central and western regions to the economically developed regions in the east. In 1992, a survey of 10,345 villages and groups in 30 provinces nationwide by relevant departments showed that the scale of inter-provincial transfers was increasing, accounting for 17% of the transferred labor force.From the perspective of the east, middle and west, the ratio of labor force transferred across provinces is 4:1:1, of which 72% are transferred to cities.In the central and western regions, due to the abundant rural labor resources, underdeveloped economy, few rural employment opportunities, and low farming benefits, the labor force has flocked to Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and other provinces and big cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai.In recent years, more than 4 million farmers have flooded into Guangdong, and 1 million people have flooded into Beijing.From the perspective of labor flow time, it has developed from seasonal outings during slack seasons to perennial outings.According to the survey of Anhui Province, among the 5 million migrant workers in the province, about 40% go out all year round. The seasonal outings are concentrated in summer harvest, autumn planting, and autumn harvest, and the climax around the Spring Festival, which directly leads to the shortage of railway transport capacity during the Spring Festival travel period in recent years. .

Tens of millions of peasants left the land and flooded into the city like a tide, living in every corner of the city, engaged in the roughest, the heaviest, the dirtiest, the most tiring jobs, collecting junk, sharpening scissors and shining shoes, sweeping the streets and carrying gas Cans... they can do anything as long as they can make ends meet.They don't care too much about remuneration. Anyway, there are few jobs in cities that pay less than farming.No matter how incompetent, if you carry a load of radish baskets and pick up tatters along the streets and alleys, you can earn at least more than 10 yuan a day, and more than 300 yuan a month, which is equivalent to half a year's harvest in the countryside; I work in a factory and don't have the strength to take care of the tattered baskets, so I go to polish shoes. It costs 1 yuan to polish a pair of shoes, and it is not difficult to polish ten or twenty pairs a day.The difference in income between urban and rural areas has attracted farmers who used to plan and eat in the fields for many years, and set foot on the ranks of going to the cities to find work and work.According to expert surveys and analysis, in addition to the 50 to 60 million farmers who have moved into or even "take root" in cities, there are more than 100 million people who are "gripping and eager to try", preparing to join the tide of urbanization.

The flow of population, including the flow of rural population to cities, is not a bad thing. On the contrary, human beings reproduce and develop in the continuous flow of population. One million years ago, Homo erectus left southern Africa and began a long migration and flow to North Africa, Europe, Asia, and America. Without this migration and flow again and again, human traces would not have spread all over the world. Therefore, there would be no modern Asia, Europe, America, and Africa; 5,000 years ago, after the formation of the Central Plains culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, if there were no great migrations of ethnic groups and population migrations to the south and north, it would not be possible to form today With such a great Chinese nation and brilliant Chinese culture, Chinese civilization will not spread throughout the Yellow River Basin, the Yangtze River Basin, or the whole of China... Human beings evolve, survive, develop, and prosper in the flow of!

The great transfer of rural labor force in China, which sprouted in the 1980s and peaked in the 1990s, is also not a scourge. Although they inevitably bring some difficulties to urban management, their contribution to urban construction, market prosperity and industrial development is obvious to all. of. The migration of rural labor to cities is normal.Lenin told us a long time ago: "The development of the commodity economy means that more and more people are separated from agriculture." But the reason for such a large-scale transfer of concentration in China is thought-provoking.The deep-seated reason is the increase of rural surplus labor force.It is estimated that the rural surplus labor force has reached as many as 120 million. With the improvement of scientific farming level and the development of rural scale management, more and more rural surplus labor force needs to be transferred out of agriculture through various channels; the direct reason is It is because the efficiency of agricultural production is relatively low at present, and the income of farmers is low and the burden is heavy.The transfer of rural labor forces under such a background will inevitably harm or even sacrifice agriculture.In some places, all the young and middle-aged laborers in a village have moved to the city, and the old, weak, sick and disabled are left to take care of a dilapidated house and a few acres of thin fields;

"Liaoning Daily" disclosed: "——Since the beginning of spring, more than 480 farmers in Ritabao Town, Dongling District, Shenyang City have asked to return the contracted paddy fields and no longer cultivate them. 10% of the total farm households and paddy fields in the village. The seriousness of the problem lies in the fact that most of the farmers who want to "stop farming" are farmers with average living standards and whose main source of income is farming, not those with two The economically wealthy home of the tertiary industry." "People's Daily" published "Letters from Readers": "...farmers' investment in agriculture has decreased year by year and even the phenomenon of 'abandoning farmland' has appeared. More than 10,000 mu."

For many years, fellow farmers who have lived and thrived on the land, once they leave the land, how can they make a living?How can city dwellers survive without the food supplies they provide? Fifty years ago, Chairman Mao and the Communist Party led the Chinese people to carry out a revolution, overthrew three mountains, liberated the working people, and returned the land to the peasants, so that the peasants had land and food, and the problem of food and clothing was solved. However, today, 50 years later, many farmers have abandoned the land in their hands, or leased it to others for planting.

The harsh reality makes us have to fall into contemplation. People who often go out can easily find that just after the fifth day of the first lunar month, the train station squares in major cities across the country are filled with thousands of migrant workers.The Beijing-Guangzhou line and the Beijing-Shanghai line are severely overcrowded. In the hard-seat cars, except for a few people visiting relatives and friends and traveling, 90% of the people are out for business or part-time work.In the past, in people's impression, most of the migrant workers were young girls, but now the migrant workers are all young and strong laborers, aged between 16 and 55. They come out with a bedding and two changes of clothes. Out into the world.There are more than 50 young and middle-aged people in a village in northern Jiangsu. Just a few days after the Spring Festival, they ganged up and went to Ningbo to work. Only the old, weak, sick, disabled, women and children were left in the village.

A reporter asked a young man in his 20s, "What can you do outside?" "We can do everything. We rural people are not afraid of hardships and heavy workloads. We do whatever we encounter. We dig foundations and move bricks for building buildings. We just give me money and do it anyway." "And what if you can't find these jobs?" "Can't find it?" He smiled, "Then pick up the junk, it's better to spend a day outside than staying at home!" "When you come out, isn't the land at home barren?" "If it is barren, it will be barren. The species are also white species, and an acre of land can't afford a few dollars a year."

"Then what's your family's old snack?" "We also eat 'commodity grain'! Earn some money outside and buy food when we go home." Some people derogate the migrant workers who flood into the city as "blind flow", but in fact, they have their own thinking, they have their own ideas.Engaging in agriculture makes one's stomach full, but it is rare to have a chance to get rich.In the city, no matter whether you work in a factory or engage in the simplest tasks such as sorting out rags and shining shoes, the income is all higher than that of farming.Sichuan Guozi Village in the Land of Abundance has a population of 1,119 and more than 930 mu of arable land, with an average per capita of 0.87 mu.The total labor force of the village is 771, and the labor force occupies an average of 1.2 mu of cultivated land.The village party secretary made a calculation: rice yields 1,000 jin twice a year, wheat yields 300 jin, and the annual income per mu of agricultural products is 480 yuan. After deducting the cost of 240 yuan and tax withdrawal of 60 yuan, excluding other apportionments, there is only 180 yuan left. Yuan. Based on the above-mentioned income calculations, every laborer in Guozi Village has paid his full budget, and after implementing the policy of no apportionment by the central government and the State Council, the per capita annual income is 216 yuan.Working part-time for half a month is the money for eating in the field for a year. No wonder farmers say: farming only rice crackers and no food.It can be seen that peasants did not enter the city blindly, but with analysis, comparison, and "research".Now the houses in the countryside are beautiful, but how many households rely solely on farming?Nine out of ten times it was money earned in the city. The land that farmers love is becoming less and less attractive, which cannot but arouse people's deep thinking.If farmers in a country don't love the land, then the country's agriculture will face difficulties. What is even more worrying is, who will be farmers in China in the future? !According to the logic of many people, the son of a farmer should become a farmer, but in fact, the son of a farmer does not want to be a farmer anymore. On March 26, 1997, the "Economic Information Daily" reported that a certain place conducted a survey of "future aspirations" among 1,000 rural children in 100 rural primary schools. The result was that 81.5% of the children of farmers were unwilling to farm in the future. In fact, not in the future, but in the present, there are many people who are unwilling to work in agriculture.Needless to say, rural youth, even some middle-aged men and rural women and aunts in rural areas are trying to break free from the fetters of the land and join the trend of going to the cities to work and earn a living. According to a survey by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, 71% of the 50 million floating population are under the age of 35, and judging from the composition of farmers who go out to work in business, most of them have a junior high school education or above and have skills.Of the 7,244 migrant workers in Deyang City, Sichuan, 64.8% were under the age of 35, of which 95% were junior high school students and 28.5% were high school students.According to a survey of 100 households conducted in Taihe County, Anhui Province, 91% of migrant workers are under the age of 50, and men account for 80%.This means that the rest of the people farming in the countryside, except for the elderly, are children. A large number of surveys have shown that the migrant labor force is mainly young and middle-aged labor force with high cultural quality.Relevant departments conducted a survey of 10,345 village groups in 30 provinces across the country. Among the transferred labor force, 6% were illiterate and semi-literate, 29.3% had primary school education, 51% had junior high school education, and 13.7% had received professional training. 27%. At the beginning of the wave of migrant workers, the people who left the countryside to enter the city were basically rural boys and girls, which we commonly call wage earners and migrant girls. Now, the rural men have left, the rural wives have gone, and even the rural aunts have left.In the past, it was said that only the elderly and women were left to farm in the countryside, the "3860 Unit", but now even the women have gone, and the "6061 Unit" left behind in the countryside, that is to say, besides the elderly, there are children.This is no joke.We conducted interviews in rural areas and found that in addition to "bearded soldiers" and "boy scouts" in many rural areas engaged in agricultural production.There is a small lakeside village that mainly grows grain, with a population of more than 1,200. In recent years, 330 farmers have gone out to work, accounting for about 60% of the total labor force.In many peasant households, only the elderly and children are left to live together.A provincial department provided counterpart support to a poor village and sent a transformer.The machine was transported to the entrance of the village, and the village director asked some farmers to help unload it, but many of the people who came were old people with gray beards.When I asked, all the laborers in the family went to the city to work. The elderly and children not only do not have the physical strength to engage in agricultural production, but more importantly, they cannot master modern scientific farming techniques, and can only deal with several crops a year with old experience and old methods.During an interview in a village, the author met an old man who was beating his chest and feet while looking at a field of withered seedlings.It turned out that after rice planthoppers were found in the rice fields, he ran to the store to buy a bottle of pesticides, but he didn't know how to use them.After the grandson came home from school, the grandson and grandson studied the instructions on the bottle for a long time, but they still got the concentration wrong.After more than ten years of hard work, technologies such as hybrid rice and dry-raised seedlings have been promoted on a large scale, which has played a huge role in China's grain production. I don't understand this novelty, so I have to do it in the old way again, and get as much as I can get.If this continues, how will China's agriculture develop? It is conceivable that agriculture supported by the "bearded army" is such a fragile agriculture.Besides, how long can the "bearded army" last?As a large number of rural young and middle-aged people leave the land and enter the city, China is likely to have a fault of agricultural personnel.Even if many peasants who migrated to the city return to the countryside with the guidance of policies in the future, because they have been away from the land for a long time and are unfamiliar with agricultural production, the result will be that they will be farmers, but they will not be able to farm.Therefore, it is an arduous task before us to take measures from now on to stabilize rural agricultural workers.