Fewer farmers raise food security concerns(2)

Liu Gaomei, one of Ling's managers, received a bonus of 163,000 yuan after exceeding his production quota by 25,000 kg on the 100 hectares of land he managed.

Liu also has a monthly salary of 4,500 yuan, greater than the salary his peers enjoy in the city.

It is hoped that professional farmers and family farms will guarantee China's food safety in the future, said Zhang Xiaoniu, deputy head of the Anyi county agricultural bureau.

However, farmers like Ling are still a minority. More than 80 percent of China's farmland is operated in a decentralized fashion.

In China, the basic land management system is double-layered. Land is collectively owned by farmers but contracted to individual households. In recent years, land transfers among farmers have been encouraged to boost grain production.

However, the amount of transferred farmland had reached just 15.2 million hectares by the end of 2011, accounting for only 17.8 percent of China's total amount of farmland.

Professional farmers who contract large areas of land have emerged in the past decade, but most of them have little education and rely on their experience, instead of technology, when farming.

More than 90 percent of professional farmers are middle school or primary school graduates, less than 5 percent of whom are under 30 years old, according to a survey of three major grain producing areas conducted by the State Council Development Research Center in July 2012.

Strengthening the training of professional farmers is an urgent task for the government, Duan said.

The government should establish a qualification accreditation system and train agricultural operators, as well as improve farmers' technical prowess, market awareness and management ability, Duan said.

The government of Jilin province, a major grain production base in northeast China, sends 5,000 agricultural technicians to villages to train farmers, said Ren Kejun, director of the provincial commission of rural affairs.

About 200,000 professional farmers are trained annually, Ren said.

There were 30,800 rural cooperatives in the province by the end of 2012, up 37 percent from the previous year. More than 1.9 million rural households have joined the cooperatives, accounting for 47 percent of the total number of households, Ren said.