More and more young people with university education and qualified skills have been engaged in agricultural and rural businesses in Jiangsu as the province is actively making new explorations on issues such as how to make farming an attractive occupation by motivating all kinds of talents to make great achievements in the vast rural areas and bring their talents into full play.
Zhu Yunde has been kept busy working in the fields every day. When he was studying at a university three years ago, he was bent on flexing his muscles in the field of construction machinery. Nearing graduation, Zhu Yunde's father asked him to return to the hometown, Wangting Town in the western suburb of Suzhou, to see the changes in the countryside. He had not expected that the visit coupled with the conversation with his father changed his mind.
Upon returning home, Zhu Yunde got busy with the cultivation of high-efficient rice. However, he was dealt with a head-on blow in the first year as he lacked practical experiences and nearly 2.6 hectares of paddy rice were lodged in the fields. He was at a loss what to do when the local authorities enlisted the help of experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to train the young and educated farmers.
Under the guidance of the technicians, Zhu Yunde has been making smooth progress in rice cultivation and the sales of rice will reach nearly 3 million yuan each year. In order to help him better develop modern agriculture and improve operating efficiency, the local government has relied on modern agricultural industrial parks to raise funds for them to develop new projects.
Zhu Yunde has launched a rice cultivation team with ten members holding master's degree.
Suzhou is now registered with more than 10000 new types of professional farmers. 14.5% of them hold associate degrees and above. One in seven of them hold university certificates.
In recent years, the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government have introduced a slew of policies for rural entrepreneurship in a bid to encourage more talents to launch business startups in the rural areas. According to the latest statistics, Jiangsu is now registered with more than 2.5 million new types of professional farmers.
In the next five years, Jiangsu will cultivate 100,000 practical rural talents and attract 80,000 rural talents to start businesses in the rural areas.
（Source: Jiangsu International Channel)
