A total of 182 well-educated farmers in Shaanxi Province with an annual income of hundreds of thousands of yuan recently received high-level professional certificates, local media reported Sunday.
According to the Xi'an-based newspaper Chinese Business View, farmers who want to become high-level professionals must attend government training for four years. They must also at least have an Associate Arts Degree and knowledge of modern agricultural techniques and management skills.
Their income must be 20 times higher than that of local farmers, which means they must earn at least hundreds of thousands of yuan annually, according to the newspaper.
Some 55 percent of the total 182 people were below the age of 40. The oldest recipient is 55 years old while the youngest is 22, surnamed Jiang, who has been a pig farmer for two years.
Jiang said his family only had a dozen of pigs in 2013 but after hard work, he now sells 800 to 1,000 pigs a year and earns 100,000 yuan ($16,139) to 200,000 annually. "The development of the agriculture industry must rely on young adults," he said, adding that traditional farming technology is outdated.
The provincial government launched the agricultural training scheme last year as part of the latest agriculture industry development policy. It aims to encourage people to join the agriculture industry and cultivate agricultural expertise.
The provincial authority plans to train 10,000 farmers this year.
Last year, 84 people received high-level professional farmers certificates while 3,835 people at all levels were recognized as professional farmers.
