Ningbo has 385 family farms
- Details
- Category: Ningbo District
- Published: Thursday, 28 February 2013 07:10
In Sanqi Town of Yuyao, the 600-mu Youyou Farm is engaged in plantation of fruits and vegetables, with the annual output exceeding 2 million yuan in 2012. the central party committee released the No.1 Document, which for the first time suggests that the country should encourage family farms. This made Ye Jianan, the owner of Youyou Farm, filled with new expectations: "I will start tourist services on my farm and add more supporting facilities."
Youyou Farm is a representatives of the family farms in Ningbo. With the efforts made in the past 30 years, Ningbo now has had 385 family farms. In 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture sent a research group to Ningbo for a research of the situation of family farms. The experience of Ningbo thus attracted the attention of the central government and it became the foundation of the decision making of the central government.
"The family farms have their own trademarks, and brand products. Unlike the traditional farmers, these new family farms have legal persons as their owners," said Zhao Xinli, Director of the Management Division of Ningbo Municipal Agricultural Bureau. With the expanding the scale, the farmers are familiar with production, management and sales, becoming new-type famers.
The family farms are featured for large scale, wide range of production and market competitiveness. All the farms are as large as 50 mu each. 139 farms are even as large as 500 mu to 500 mu. There are 17 farms each as large as over 500 mu.
355 farms, 92% of the total, have their annual output exceeding 500,000 yuan, including 37, whose output is over 5 million yuan. 224 farms are members or leaders of specialized farmer cooperatives. 110 have their independent trademarks. Because their large scale, 237 farms, about 2/3 of the total, have employed long-time workers, over 1,000 in number. These new-generation farm workers have both rents from the land and salaries as well.
As a part of the modern agriculture, the modern family farms have realized the optimization of capital, technology and labor force, as well as the scale of operation of land. Statistics show that at present, the rate of land transfer and that of the scaled operation are both above 60%, 40 points higher than the average of the country.
"The central party's decision is a guideline of the modern agriculture. It makes us more confident," said a related person of Ningbo Municipal Agricultural Bureau. In the time to come, Ningbo will release detailed policies to nurture and speed up the development of family farms
