Jikun Huang: Speaking for the Farmers

Release date：2022/12/30　　Source： CCAP

Weekend People-China News Famous Column
Reporter Yang Xueying
He is a national agricultural policy think-tank and a world-renowned agricultural economist, but he has become a smiling "old buddy" among the farmers. He speaks with a heavy Fujian accent, but Weifang farmers feel that they can hear the heart. He is 60 years old, the young people sighed that he could not catch up with his vigor. He is a professor at Peking University School of Modern Agriculture, Peking University, director of the China Agricultural Policy Research Center, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World Huang Jikun.
In 2021, located in Weifang Xiaoshan, Peking University Modern Agriculture Research Institute was completed and put into use. Huang Jikun should be the director of the Institute, the world-renowned biologist Deng Xingwang academician invited to the Xiaoshan set up a rural revitalization development strategy research center, to carry out basic, forward-looking academic and policy research. Since then, he has been coming to Shandong every month, and has also written his thesis on the land of Qilu.

"friendly, real" "know the farmers"
On the morning of December 9, the reporter went to Xiaoshan to interview Huang Jikun team. People in Beijing, Huang Jikun, is with the Beijing team, Xiaoshan team video "group meeting". On the screen, he has thick black hair, thick eyebrows, big eyes, gleaming eyes, energetic, not at all like a 60-year-old person.
They discussed, it is since last year in Weifang to carry out research projects "land system and technological innovation to enhance the Qilu development model", the subject is in the data processing and analysis stage. Huang Ji K'un in December 18th to accept our reporter's video interview, according to his 30 years of research concluded that China's agricultural productivity growth has four major driving forces: institutional innovation, technological progress, market reform, agricultural inputs. Shandong's land trust in front of the country, is currently the most cutting-edge institutional innovation; and digital technology is currently the forefront of technological progress, the application of rural agriculture in Shandong is also relatively advanced. The "Qilu model" is of national significance.
In the southeast corner of the Xiaoshan Reservoir, 30 kilometers from the Peking University Modern Agricultural Research Institute of Xiaoshan Zhenggong Street Zhongling Village, 72-year-old villagers, the old barefoot doctor Cui Chuanjia clearly remembers: "December last year, this year, in August, Professor Huang twice brought students to the village to investigate the land hosting. He was a medium-sized man, looked 50 years old, and was very kind and honest."
He recalled that in August, the village party activity room table arranged in a large circle, Professor Huang sat in the center, and street, village cadres, trusteeship of the land of the large households to talk about, 20 or so young students and villagers to talk about. "I can see that Professor Huang is the centerpiece, his language is very concise and his questions are very relevant."
"The ones who talked to me were two boys, holding a book-like (questionnaire) in their hands. I was asked how many people in my family, how many acres of land, the cost and income of farming, what tools of production I had, what household appliances I used, how my children and grandchildren went to school and were employed, all of which were practical and realistic questions." Cui Chuanjia said, "Talked for more than 2 hours. All that was said was the words of the people, and I didn't feel tired at all."
Cui Lianpeng, a 52-year-old member of the village committee of Zhongling Village, was also impressed: "On a hot day in August, the bus drove to the entrance of the village at 8:00 in the morning. Prof. Huang, after they asked questions and looked at the land, it was almost 1 o'clock before they ate. Just ate in the village restaurant, they paid for it themselves."
Anqiu Jingzhi Township, Wan Gezhuang village villagers Wu Shudong trust more than 200 acres of land, he also contracted less than 200 acres. He said, Professor Huang came to the village research, asked him what he planted, how to manage, how to sell, how much the cost, how much money sold, how to share the dividends, etc., asked very detailed, talked for more than 2 hours. Prof. Huang insisted on sitting on a bench without backrest, and then a few people talked in groups, Prof. Huang let the other two groups of students to use the two rooms of the village committee, and he took two students and moved to the courtyard to talk with Wu Shudong. Wu Shudong felt that Prof. Huang was very interested in this research and knew the farmers.
Project leader, 29-year-old Song Yujing returned from the United States in July this year after graduating from the doctoral program, to join the Huang Jikun Xiaoshan team as an associate researcher, just in time for the project is about to start household research. She told reporters: "Mr. Huang personally arranged scientific sampling, design questionnaires, questionnaires discussed for more than a month to finalize. The questionnaire is divided into crops, production processes, production subjects and other kinds of questions, including questions to farmers up to more than 20 pages, there are more than 1,000 questions. Each question he had to repeatedly confirm: is it a real question, can you ask something, can farmers understand."
Household interviews before the start, Huang Jikun with Peking University teachers and students more than 20 people came to Xiaoshan, more than 80 research team members recruited from universities and institutes across the country for three days of training, household also followed a week. Research team of more than 100 people spent more than 20 days, ran Weifang 8 districts and counties, visited 186 villages, more than 1,800 farmers, more than 100 land trusteeship and socialized service subjects, fill out more than 2,000 copies of the questionnaire. "Data analysis and collation stage, Mr. Huang every two weeks to participate in a group meeting, we one by one 'sieve', suggestions. The preliminary report will be out soon, and a series of results will follow." Song Yujing said.

"Seeing a farmer is like seeing a hungry man's bun."
Cao Xiowei, 27 years old, is the first "soldier" of K.K. Huang's Xiaoshan team. She arrived in September last year, followed by K.K. Huang to start the project's pre-research. Every time Huang Jikun with people from Beijing, they will run from morning to night in the districts and counties "stepping point", grasp the direction of the research.
"Mr. Huang is more intimate with the farmers than with us. Seeing farmers, he is like a hungry person to see the steamed bread, eyes glowing, always smiling, like with old buddies together. Chatting happily, he even asked me to take pictures of them and wash them out and send them to the farmers." Cao Xiuwei from his cell phone to the reporter to find out more than one photo to see, "he is not high, posture is always very low."
Why is this? The reporter asked Huang Jikun. He said, "Because farmers tell us the truth, the truth ah. We engage in scientific research, if we can not hear the truth, do not know the truth, not be misled? Our research work will not solve practical problems."
He took the digital agriculture of this research as an example, "Since 2018, I have been running all over the country, and I have been trying to start such a study. I found that many places do digital agriculture as a face-saving project, leaders come to visit; there are also many projects initiated by people who work with digital technology, who don't understand agriculture and always can't go to the fields - because the state has subsidies during the demonstration phase, the demonstration unit doesn't lose money, and it's not the same when the subsidies are over. The root cause is not knowing the real needs of farmers."
"They all say 'digital + agriculture', you can't actually add up. Agricultural products are living, living things are difficult to standardize, so we go to the actual to see on each crop, each production link farmers are how to do, understand clearly, we know whether digital technology can solve the problems encountered in the production of farmers." Huang Jikun said.
This time, they chose in Weifang, corn, wheat, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, ginger, the six crops, from the first day of farming farmers began to ask. He mimicked the tone of a question-and-answer session between two people and said, "What do you do in the field on the first day?" "I'm going to plow the field." "What are the problems with plowing the land, can you do it better, can digital technology help you do it better? Look, it's been reported that there's now navigation technology that can drive tractors straighter, here's pictures, video, do you think it's useful?" "Useful. How much?" "Fifty thousand." "50K is expensive, 20K is okay." ......
"Just like this, one link by one link to break up and knead, to understand each crop to improve the efficiency of each production process what technology is still needed, digital technology can be solved better than other technologies. If it's better, it won't work if it's costly. High cost, either government subsidies, or find ways to bring down the cost. Finally, we have to ask the farmers will not operate." Huang Jikun told reporters.
Research in Shouguang, Huang Jikun observed that some farmers use cell phones to operate the greenhouse rolling machine, very slippery; some press the App operation button, but also uneasy, had to run over to see for themselves. "Without in-depth investigation of the countryside, you can hardly know how the Chinese countryside is like, and how farmers utilize the new technology." He said.
"During the research, we saw that the digital technologies that farmers are willing to use and use well, such as rollers and deflators, are not technically complicated. Some of our researchers don't ask farmers and love to take other countries as a model and focus on the most advanced technology. The most advanced technology is best if it is cheap and works, but if it is too costly, it cannot be used. Do not understand the needs of farmers, we can not know what technology should be innovative to them, what policy should be used to promote."
Over the years, Huang Ji K'un kept a habit: as long as there is no class, no meeting, to run down. From September to November this year, he went to Yunnan, Jiangxi, Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other five provinces, and some places have gone two or three times. "Teachers in our team say that running on a trip to the countryside is more effective than staying in the office for a week to check the information." He said.
With the farmers is not a "casual acquaintance". 20 century, late 1990s, Huang Ji K'un led a team of "8 provinces survey", he and the team has been tracking these farmers. 20 years, the original more than 1,200 households, and now there are still more than 900 households, we contacted by province, and now it has been a long time. We have been contacting them by province, and now they are the second or third generation. Peers said that this is a valuable database for Chinese agricultural scholars; Huang Jikun said that this is the only way to dynamically observe the development of China's rural areas and changes in farmers' livelihoods.

"There is always a way to solve the problem, you can't say 'that's it, there is no way'."
Huang Jikun was born in Changle County, Fujian Province (now Changle District, Fuzhou City) in the countryside, his grandfather did business in the provincial capital, his father was an elementary school principal, as a child, with adults planted rice, fishing fish, starved. In the interview, the reporter noted that he took the Fujian people "love to work hard to win," the vigor, but also has the tenacity to solve the problem by all means.
In Weifang, led by the research team ginger, onion, Huang Ji K'un found that farmers are most worried about price fluctuations are too large, big profits and big losses. "Can we help farmers with processing, storage, online sales, smooth exports and other methods? From technology, policy, market, always come up with some way to solve the problem, can not say 'that's it, no way'."
"For example, insurance is very important, now the state has subsidized food insurance, ginger can not also take some money to subsidize it? Ginger farmers are also farmers ah, he makes a lot of money and risk. And then cellar, I look at the project - including my hometown is also the same, this kind of space are not given to farmers, are given to the so-called leading enterprises. But enterprises take advantage of the opportunity to make profits, and the effect may be counterproductive. Can we organize the farmers and build a better storage facility for a dozen or two dozen of them as well?"
"I think the market should establish production and marketing cooperatives that are truly farmer-oriented. Farmers should be trained and their capacity built. Some people say farmers can't do business, the ability to do business is not innate, it's all learned, you have to train him so he can do it too. Farmers do not know how to use a cell phone at first, but now they all know how to do it. Now there are places to engage in training, the old lady holding a child to make up the number, you teach farmers really need, you do not send subsidies, regardless of the meal, they will also run to participate in training." Huang Ji-kun's speech is getting faster and faster.
Of course, not all approaches can be implemented, Huang Jikun also has a lot of helplessness. 20 years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture commissioned Huang Jikun team in several places to carry out agricultural technology promotion reform pilot. They only used a trick: to change the performance of agricultural extension workers by the farmers to assess, the farmers said good, the end of the year to get more than 5,000 yuan; farmers said no, no bonus, but also deducted 20% of the basic salary. As a result, agricultural extension workers enthusiasm burst, riding a bicycle all day to the countryside, a year to change a few pairs of liberation shoes, some also bought a motorcycle. But then, for various reasons, this approach has not been implemented.
Last month, Huang Ji K'un went to Dali research, Erhai farmers used to grow garlic, and now, in order to protect the Erhai Sea, the local government does not allow the planting, only let the planting of food. Farmers do not make money, some also lose money. A farmer told Huang Ji-kun, his family three or four acres of land, before planting garlic can earn more than two hundred thousand dollars, and now 8 mouth, meat can not afford to buy. He was afraid that Huang Ji-kun did not understand the dialect, but also specialized in writing a note to him very carefully, so that he brought back to see.
"I told the local leaders that these farmers have made so many sacrifices for environmental management, let him grow vegetables, right? Cultivate farmers to use less fertilizers and pesticides, a few acres of land can also earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, should not be a one-size-fits-all." Huang Ji K'un said, "At that time, a few people added my WeChat, 1 month no one to find me. I will track down."
In Zhejiang, Huang Jikun went to a mountain research. Previously, farmers in the hilly mountainous areas on the flat land planted bamboo shoots for more than 20 years, and now the local let cut the bamboo shoots planted rice. A farmer in his 50s said he would not plant rice, planted also planted poorly, to Huang Jikun to help him find a job.
"Farmers increase income, and food security is equally important. Have to engage in a one-size-fits-all, we also have to find ways to help him solve the problem, rather than cut down and leave it." He said.
43-year-old Weifang College of Economics and Management College Associate Professor Han Xiyan, is Xiaoshan followed Huang Jikun as a visiting scholar. She noticed that Huang Ji-kun makes research that places great emphasis on whether farmers can benefit. Recently, she asked K.K. Huang for advice on a research topic that promotes farmers to share more value-added income from rural industries. K.K. Huang suggested that it is best to define what is rural industry, not the location in the countryside is the rural industry, to choose the industry that can really link farmers and bring farmers, bring benefits to farmers. Some industries in the countryside is to divide the interests of farmers, damage and deprivation of the interests of farmers, can not just say good words, to see whether the farmers recognized, willing to participate.

"From the farmers to investigate the proposal, there is a bottom line"
In the industry, Huang Ji-kun is known as "the scholar who speaks with numbers". Using a large sample of survey data, empirical methods of economics, cutting-edge economic and management theory to analyze the problem, is his distinctive academic characteristics. Based on solid empirical research, since 1995, Huang Ji-kun in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences founded the China Agricultural Policy Research Center, he and his team to the national government departments submitted more than 100 policy briefs, of which more than 70 have been approved by the leadership, affecting China's agricultural policy.
Grain circulation system reform is an important part of China's economic system reform, but also an important research direction of Huang Jikun. 1998, the state proposed "open purchase, price sales, closed operation" of grain reform policy, Huang Jikun to the provinces to investigate farmers, the market found that this program is difficult to achieve in practice. He chose to write a report to tell the truth.
In 2004, "direct food subsidies" after the implementation of Huang Jikun and go to rural research, found that food subsidies, seed subsidies, agricultural subsidies, etc., the impact on food production is not great, the farmers do not feel high. Farmers put forward, hoping that the state to teach them more technology, hoping that the state to engage in more farmland infrastructure. Huang Ji K'un wrote another report up. He was very happy to see that the country is paying more and more attention to farmland construction. Since the 18th Party Congress, China has accumulated 900 million mu of high-standard farmland; from 2019 onwards, the central financial consolidation of the establishment of farmland construction subsidies to support local high-standard farmland construction. 2020, the state encourages new agricultural business entities to declare the implementation of high-standard farmland project construction. In Huang Jikun's hometown of Fujian, the implementation of high-standard farmland project construction of new agricultural management subjects, each mu can be subsidized more than 1600 yuan.
Huang Jikun team also in China's agricultural market reform, agricultural opening up to the outside world, trade and national food security, agricultural science and technology system reform, biotechnology development, water resource utilization, green and sustainable development of agriculture, rural poverty alleviation and income generation, rural education, farmers' nutrition and health, the future path of agricultural development and other areas for the country's policymaking advice.
"Research methods are only means, ideas are more important than methods. Suggestions coming from farmers' surveys have a bottom line." Huang Jikun said.
Huang Jikun team also with solid research results, to answer the world's questions. 1990s, the U.S. economist Brown had asked: "Who will feed China in the 21st century?" Huang Jikun team based on China's rural survey of first-hand information for research and analysis and model prediction, clarified that China in the world in all developing countries, is the food and food security of one of the most secure countries, can be in the next few decades to maintain a high level of food security. This view was highly recognized by domestic and international counterparts.
Some experts have questioned the lack of openness in Chinese agriculture, but Huang Ji-kun used empirical research to show that China is one of the most open countries for agricultural products, and that openness has also played a role in promoting Chinese agriculture.
From the age of 25 was sent to the International Rice Research Institute (located in Manila, Philippines) for further study, Huang Jikun successively to the International Food Policy Research Institute and other international organizations to participate in research, after returning to China to undertake a large number of domestic and international research projects. So far, he has published more papers in English than in Chinese, and many international peers read his papers to understand Chinese agriculture and rural areas. As an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture of Vietnam, Mr. Huang Jikun has been invited to speak to them about China's experience three times this year, the last time being about China's current green agricultural transformation. He has also spoken many times on China's agricultural development, rural transformation and policies for countries such as India, Pakistan and some African countries. He is also a member of the Science Team for the UN Food System Summit 2021 and co-coordinator of the "Promoting Equitable Livelihoods" group, and has co-authored a report on China's food system transition for the conference with a number of experts, so as to make China's experience more widely known.
How to realize the modernization of agriculture and rural areas under the national situation of "big country, small farmer" is the most concerned issue of K.K. Huang's team. He believes that this task is very difficult, but can certainly be achieved. China has created "8% of the world's arable land to feed 20% of the population," "rural farmers out of poverty," the two miracles. The modernization of agriculture and rural areas in a populous country with a large number of people and little land, and a large number of small farmers, would be the next miracle, and would contribute a unique Chinese solution to the world.

Original link:https://dzrb.dzng.com/paper/paperShare/id/803486