[Photo/WeChat account: sd_photo]

Shandong is a major agriculture province in East China. A few years ago, due to the development of urbanization, many young people from rural areas chose to work in big cities. However, with the improvement of the rural environment and the prosperous development of agriculture, some of them decided to return to their hometowns to become professional farmers. Now, it is not rare to see young people work in the fields and orchards. They inherit lands from their parents and use the ideas they acquired from advanced management ideas and technologies whilst living in the city to make more profit from their farming.

Young professional farmers choose to return

In Gengdian Village of Chiping County, there are groups of young professional farmers busy with picking vegetables in greenhouses. Statistics show that, in the past two years, more than 200 migrant workers have returned to the village and started to engage in vegetable planting and selling.  

The 28 years’ old Ren Zaiyong is one of those returned migrants. Ren used to work at an aquatic product processing enterprise in Weihai and could annually make an income of about 50,000 yuan ($7,883.58). In 2016, he found that growing vegetables in greenhouses in the village was profitable and thus he came back and established three greenhouses. In 2017, he made a net income of 150,000 yuan. “Growing vegetables is no worse than working in a big city, and I can also take care of my family,” said Ren.  

Song Xuedong from Jiuhu Town of Zouping County, recently was busy with signing orders with clients. Song, 35 years old, graduated from university in 2006 and used to work in software engineering in Shanghai. He once set up a game company. However, after ten years’ life far away from his hometown, Song returned and brought back an investment of as much as 100 million to grow wheat. He already has signed long-term order contracts with pastry processing enterprises.

“The rural environment and agricultural development now are much different from in the past. We can make much more profit from farming,” said Meng Delong, a 27-year-old professional farmer engaged in grape growing. Meng and his father have cultivated about 10 grape varieties. Their grape seedlings have been sold to Qinghai and Anhui provinces.

[Photo/WeChat account: sd_photo]