NANCHANG, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ding Dan, 29, was a white-collar worker in Shanghai's central business district four years ago. Now, the graduate student from the University of Liverpool has picked up a new career -- farming.
Ding's parents run a food-processing company with an annual output value of 200 million yuan (about 25.68 million U.S. dollars), but to his surprise, they have not been supportive of their son's decision.
"In their view, being involved in agriculture is too laborious," said Ding.
But Ding persevered. He learned from agronomists and veteran farmers and conducted numerous tests on soil nutrients, the optimum ratio of fertilizers, as well as the use of pesticides to raise yields and improve grain quality.
In 2019, after two years of work in Shinao Township of Gao'an City, east China's Jiangxi Province, his 20-hectare land yielded 165,000 kg of rice.
"It is the most beautiful rice I've seen this year," commended a grain expert.
As China deepens rural vitalization, more young, high-skilled personnel like Ding have been playing a leading role in promoting modern agriculture.
Xiao Wen resigned as chairman of a listed company two years ago, having invested nearly 3 billion yuan in the construction of an agricultural park in Gao'an.
Aiming to make it a complex park comprising a demonstration zone for smart and circular agriculture, Xiao estimates its annual output value at 20 billion yuan.
For the younger generations, high-end techniques and machinery remain the focus of agribusiness.
Wang Xihua, a technical director of a vegetable industrial park in Jiangxi's Yudu County, said the park has introduced a soilless culture technology from the Netherlands that has raised output as much as threefold.
"There are eight technical directors at the park, and they play leading roles in terms of introducing advanced technology and applying modern management," Wang said.
"The future of modern agriculture lies in mechanization, otherwise labor costs alone could overwhelm the company," said Ding, who has built a nine-member tech team, whose "weapons" are rotavators, rice transplanters and harvesters.
"The cost of rice transplanting was 2,400 yuan per hectare the first year we introduced rice transplanters. It then dropped to 1,950 yuan per hectare in the second year and 1,500 yuan in 2020," said Ding, who is attaching greater importance to fine, green agriculture and modern management. Enditem
