Nation aims to cultivate growth of family farms

The criteria and methods for registration for family farms need to be clarified, and new agricultural subsidiaries need to be tilted in favor of family farms.

"To further ensure the country's food security, awards will also be conferred on family farms that have reached a certain scale and contracted land needs to be transferred to family farms," Sun said.

"More guidelines are being discussed and drafted to allow family farms to enhance their managerial capability and market competence within this year.

"Professional farm training will also be provided for family farm owners, major grain growers and breeders, and high-quality talent will be encouraged to venture into farming," Sun said.

Similar to the period when China introduced the household contract responsibility system in rural areas in the early 1980s, the family farm model could develop and reshape China's agricultural sector.

Li Changping, president of the Beijing-based China New Rural Planning and Design Institute, said that given favorable market conditions, the main restriction on a farmer's income depends on the scale of agricultural production, which indicates that family farms with sufficient labor and resources will be able to meet the production goals and make a profit.

"Therefore, increasing the number of family farms would put more people into farm work and could steadily improve living conditions for rural inhabitants.

"However, the key point in tackling the problem of farm labor shortages remains how to raise farmers' incomes," Li said.

"Once people discover that working on family farms could bring a higher financial return than working in a factory, it will become a really popular choice."