Tobacco Asia

66 tobaccoasia Issue 5, 2023 September / October The concept of new farmers has become popular in recent years. Simply put, 'new farmers' is an organic integration of the Internet and the issues related to agricul- ture, rural areas, and farmers. Compared with traditional farmers, new farmers use the internet as a tool, possess internet thinking, and serve the fields of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Examples of this include college students returning to their hometowns to raise pigs with modern methods and urban white-collar workers returning to the countryside to sell goods through livestream marketing on social medial platforms for the villagers. These new farmers with new ideas, new concepts, new methods, and new technologies are increasingly returning to their hometowns to start businesses. Nowadays, a large number of new farmers have also emerged in the tobacco industry chain. They strive to drive the development of local industries and expand income channels. New farmers grow tobacco with new mindset The empowerment of the internet has made new farmers deeply aware of the importance of "smart ag- riculture". They boldly innovate in terms of tobacco growing. On the lush fields of Duntou village in Shunchang county, Nanping city, Fujian province, several plant protection drones are hovering in the air, attracting many villagers to watch. These are the secret weapons of Li Qiang, a new farmer. "I am the son of a farmer and grew up in the fields. I want to return to the countryside and go back to the fields, "said Li Qiang. He made up his mind in 2017 to contract 20 mu (1mu=666.7m2) of land in Duntou village to start planting tobacco. Li Qiang, energetic and active, not only quickly learned the technical essentials of field management, but also operated various intelligent agricultural machinery. In 2019, Li Qiang successfully contracted 53.8 mu New Farmers Grow Tobacco in China A new generation of tobacco farmers are changing China's tobacco fields. By TobaccoChina Online

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