China is facing a serious shortage of agricultural professionals who will be crucial to rejuvenating rural areas, billionaire Liu Yonghao said at the annual session of China's top advisory body in Beijing. He urged the government to invest in training future talent in the field and pledged to do the same.

One of Liu's proposals at the first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) suggests that the central government draft policies that will offer incentives and improve conditions to attract talented college graduates to remain in agricultural work.

"The central government should support new construction in the countryside and the training of rural professionals and technicians," said the chairman of the New Hope Group on Monday. "You have to have good policies and initial investment from enterprises, but the most important thing is people, especially genuine young talents who have the passion, love, knowledge and skills to build a better future in agriculture."

Liu, a 67-year-old billionaire, began his agricultural career breeding quails and starting up an animal feed business 36 years ago. He voiced concern that in recent years the situation in countryside has become dire as young and middle-age farmers and rural workers migrate from the countryside to take jobs in big cities, leaving behind children and the elderly at home. At the same time, many agriculture graduates from colleges are unwilling to work in rural areas, or choose to leave these areas after a short time to seek better opportunities.

As a five-time 21-year veteran CPPCC member and one-time 5-year National People's Congress deputy, Liu has discussed the problem with experts and traveled extensively to study the issue and carry out extensive surveys in Sichuan, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

He now appeals to the central government to craft policies launching programs to train a new generation of farmers and rural technicians who can rise to meet the demands of modern agriculture.

The entrepreneur pledged to play a part in kickstarting the training initiative: "From this year on, the New Hope Group will carry out a free talent training program with collaborating enterprises to train 100,000 new professional farmers in five years," he said. "We will also reward 2,000 excellent individuals who make great contributions to countryside revival. "

The training program, he said, will produce technicians and professionals in crop farming and animal breeding, who can help agricultural businesses to earn profits while ensuring environmental protection and food safety through science and technology. Also to receive training are rural infrastructure builders, rural e-commerce professionals and experts in new technologies like big data and rural internet.

"We are not doing a college-style training system, but our training will be practical," Liu elaborated. "The scope of trainees will include college graduates, rural workers who come back from urban areas, veteran farmers and employees from agriculture enterprises."

Training professional new farmers should remain a fundamental task for a century, Liu  emphasized. "The government should mobilize and integrate all powers of society to implement this task, especially by asking agriculture-related enterprises to get involved in the training program."