The Characteristics of Agricultural Population Structure Change and Its Policy Enlightenment to Rural Revitalization: Analysis on the Agricultural Census Data of Anhui Province

This study mainly analyses the change characteristics of agricultural population structure in Anhui Province and its prominent difficulties, by the use of the agricultural census data from 2006 to 2016. It shows that,from the perspective of the quantity structure, the attribute of Anhui as a province with large agricultural population does not change fundamentally, and the distribution of agricultural population has the characteristics of “dense in the north and sparse in the south” . From the perspective of gender structure,more and more rural women leave agriculture for the non-agricultural sector, which is accelerating, and the phenomenon of agricultural feminization is not obvious. From the perspective of age structure, the aging of agricultural labor force is deepening,the aging of rural population exists together with the aging of agricultural population. From the perspective of quality structure, the education level of agricultural labor force has improved extremely slowly, which is generally at the level of primary school and junior high school. From the perspective of flow structure, the extrusion effect of agricultural development on surplus labor and the labor absorption effect of urbanization and industrialization will continue to play. Based on all of these, during the overall promotion of rural revitalization, firstly we should set up the safety concept of agricultural labor force, and react actively to the rapid aging of agricultural and rural population. Secondly, we should accelerate the start of farmers’ professionalization project and cultivate the new type of professional farmers. Thirdly, we should change the organization and management methods of agricultural production, increase the concentration rate of land and improve the mechanization level. Fourthly, we should socialize agriculture and digitize rural areas so that more entities can participate in agricultural and rural modernization.