The main body of rural revitalization can only be farmers in rural areas. Professor from Wuhan University: "Returning to the countryside after retirement" needs to be reasonably positioned

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, and nine other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the" My Hometown, My Construction "Activity, encouraging and guiding retired cadres, teachers, doctors, and technical personnel to return to their hometowns and settle down, and promoting the migration of talents, funds, and technology to the countryside. This has a certain positive significance for gathering more forces to pay attention to rural areas, support rural areas, and build rural areas.

These retirees are mostly in the context of the urban-rural dual structure, and when they were young, they entered the city through various means such as taking exams, joining the military, and recruiting workers, exhibiting distinct characteristics of social mobility. They have gained better economic income and development space through spatial mobility from rural areas to cities. More importantly, they have entered the system during the process of spatial mobility, possess more professional professional skills, enjoy better urban public services, and also have better elderly care and medical security.

In the past decade, the rural population has mainly achieved a foothold and settlement in cities through methods such as migrant work and business. At present, the urbanization rate of China's permanent population has exceeded 65%, and the urbanization rate of registered residence population is close to 50%. This is due to the extremely large number of new urban groups, which has accelerated the urbanization process in our country. But this has also led to the outflow of population and resources from villages in the central and western regions, resulting in problems such as declining village functions and insufficient social vitality.

Therefore, returning home has different meanings for different groups of people. Objectively speaking, for most new urban farmers, their main need is to establish themselves in the city and have a high-quality urban life. In the absence of conditions to establish themselves in the city, although they work in the city, they need to retain their way back to their hometowns - for example, by retaining the right to contract and operate farmland and the distribution and use rights of homesteads, and continuing to maintain social relations in the village. They even need to rely on rural areas for family reproduction such as childcare and elderly care.

Compared to migrant workers who entered the city earlier, the retired population has a certain internal motivation to "retire and return home". They have experience in rural life and even retain their local habits, and their retirement life can match the free and relaxed pace of life in the countryside. They often have old houses in their hometown and still maintain some social relationships, allowing them to lead a normal social life. In a deeper sense, nostalgia for one's hometown is a spiritual need for many early urbanites, and returning to one's roots is also a very natural life trajectory.

Currently, various regions are actively promoting rural revitalization, but many are facing the problem of how to play the role of farmers as the main body of rural revitalization. In the past few years, many places have also actively promoted the return of migrant workers and college students to their hometowns for entrepreneurship. With the integration and development of urban and rural areas, new forms of business have emerged in rural areas, and traditional agricultural management methods are also undergoing significant changes. This has indeed created certain market opportunities for the homecoming entrepreneurial group. But the market capacity of agriculture is limited after all, and the future of most farmers is still in cities.

In a sense, the main body of rural revitalization can only be rural farmers. However, farmers in rural areas generally face problems such as insufficient funds, weak technology, and weak market development, which limit their main role. In this sense, encouraging retirees to return to their hometowns can have a certain positive effect in promoting the migration of talents, funds, and technology to rural areas.

However, it should be noted that the return of retirees to their hometowns requires a reasonable positioning, that is, they can only be assistants to rural revitalization, rather than the main body; Their going to the countryside is voluntary, not mandatory. There are comments calling for the relaxation of rural homestead transactions, creating conditions for retirees to go to the countryside. In the author's opinion, this suggestion may cause urban capital to compete with farmers for profits, shaking the foundation of migrant workers who need to see rural areas as a way out. Some local governments try to organize measures to encourage retired leaders to return to their hometowns to engage in rural revitalization work. This measure can efficiently solve the thorny problems faced in rural revitalization, but on the other hand, it may also consume the government's regular resources - after all, these leaders are able to work for their hometowns using public resources, which may create the risk of uneven distribution of public resources.

In the author's opinion, as a social initiative to encourage and guide retirees to "retire and return to their hometowns", what various regions can do is to further improve rural infrastructure, improve public service levels, and reduce the sense of urban-rural gap among different categories of returning and going to rural areas; Further explore the mechanism for returnees to participate in village construction, providing convenience for them to utilize their surplus energy. Only retirees have endogenous motivation to return to their hometowns, where they can lead a happy retirement life and may also contribute to the cause of their hometown. That is, they can also achieve a sense of achievement and happiness in their old age in rural areas. This can better stimulate the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of retirees to participate in rural construction, and enable this measure to continue and play a stable role, thereby better empowering livable, business friendly, and beautiful rural construction.