| It has been over thirty years since the reform and opening up policy has been implemented, Chinese population shows an increasing mobility and rural people begin to yearn for urban life, especially those young adults who have basically left villages for cities. Although these people have been scattered throughout factories and various kinds of service agencies in cities and towns, only few labor force can settle down and even a small part can become permanent residents of the cities. These people are generally known as "peasant-workers" who live in the bottom of the city. It is undeniable that the mobility of young rural labor force has exerted huge influence on our social progress, especially the development of our city and town industry and economy.However, this also leads to a social phenomenon. Since rural migrant workers generally choose to work in developed areas, for example the coastal areas, which are relatively far away from home, they can only return home once in the Spring Festival or even once in several years. It is impossible for them to return during busy seasons, which leaves the heavy farm work to the old, women and children living in the villages throughout the year. These people constitute rural left-behind families and they are correspondingly called left-behind old, left-behind women and left-behind children. They have to get involved in agricultural production to make a living. However, their knowledge structure and physical strength makes it difficult to guarantee the quality and quantity of agricultural extension work. Furthermore, few young adults can be engaged in farm work there, which substantially affects agricultural production and modernized agricultural construction, hinders new rural and agricultural construction and the solution of "three rural issues (agriculture, farmer and rural area)". In the meanwhile, the left-behind people also confront with all kinds of difficulties and a series of social issues. Therefore, seeking for agricultural extension means relative to the left-behind labor force is of profound practical and historical significance.In addition, through thirty years’ development, the agricultural extension service system has realized an overall coverage from the previous center to the locality. The newly involved emerging forces--private capital and social organizations in recent years provide supporting conditions to the extensive coverage, diversified functions and multiply layers of the agricultural extension service system. Implementing agricultural extension in practice and responding to the vast peasants’ demands is also the direction of future agricultural extension work. As a special group in agricultural extension, the left-behind women must become a hardcore in the future agricultural extension work. That’s because in practical production life, the left-behind women are expected to assume the heavy responsibility of maintaining family life, including taking good care of the old and educating the children, and support agricultural production of the family. And they are also the main force of new rural construction. Therefore, improving the efficiency of promoting agricultural extension in the left-behind women is quite necessary.In this paper, Wa Quan Village in Gansu and a rural community in Henan are taken as an example in the investigation of the specific circumstances in the practical application and operation of different agricultural extension means relative to local left-behind women. On this basis, the influences of different agricultural extension means on the effect of agricultural extension are explored, as well as how to optimize agricultural extension means specific to the left-behind women and how to effectively facilitate agricultural extension. The objective of the above mentioned exploration is to help the left-behind women accept and utilize new techniques to cultivate new varieties more easily, increase the income and improve the quality of life, and assume the heavy responsibility of new rural construction. |
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