By LI Linxu

As an important initiative to implement the rural revitalization strategy, sci-tech commissioners are leveraging their expertise to empower agriculture, farmers and rural areas.

A sci-tech commissioner shares cultivation technologies of Chinese herbal medicines with a local villager in Jianou city, Fujian province. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

The key to the modernization of agriculture and rural areas lies in sci-tech and talent, said an official from the Ministry of Science and Technology, adding that sci-tech commissioners have become an important force in seeding agricultural know-how in rural areas and among farmers.

Wuzhishan city in Hainan province is one of the beneficiaries of such a policy. Now, there are more than one hundred sci-tech commissioners in the city, covering all of its 59 administrative villages. With the help of the commissioners, the city has transformed from a backward and impoverished city to one of the first batch of national innovative counties.

Zhou Zhaoxi, associate research fellow from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, is one of sci-tech commissioners in the city. He and his teammates are focusing on the introduction and effective cultivation of new varieties of rare-premium fruits and vegetables in light of local conditions.

Since this January, Hainan provincial government has implemented a policy aiming to better serve agricultural sci-tech commissioners in the province, including financial support.

Local governments are also rolling out targeted policies to facilitate the work and daily life of sci-tech commissioners.

The major content of these policies is to guide and encourage sci-tech personnel to go to the first line of agricultural production, provide sci-tech services, and advance the transformation of sci-tech achievements, so as to boost farmers' income, drive the high-quality development of rural areas, and lay a solid foundation for rural revitalization.