China will promote the development of family farms to facilitate specialized, intensive and large-scale agricultural operations by eliminating the shortcomings caused by traditional small-scale farming and urbanization, said a government official.

Sun Zhonghua, director-general of the department of rural economic systems and management of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that along with a sustained and massive migration of young and middle-aged farmers, rural areas have seen their labor force grow older, more female and less educated.

Attracted by China's trade and manufacturing boom in the past two decades, many farmers from inland provinces or traditional agricultural regions such as Sichuan and Hunan pursued higher pay in the factory towns of coastal provinces such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.