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China's Integrated Oilseed-Grain Rotation Technology Achieves High Yield and High Efficiency
On May 29, reporters learned from the rapeseed-maize annual green high-yield and high-efficiency technology model demonstration on-site meeting held in Xiangyang, Hubei, that through major scientific research collaboration and major tackling of key problems, Chinese agricultural experts have created a new model of rapeseed-maize annual green high-yield and high-efficiency technology, successfully carrying out
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Agricultural product price reform requires reforming subsidy policies to boost competitiveness through high efficiency
The "Several Opinions on Advancing Price Mechanism Reform" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") proposes to improve the price formation mechanism for agricultural products, with agricultural product prices mainly determined by the market. The "Opinions" make clear that China will adjust and improve "amber box" (under the Agreement on Agriculture, policies that distort production and trade are called "amber box" policies) support policies, gradually expand the scale and scope of "green box" support policies, continue to implement and improve the minimum purchase price policy for rice and wheat, reform and improve the corn purchase and storage system, continue to implement the pilot reform of target prices for cotton and soybeans, and improve the methods for distributing subsidies.<br /> <br /> For many years, the agricultural sector has been exploring agricultural support policies that do not distort the market and are more efficient, with more "green box" and less "amber box." An official from the Ministry of Agriculture told a reporter from the Daily Economic News, "What is being carried out now is the target price pilot for soybeans and cotton, which also represents the direction of reform for most agricultural products in the future, including grain varieties. The current agricultural subsidy measures are relatively inefficient and in fact have caused a certain degree of market distortion, the so-called 'foreign goods' entering the market and 'domestic goods' entering warehouses."<br /> <br /> <strong> The juncture for shifting from "amber box" to "green box" has arrived</strong><br /> <br /> According to the commitments China made when joining the WTO, agricultural subsidies cannot exceed 8.5% of agricultural output value, and as agricultural production costs gradually rise, the current agricultural subsidy policy is approaching the "amber box" ceiling.<br /> <br /> At present, the prices of the vast majority of China's agricultural products are already formed by market supply and demand, while the measures through which the government truly intervenes in prices mainly include the minimum purchase price policy implemented respectively for rice and wheat, the two key staple grain varieties, in the main producing areas starting in 2004 and 2006, as well as the temporary purchase and storage of bulk agricultural products such as corn, rapeseed, and cotton since 2008.<br /> <br /> Supported by market-support purchase prices and temporary storage prices that have risen almost year by year, domestic agricultural product prices have become "inverted" relative to international prices. At present, international soybean, corn, and wheat prices are 1,175 yuan, 923 yuan, and 626 yuan per ton lower than domestic prices, respectively. "When China joined the WTO, it promised that agricultural subsidies could not exceed 8.5% of agricultural output value. This is a restriction on government subsidies that distort production and trade, and now subsidies for some of our products have already crossed that limit." Han Jun, deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, said recently that as the squeezing effect of the rising "floor" of domestic grain production costs becomes more and more obvious, part of the "amber box" subsidies must now be shifted to the "green box."<br /> <br /> Strengthen monitoring of agricultural product prices<br /> <br /> "Although the intensity of protection for agricultural products has not diminished, countries such as those in Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea have shown a trend of reducing the intensity of agricultural subsidy support, paying more attention to enhancing their own agricultural industry competitiveness." Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Rural Economic Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Daily Economic News, "China must also focus on considering the 'transformation of methods and adjustment of structure' of agriculture from the perspective of improving agriculture's capacity for sustainable development, and take an intensive modern agricultural development path featuring an efficient agricultural industry, safe products, resource conservation, and environmental friendliness."<br /> <br /> According to the "Opinions," China will also strengthen the investigation of agricultural product costs and price monitoring, accelerate the establishment of a global agricultural data investigation and analysis system, and provide important support for the government in formulating policies on agricultural product prices and agricultural subsidies. "Agricultural product cost survey data are an effective basis for scientifically formulating a series of policies benefiting farmers, and under the current situation of continuously rising agricultural production costs, they are especially important." A person engaged in local statistical work told the reporter, "It is necessary to understand local farmers' planting and breeding habits and grasp information such as farmers' preferences in using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, land transfer prices, and the marketing costs of agricultural products." "Considering it along the lines of Internet Plus, if big data on agricultural product production costs, market price fluctuations, international price references, and even comparisons of foreign agricultural product costs can be formed, it will have a profound impact on China's agricultural development." Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that "this can not only help solve the prominent problems existing in China's agriculture, but can also bring broad application prospects in areas such as agricultural socialized services and agricultural science and technology."
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Major agricultural products achieve sustained and effective supply, with equal emphasis on quantity and efficiency
In a country with such a large population as ours, the issue of food is a matter of paramount importance. At present, economic and social development has entered a new historical period. Especially at a time when world economic growth has slowed markedly and the negative impact on our economy is deepening, agriculture and rural
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Why does reducing fertilizer use and increasing efficiency in agriculture not affect food security?
Chemical fertilizers have made an indelible contribution to China's consecutive years of agricultural harvests, but as chemical fertilizer use in China has increased, its efficiency in boosting crop yields has been declining, and it has even brought impacts on the ecological environment. In fact, reducing fertilizer use, especially for cash crops such as vegetables and fruits,
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What are the technical paths for reducing chemical fertilizer use and increasing its efficiency?
On March 17 this year, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed striving to achieve zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on major crops by 2020. The key to achieving this goal is to grasp well the "precision, adjustment, improvement and substitution": advancing precision fertilization, adjusting the structure of chemical fertilizer application, improving fertilization methods
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Nutrient Solution Replaces Chemical Fertilizer: Cutting Back on Fertilizer and Pesticides, Raising Quality and Efficiency
Editor's note: Starting this year, the Ministry of Agriculture officially launched the action to reduce fertilizer and pesticide use, striving to have both the chemical fertilizer utilization rate and the pesticide utilization rate for major crops reach above 40% by 2020, an increase of 7 percentage points and 5 percentage points respectively over 2013, achieving zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on crops.
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Horticultural crops achieve quality and efficiency improvement through the "Three Improvements"
Recently, the Management Cadre College of the Ministry of Agriculture held the fourth national rotation training class this year for directors of major agricultural, animal husbandry, and fishery counties, with the theme of improving the quality and efficiency of horticultural crops, focusing training on agricultural (fruit industry) directors from key horticultural crop (apple) counties and cadres from the Ministry of Agriculture system
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Activating Modern Agricultural Concepts: Land Transfer Achieves High Efficiency
In recent years, riding the wave of land transfer, a large number of new-type agricultural business entities in our city have grown rapidly. However, after land is consolidated into scale, problems such as loose management, insufficient funds and inadequate investment in infrastructure remain the primary factors restricting agriculture from becoming bigger and stronger. For example
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Committee member Li Jian suggests accelerating the move toward modern agriculture, ecological agriculture and high-efficiency agriculture
China Economic Net, Beijing, March 14 (Report) - Today, Li Jian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Beijing Institute of Technology, said while appearing on China Economic Net's "China Economic Online Interview Special Program - Focus on the 2015 Two Sessions" that China's agriculture currently needs to transform its mode of production, accelerate the transformation of agricultural production methods and the development of modern agricultural technology, and realize the transition to modern agriculture and ecological agriculture. He said that currently the<span id="stock_sz000061"><span class="keyword">agricultural products</span></span> prices have already hit a ceiling and are already considerably higher than agricultural product prices abroad, mainly because the output efficiency of agriculture still needs to be improved.
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China's high-efficiency water-saving irrigation area will increase by more than 20 million mu this year
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 24 (Reporters Yu Wenjing, Chen Mengyang) - To consolidate the foundation of food security and make scientific use of precious water resources, China will speed up the construction of farmland water conservancy this year, adding more than 20 million mu of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation area. This was learned by the reporters on the 24th from the Ministry of Water Resources.
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