-
How can the shortcomings in agricultural modernization be addressed?
Simultaneously advancing industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization was clearly set out as one of the major policy orientations in the 12th Five-Year Plan outline. Looking ahead to the 13th Five-Year Plan, while this policy orientation continues its essence and expands into the "new four modernizations," it also reveals an intent to address shortcomings. At the recent
-
Ministry of Agriculture issues guidance to accelerate the development of herbivorous livestock farming
This website news: Developing herbivorous livestock farming is an important focus for accelerating the transformation of agricultural development patterns and structural adjustment. Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Accelerated Development of Herbivorous Livestock Farming" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which clarified the approach, goals and main tasks for the development of herbivorous livestock farming in the period ahead.
-
Large quantities of imported soybeans will arrive in China in the coming months
Analysts say China's soybean imports will rise further in the coming months, mainly because South American soybeans ordered earlier are arriving, which may put pressure on crushing margins. Data released by the General Administration of Customs show that soybean imports in May this year reached 6.13 million
-
More efforts still needed to tackle livestock and poultry farming pollution
Recently, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Advancement of Ecological Civilization Construction" proposed strengthening the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution and increasing efforts to prevent and control pollution from crop and livestock farming, especially large-scale livestock and poultry farming. It can be seen that the problem of livestock and poultry farming pollution has become an agricultural
-
Transforming the Agricultural Development Model and Accelerating the Pace of Modern Agricultural Development
Agricultural modernization is the fundamental direction of China's agricultural development. Since the reform and opening up, and especially since the beginning of the new century, China's modern agricultural development has made considerable progress, and the level of agricultural modernization has risen markedly. At present, China is in a critical period of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects
-
Agricultural machinery cooperative launches menu-style contract farming service
At the end of September, the critical period for late rice grain filling, Leng Weiguo, a major grain grower in Wangjiadi Village, Longguangqiao Town, Heshan District, Yiyang City, Hunan Province, rarely went to the fields to busy himself, spending most of his time at the Huimin Agricultural Machinery Cooperative maintaining farm machinery. His rice will be harvested in mid-October.
-
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."
-
Potatoes as a Staple Food: An Emerging Trend - How the Humble Potato Conquered the World
The pastries and snacks made with potato as the main ingredient are delicious and tempting. The potato, scientifically known as Solanum tuberosum, is the world's fourth-largest food crop. According to statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the world's total potato output in 2013 was 376 million tons. With the establishment in recent years of China's strategy to make potatoes a staple food, China's potato planting area reached 5.57 million hectares in 2014, with fresh potato output of more than 95 million tons; both the area and the output account for about one quarter of the world's total, and China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of potatoes.
-
Cotton farming weighed down by internal and external troubles: soon no one will grow it
This is the sentence that Du Min, a scientist in the economics post of the National Cotton Industry Technology System and a researcher at the Rural Economy Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, has heard most and said most often recently. In recent years, China's cotton planting area has plummeted. According to the latest national cotton
-
Heavy Rain Causes Disasters in the South, but Farmers Manage Seeding and Harvesting Without Missing the Farming Season
The "double rush" is in full swing in the South, with frequent heavy rainfall. But under the unified deployment of local Party committees, governments and agricultural departments at all levels, seeding and harvesting proceed without missing the farming season. Since May, heavy rainfall has occurred frequently in the South, with southern Hunan, eastern Jiangxi, northeastern Guangxi, most of Guangdong
条件筛选