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Even with consecutive years of grain harvests, we must remain vigilant in times of peace and never relax our guard
Food security is considered the foundation of a country's social stability. China's grain production has achieved twelve consecutive years of increase - does that mean we can sit back and relax? The answer is no. In fact, China's food security issue currently faces more complex factors,
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How to ensure grain farmers do not lose out when grain prices fall
Improve the comprehensive grain production capacity, push agricultural development from being mainly about quantity growth to placing equal emphasis on quantity, quality and efficiency, achieve grain storage in the land and grain storage in technology, and ensure grain security for the world. Just as farmers were celebrating a bumper autumn grain harvest, they suddenly encountered rather sharp fluctuations in grain prices.
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The citizenization of farmers must be advanced steadily; never try to help the seedlings grow by pulling them up.
To advance the building of a new type of urbanization, the central government proposed further advancing reform of the household registration system and advancing in an orderly manner the citizenization of the agricultural population that has moved to cities. However, in recent years the author found in Xiangyang City in northwestern Hubei that although farmers yearn for urban life, most of them do not have a strong willingness to completely "leave farming," and many hover in an amphibious state of "both city and countryside, both worker and farmer." All localities should take account of actual conditions, carefully analyze the obstacles to farmer citizenization, respect farmers' wishes, avoid pulling up seedlings to help them grow, and refrain from forcibly pushing it forward by administrative means. The reason "agricultural to non-agricultural" conversion is difficult to make attractive to many farmers lies in the following: <p><P> To advance the building of a new type of urbanization, the central government proposed further advancing reform of the household registration system and advancing in an orderly manner the citizenization of the agricultural population that has moved to cities. However, in recent years the author found in Xiangyang City in northwestern Hubei that although farmers yearn for urban life, most of them do not have a strong willingness to completely "leave farming," and many hover in an amphibious state of "both city and countryside, both worker and farmer." All localities should take account of actual conditions, carefully analyze the obstacles to farmer citizenization, respect farmers' wishes, avoid pulling up seedlings to help them grow, and refrain from forcibly pushing it forward by administrative means. The reason "agricultural to non-agricultural" conversion is difficult to make attractive to many farmers lies in the following:</P><P> First, there are many worries about the future: the elasticity of urban-rural amphibiousness is great. The vast majority of migrant workers who enter cities lack technology and skills, cannot compete for good jobs, earn little throughout the year, feel uncertain about life in the city, and fear that after being laid off they will return to the countryside with no land to farm. Farmers worry most that after "agricultural to non-agricultural" conversion they will lose contracted land and homestead land. Many young and middle-aged people choose urban-rural amphibiousness, retreating to the countryside when going out is difficult and going out to seek opportunities whenever possible. Farmers say that although farming does not bring much income, at least there is food to eat and a house to live in, which is at least a form of security. The city may be good, but without a job one cannot live there.</P><P> Second, real pressure is great: the threshold for settling down in the city is high. In 2014, the average monthly income of migrant workers in the cities and counties of Xiangyang was about 2,000 yuan, and those with monthly wage income exceeding 3,000 yuan accounted for about 15 percent, while in the same period the average sales price of commercial housing in the cities and counties was 3,800 yuan per sq m. Commercial housing prices continued to rise, urban village redevelopment led to a reduction in rental housing supply, and rental housing rents also rose by 20% to 30%. Migrant workers find it difficult to rely on wage income to support a family in the city, pay for their children's schooling, let alone buy a house. A 26-year-old young man surnamed Huang from Wuzhen in Nanzhang County knows how to install water and electricity, so finding work is not difficult, but he can save only 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a year. At this income level, even if he neither ate nor drank, buying an apartment would take one or two decades. Among the several young migrant workers the author surveyed, when buying a house in the city was mentioned, their first reaction was "I wouldn't even dare to think about it." But they have eager expectations about buying a house; in their view, without a house they cannot put down roots in the city. Most of the new generation of migrant workers have a certain amount of education and skills. Unlike their parents' generation, they have a stronger willingness to stay in the city and more employment choices, but buying a house is often a high threshold they cannot cross.</P><P> Third, the imprint of previous experience is deep: "washing one's feet" and entering the city is full of setbacks. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, the policy of "selling household registration" was implemented successively in the cities and counties of Xiangyang. A farmer could convert from agricultural to non-agricultural status by spending 5,000 to 10,000 yuan, and those of working age could even be recruited into factories, which led many people to empty their family savings or even borrow money everywhere to "buy household registration." But within a few years, many people were laid off and unemployed before they had earned back the money they spent on buying household registration, and had no choice but to take a "non-agricultural household registration" paper back to the countryside to farm or go out to work. This situation is still fresh in many farmers' memories. Many farmers say, we have contracted land and self-built houses, and can also enjoy the new rural cooperative medical care and the new social security. Now rural water and electricity supply is normal, transportation conditions have improved, housing standards have risen, the living environment is good, and with more and more national beneficial policies for farmers, rural household registration is also very "precious."</P><P> Farmer citizenization involves too many issues and cannot be achieved overnight. Its implementation requires a fairly long process; haste makes waste. Before farmers can obtain a higher level of employment and social security, the process of farmer citizenization cannot be fast. This requires the government to do careful and meticulous work in theoretical argumentation, planning guidance, institutional improvement, and public opinion guidance, and even more requires the government to gradually eliminate farmers' distant worries and immediate anxieties in the process of farmer citizenization, so that farmer citizenization comes about naturally, and it must never transcend reality by using administrative force to pull up seedlings to help them grow.</P></p>
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Grain production must never be reduced because of adjusting the agricultural structure
As people's living standards rise and the consumption structure of agricultural products upgrades, the structure of agricultural planting and breeding must be adjusted in a timely manner. After China's grain production achieved eleven consecutive years of growth, major changes took place in the relationship between supply and demand, with some grain varieties experiencing a temporary oversupply, which also provided a rare opportunity for adjusting the agricultural
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Food production must never be treated lightly at any time
As China's economy enters a new normal, new changes and new characteristics have also emerged in the grain sector. In early January 2015, at the national grain circulation work conference convened by the State Administration of Grain, Ren Zhengxiao, director of the State Administration of Grain, described the 2014 grain market situation as "complex and intricate, with unprecedented pressure on purchasing and storage, and with arduous and heavy tasks for reform and development."
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Food security must never be relaxed at any time.
Recently, at a group discussion of the agriculture sector of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Ren Zhengxiao, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Director of the National Food Administration, proposed that China's food security situation should be assessed scientifically and calmly, that the hard-won sound momentum in food production should be consolidated, and that the quality and safety of food should be continuously improved.
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Agricultural investment must only increase, never decrease, even when finances are tight
The Central Rural Work Conference proposed that the intensity of agricultural policy and funding investment must be increased. No matter how tight the financial resources, it is necessary to ensure that agricultural investment only increases and never decreases, to coordinate and integrate agriculture-related funds, to innovate agricultural investment and financing mechanisms, and to improve the financial system supporting agriculture. This not only reflects
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Why must grain production be stabilized first in agricultural structural adjustment?
Whenever the grain production situation improves, some people always think that structural adjustment means reducing grain production. This way of thinking fails to unify structural adjustment with food security in terms of the political, social and economic accounts. Without food security, all other security loses its foundation.
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Agricultural investment must only increase, never decrease; even when finances are tight, it must be guaranteed
According to Xinhua News Agency, the Central Rural Work Conference was held in Beijing from the 22nd to the 23rd, to study major measures for advancing agricultural modernization through reform and innovation. The conference pointed out that agricultural modernization is the foundation and support of national modernization, and is still currently a prominent weak link, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects
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Minister of Agriculture: Farmland must never be converted to non-agricultural use; farmers may move into non-agricultural work
Qiushi, Issue 19 of 2014, published a signed article by Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu, stating that the national food security strategy under the new situation must be fully implemented. The article points out that we must resolutely hold the lifeline of farmland. This is where the lifeblood of national food security lies. Farmland
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