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Sustainable agricultural development requires equal emphasis on protection and governance
Equal Emphasis on Protection and Governance, Firmly Pursuing the Path of Sustainable Agricultural Development. Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu Answers Reporters' Questions on the National Plan for Sustainable Agricultural Development (2015-2030). This website reports: Agriculture bears on national food security, resource security and ecological security. "Sustainable" is
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Lean meat powder control requires addressing both root causes and symptoms, and cracking down hard on illegal addition
In recent years, in order to strictly investigate the illegal act of adding "lean meat powder" to pigs, beef cattle, sheep and their products, agriculture and animal husbandry departments at all levels as well as management departments such as health, food and drug administration, and industry and commerce have increased sampling and inspection efforts and strictly investigated illegal acts. Within a certain period, the quality of livestock products improved markedly
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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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Rooting out the fake seed problem requires relevant departments to step up and take responsibility
A few days ago, the Ministry of Agriculture released the results of a seed market inspection, issuing a warning that these seeds should not be bought for spring plowing preparation. A total of 44 kinds of seeds, including rice and corn, were found to be substandard, with the production and operating units located across 20 provinces and municipalities including Tianjin, Hunan and Guangdong. And
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Food safety requires joint efforts from all links to be guaranteed
Recently, at the ninth training session for directors of major national agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery counties and the national agricultural product quality and safety demonstration county class held at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, how to strengthen supervision of agricultural product quality and safety became the focus of discussion. The trainees unanimously agreed that agricultural product quality and safety
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Green agricultural development requires coordinated advancement of six aspects of greening
The Opinions proposed to "coordinate the advancement of new industrialization, urbanization, informatization, agricultural modernization and greening." This is another major deployment by the central leadership for advancing ecological civilization construction, following the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Decisions of the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee. "Greening" is the latest summary of the comprehensive green transformation of China's economic and social development. Its scope of application includes not only ecological civilization construction, but also all aspects of economic, political, cultural and social development, covering the entire process of new industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization. To advance greening, efforts can be focused on the following aspects.
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Land Transfer Cannot Be Forced to Grow by Pulling Up Seedlings: Agricultural Transformation Requires Steady Progress
At present, China's agriculture is in a critical period of accelerated transformation. Whether traditional agriculture can smoothly achieve the leap to modern agriculture depends to a large extent on whether the process of land transfer and appropriately scaled management can advance steadily and in an orderly manner. With the successive introduction of policies to accelerate land transfer
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Revitalizing Collective Forestry Management Rights Requires a Solid Foundation of Rights Confirmation and Certification
Reform of the collective forest rights system is an important part of rural reform and a significant measure for advancing ecological civilization construction and promoting resource growth, a sound ecology, higher farmer incomes and harmony in forest areas. Practice has proven that taking the revitalization of collective forest land management rights as a breakthrough point helps promote
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E-commerce is deep water with many risks; enter with caution
This Monday, I heard from a friend that a certain water-soluble fertilizer factory wants to build an e-commerce platform. Beyond my surprise, I also started pondering: why would such a small fertilizer enterprise also want to build an agricultural materials e-commerce platform? Could it be that this boss made the decision on a whim? Of course, I am not
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Keeping the red line for cultivated land is key to advancing ecological civilization
On June 3, the State Council Information Office held a briefing, inviting experts to introduce the situation regarding China's ecological civilization development. Zhang Xiaoling, assistant to the director of the Land Surveying and Planning Institute of the Ministry of Land and Resources, believes that advancing ecological civilization requires keeping the red line for cultivated land. Regarding how to use land in
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