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Temporary storage early indica rice auctions restart, rice market to remain under pressure later
It is understood that on October 13, 2015, China once again launched auctions of early indica rice from temporary storage, at a time when the government price-support purchase of the new-season early indica rice had just ended and new-season mid-to-late indica rice was coming onto the market. China's most recent auctions of temporary-storage early indica rice began on October 21, 2014
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October 10, 2015 "National Agricultural Products Wholesale Price Index" compared with yesterday
According to monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture, on October 10 the National Agricultural Products Wholesale Price Index was 197.81, down 0.30 points from yesterday, among which the "Vegetable Basket" Products Wholesale Price Index was 198.21, down 0.21 points from yesterday. As of 14:00 today, at the national agricultural products wholesale market, pig
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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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How should the two paths of agricultural scale management be chosen?
△In some suburban areas of cities and developed regions, where there are more off-farm employment opportunities and a large rural labor force has basically or completely left agriculture, production scale should be achieved through the transfer of land management rights. △In vast agricultural areas, where large numbers of young and middle-aged laborers have gone out to work and part-time farming is prominent,
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Ministry of Agriculture: Striving to Keep Winter Wheat Area Stable at 338 Million Mu in 2015
According to Xinhua News Agency, Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong said on September 22 that efforts will be made to keep the winter wheat area stable at 338 million mu this year, and the winter rapeseed area stable at around 100 million mu. Yu Xinrong said at the national autumn and winter planting work video conference held here that autumn and winter planting is the beginning of agricultural
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Grassland agriculture is a new frontier for building ecological civilization
China is in the midst of a grand transition from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, and ecological and environmental problems have become one of the prominent issues constraining economic development and affecting social harmony and stability. The 2015 No. 1 Central Document proposed promoting the coordinated development of a three-way planting structure of grain, cash crops and forage grass, a decision that pointed out the path for the sustainable development of China's agriculture in the future. The grassland agriculture system is a modern agricultural system that satisfies the food structure of modern people, balances both ecology and production, and can develop sustainably. Developing grassland agriculture is a new frontier for building ecological civilization in China and is of great significance for safeguarding China's ecological security and promoting the sustainable development of agriculture.
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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.
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In August 2015, overall grassland vegetation growth nationwide was on par with the previous year
Website news The Grassland Monitoring Center of the Ministry of Agriculture used satellite remote sensing and ground observation methods, combined with meteorological monitoring information from the National Meteorological Center, to monitor and analyze the national grassland vegetation growth conditions in August of this year. The results showed that: in August, precipitation in grassland areas nationwide was unevenly distributed in space.
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High-standard farmland construction receives 23.5 billion yuan in central government financial support
On September 7, the reporter learned from the Ministry of Finance that in 2015 the central government had allocated 23.565 billion yuan in comprehensive agricultural development funds for high-standard farmland projects, which are expected to build 27.7745 million mu of high-standard farmland, with an average increase in grain production capacity of more than 100 kg per mu. National Agricultural Comprehensive Development Office
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