The level of agricultural mechanization continues to rise steadily
Since the beginning of this year, the national agricultural mechanization system, in accordance with the overall requirements of “stabilizing grain production and increasing farmers' incomes, improving quality and efficiency, and driving development through innovation”, has focused on implementing and improving policies, cultivating and developing market entities, adjusting and optimizing the structure of equipment, making breakthroughs in mechanizing weak links, and promoting advanced and applicable technologies, and has vigorously advanced the “full-process, comprehensive, high-quality and high-efficiency” development of agricultural mechanization. It is expected that this year the comprehensive mechanization level of crop cultivation and harvesting nationwide will exceed 62%, providing stronger equipment support for ensuring national food security and enhancing the overall agricultural production capacity.
New results have been achieved in the reform and innovation of the agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance issued the Guiding Opinions on the Implementation of Agricultural Machinery Purchase Subsidies for 2015-2017, making relatively major adjustments aimed at improving the policy's direction, precision and inclusiveness. The scope of subsidized machinery was further narrowed, with subsidies focused on machinery needed for key links in the production of grain, cotton, oil and sugar crops; open subsidies were offered for machinery for selected key weak links; the qualifications for subsidized machinery were decoupled from the support and promotion catalogue; the practices of “purchasing machinery first and applying for subsidies afterward” and “one-stop” processing services were introduced; and penalties for enterprises violating laws and regulations were increased. Through policy innovation and administrative streamlining, farmers' enthusiasm for purchasing machinery was further mobilized and the vitality of the agricultural machinery market was stimulated.
⟦NL> The action to advance full-process mechanization was fully launched. The Ministry of Agriculture deployed and carried out the action to advance full-process mechanization in the production of major crops, focusing on the mechanization of major crops, major production regions and major production links, with the goal of contiguous demonstration and raising levels, to accelerate the widespread application of mature full-process mechanization production technologies for major grain crops; and with the goal of breaking bottlenecks and exploring models, to demonstrate and promote full-process mechanization production technologies for cash crops such as cotton, oil and sugar crops. Demonstration project counties for full-process mechanization in the production of major crops have been built in 84 locations nationwide, carrying out exploratory integration, trials and demonstrations of technologies for varieties, cultivation, machinery and processing. Agricultural machinery cooperatives have been advanced toward diversified forms of establishment, market-oriented service methods, a series of support policies and standardized operation and management. There are now more than 50,000 agricultural machinery cooperatives nationwide, and they are increasingly becoming the main force in socialized agricultural machinery services.
The application scope of yield-increasing and efficiency-enhancing agricultural mechanization technologies such as deep loosening and soil preparation has been significantly expanded. Twelve key agricultural mechanization technologies for 2015 were formulated and released, a major action for agricultural mechanization education and training was implemented, and about 4 million person-times of practical personnel of various types in agricultural mechanization were trained. The organization and dispatch of agricultural machinery operations during important farming seasons and the supervision and management of safe production were strengthened, and the “one-stop” combined operation method was widely promoted. Operation efficiency and quality improved markedly. The mechanization rate of rice planting exceeded 40%, the machine harvesting rate of wheat in the “three summer” period exceeded 92%, and the machine harvesting rate of corn in the “three autumn” period reached 63%, an increase of 5 percentage points year on year. The goals for deep loosening and soil preparation by agricultural machinery set out in the Report on the Work of the Government were conscientiously implemented, financial support was actively sought, agricultural machinery purchase subsidy funds were used in a coordinated way, the pilot areas for subsidies for deep loosening and soil preparation operations by agricultural machinery were expanded, and in suitable areas deep loosening machines were listed as models eligible for open subsidies.
During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, the development of agricultural mechanization will adhere to goal orientation and problem orientation, and, centering on the development concepts of strengthening innovation and pursuing coordinated, green, open and shared development, will promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural machinery equipment and service organizations from quantitative growth to placing equal emphasis on quality and efficiency. Efforts will be made to ensure that by 2020 the comprehensive mechanization level of crop cultivation and harvesting exceeds 68%, of which grain crops exceed 80%, and that more than 500 demonstration counties achieving full-process mechanization in the production of major crops are built nationwide, with provinces where conditions permit taking the lead in basically achieving agricultural mechanization.