Greater Support and Protection for Agriculture, with Innovation as the Key
The support and protection system is at the core of agricultural policy in a modern country, and providing necessary support and protection for agriculture is an objective requirement for developing modern agriculture. The "Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Deepening Rural Reform" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") explicitly states that we must adhere to the basic policy of giving more, taking less, and loosening control, focus on ensuring the supply of major agricultural products, promoting farmers' income growth, and achieving sustainable agricultural development, and accelerate the formation of an agricultural support and protection system that is comprehensive in coverage, clearly targeted, focused on key areas, supported by matching measures, and simple to operate.
Since the 18th National Congress, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have persisted in strengthening agriculture within macroeconomic regulation, continuously increasing investment in “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers,” and steadily increasing agricultural subsidies, which has played an important role in promoting agricultural production growth, farmers' income growth, and rural stability. At present, China is in a critical period of transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. In order to continue strengthening the foundational position of agriculture and promote sustained income growth for farmers against the backdrop of slowing economic growth, it is particularly necessary to more firmly increase support and protection for agriculture. At the same time, as the growth rate of fiscal revenue slows and agricultural subsidies increasingly approach the “Amber Box” subsidy ceiling committed to upon China's accession to the World Trade Organization, agricultural support and protection policies also need adjustment and improvement.
We can see that one strong signal released by the Plan is that in the future, support for “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” will not weaken, and investment in “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” will only increase, not decrease. Establishing a mechanism for stable growth of investment in agriculture and rural areas has been placed in an important position, agriculture and rural areas have become a priority area for fiscal expenditure guarantees, and central budgetary investment continues to be tilted toward agriculture and rural areas.
Under the new circumstances, how to better leverage the fiscal lever to mobilize more financial capital and social funds toward the “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” sector is also one of the key points of deepening reform. The Plan proposes to further optimize the structure of fiscal expenditures supporting agriculture, transform the mode of fiscal fund investment, and through measures such as government cooperation with social capital, government purchase of services, guarantee interest subsidies, rewards in place of subsidies, privately run projects with public assistance, and risk compensation, drive financial and social capital toward agriculture and rural areas, giving play to the guiding and leveraging role of fiscal funds.
In addition, agriculture-related transfer payment funds will be vigorously cleaned up, integrated, and standardized, and “small, scattered, and disorderly” agriculture-related special funds with insignificant effects must be resolutely rectified; agriculture-related special funds with similar objectives and similar investment directions shall be integrated; for agriculture-related expenditures for which local authorities have management information advantages, they shall be allocated as a block under general transfer payments, to be coordinated and used by local authorities, with regulatory responsibilities implemented. A standardized and transparent management system shall be established to eliminate any form of misappropriation, interception at each level, and false reporting and fraudulent claiming, and to effectively improve the performance of agriculture-related fund investment.
⟦NL> Since the beginning of autumn, corn, wheat, and rice prices in major grain-producing areas across the country have all declined to varying degrees. How can the price formation mechanism for agricultural products and the market regulation system for agricultural products be improved while also taking into account farmers' legitimate income? The Plan requires that, according to the importance of various major agricultural products to the national economy and people's livelihood, the method of “differentiated policies by variety and gradual advancement” be adopted to improve the price formation mechanism for agricultural products and the purchasing and storage policy for agricultural products, adhere to the principle of setting purchasing and storage prices close to market levels and safeguarding farmers' reasonable income, reduce storage costs, and improve storage efficiency.
What if the market price is too low? The government should explore adopting appropriate policies to subsidize farmers according to the idea of “separating price from subsidy.” To this end, the Plan proposes improving the agricultural subsidy system. Maintain the continuity and stability of agricultural subsidy policies, adjust and improve “Amber Box” support policies, gradually expand the scale and scope of implementation of “Green Box” support policies, and improve the effectiveness of agricultural subsidy policies. Carry out pilot reforms of agricultural subsidies, merge the current “three subsidies” (crop improved variety subsidy, direct grain-growing subsidy, and comprehensive agricultural input subsidy) into “agricultural support and protection subsidies,” optimize the direction of subsidy support, and highlight farmland protection and food security. Maintain continuity with existing policies, adjust part of the existing funds and newly added subsidy funds to favor new types of agricultural business entities of various moderate scales, reasonably determine the level of support, and do not artificially “build up big households.”
At the same time, further broaden the channels for fiscal funds supporting agriculture, highlight the fiscal focus on supporting agriculture, continue to increase investment in agricultural infrastructure construction and comprehensive agricultural development, improve the investment mechanism for promoting agricultural scientific and technological progress and strengthening farmers' skills training, strengthen support for agricultural structural adjustment, and increase support for agricultural inputs, the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools, and other areas. Improve the interest compensation mechanism for major grain-producing areas. Improve rapid and efficient methods for distributing subsidy funds, and encourage areas with the conditions to explore methods for subsidizing farmers' incomes.