Ministry of Finance Issues Document to Support the Development of Regional Agriculture with Competitive and Distinctive Industries
According to a November 17 message on the Ministry of Finance website, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Guiding Opinions on Supporting Agriculture with Competitive and Distinctive Industries through Comprehensive Agricultural Development to Promote the Development of Agricultural Industrialization." The opinions state that starting from 2016, comprehensive agricultural development industrialization operation projects will focus on supporting regional agriculture with competitive and distinctive industries. Strive to use 3 years to initially form 1-2 competitive and distinctive industries in each comprehensive agricultural development county, form about 10 in each province, and initially form 100 regional agricultural competitive and distinctive industry clusters across the country with relatively large resource advantages, long extended industry chains, integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and strong demonstration and driving effects.
The opinions state the scope of support: the industries supported by industrialization operation projects are mainly those included in the "National Comprehensive Agricultural Development Support Plan for Agriculture with Competitive and Distinctive Industries" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). Provincial agricultural development institutions are encouraged to determine about 10 key agricultural competitive and distinctive industries within their regions. County-level agricultural development institutions shall, in principle, select the best projects within the scope of the region's agricultural competitive and distinctive industries. For agricultural competitive and distinctive industries within the region, identify the key links and weak links in the industry chain for focused and continuous support, build a complete industry chain, and make the regional agricultural competitive and distinctive industries larger and stronger.
⟦NL> The support content mainly revolves around improving the agricultural competitive and distinctive industry chain, specifically including: in crop farming, seedling breeding, standardized planting bases, agricultural products storage and preservation, and waste processing and utilization; in livestock farming, breeding of breeding livestock and poultry (including aquatic products), standardized breeding bases, livestock and poultry (including aquatic products) trading venues, forage planting, feed processing, harmless treatment of manure, and organic fertilizer processing; in processing and circulation, processing bases, raw material warehousing, finished product storage and preservation, cold chain logistics, and origin wholesale markets. At the same time, encourage the development of “Internet + agriculture” and actively support the construction of e-commerce platforms for competitive and distinctive agricultural products.
Regarding support methods, give full play to the guiding and leveraging role of fiscal funds on financial capital and social capital, adjust and improve the support methods of fiscal funds for agricultural competitive and distinctive industries, and gradually form a diversified support system mainly based on loan interest subsidies, supplemented by fiscal subsidies, and coexisting with multiple forms such as fiscal equity investment funds. Loan interest subsidy projects give priority to supporting leading agricultural industrialization enterprises and farmers' cooperatives with relatively strong strength, relatively large scale, and significant demonstration and driving effects. Fiscal subsidy projects give priority to supporting farmers' cooperatives, family farms, specialized large households, and agricultural socialized service organizations. Encourage and guide qualified regions to adopt support methods such as fiscal equity investment funds and loan project guarantee funds. At the same time, encourage local areas to actively explore other support methods conducive to expanding social capital investment and strengthening competitive and distinctive industry clusters.