Wang Yang stresses strengthening the leading role of state farms in agricultural modernization
China Securities Journal Online, Nov 16 - Vice Premier Wang Yang, in a signed article published in the People's Daily on Nov 16, said that to advance agricultural modernization under new historical conditions, it is necessary, in accordance with the requirements of the Recommendations, to “firmly establish a development philosophy of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing”, overcome development difficulties, cultivate development advantages, “strive to build a modern agricultural industrial system, production system and operation system, and improve agricultural quality, efficiency and competitiveness”, and accelerate the transformation of our country from a large agricultural country into a strong agricultural country.
The article proposed active innovation to improve the systems and mechanisms for modern agricultural development: it is necessary to innovate agricultural operation methods; to innovate the rural property rights system; and to innovate the support system for modern factors such as science and technology.
The article stated that coordinated promotion should improve the quality of modern agriculture: it is necessary to promote coordinated development within agriculture; to promote coordinated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas, forming a modern agricultural industrial system; and to promote coordinated development between urban and rural areas, forming a pattern of integrated urban-rural development.
The article required green development to promote the protection and sustainable use of agricultural resources, and to comprehensively raise the quality and safety level of agricultural products.
The article also stated that opening up should be deepened to make coordinated use of international and domestic agricultural markets and resources. It is necessary to continuously expand areas of international agricultural cooperation, innovate cooperation methods, make full use of our country's advantages in agricultural technology, experience and equipment, promote agriculture going global, and participate in international agricultural development, especially strengthening agricultural cooperation with countries along the “Belt and Road”, and improving the ability to use international agricultural resources through cooperation.
The article finally stated that it is necessary to strengthen the leading role of state farms in agricultural modernization, make good use of the supply and marketing cooperatives as a new force and comprehensive platform serving farmers' production and life, and mobilize the enthusiasm of various market entities to participate in modern agricultural development and serve rural development.
The full text is as follows:
Use new development concepts to vigorously advance agricultural modernization
Wang Yang
The Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (hereinafter referred to as the Recommendations), adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, set clear requirements for vigorously advancing agricultural modernization. This is an important deployment made from the overall situation of our country's economic and social development and with an eye to achieving the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out many times that whether a society is moderately prosperous or not depends mainly on the villagers. To build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the most arduous and heaviest task lies in rural areas; in simultaneously advancing the new type of industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, the weak link is agricultural modernization. Without agricultural modernization, without prosperous and strong rural areas, and without farmers living and working in contentment, national modernization is incomplete, not comprehensive and not solid. Agriculture is the foundation for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving modernization. We must persist in making solving the issues relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers a top priority in the work of the whole Party, increase the intensity of policies that strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and enrich farmers, and vigorously advance agricultural modernization.
In recent years, the level of our country's agricultural modernization has steadily improved, effectively promoting the stable development of agriculture and the continuous increase of farmers' incomes, and laying a solid foundation for overcoming various difficulties and risks and maintaining overall social stability. As our country's economic development enters a new normal, economic growth has shifted from high speed to medium-to-high speed, downward pressure on the economy has increased, and new and higher requirements have been placed on agricultural modernization. It is necessary not only to stabilize agricultural production and ensure the supply of agricultural products, creating a good environment for economic and social development; but also to tap the consumption potential of rural residents and make good use of the investment space in agriculture and rural areas, adding new impetus to stabilizing growth. From the perspective of agriculture itself, resource and environmental constraints are becoming stronger and international competition is becoming increasingly fierce, so vigorously advancing agricultural modernization is also an inherent requirement for the sustainable development of agriculture.
To advance agricultural modernization under new historical conditions, it is necessary, in accordance with the requirements of the Recommendations, to “firmly establish a development philosophy of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing”, overcome development difficulties, cultivate development advantages, “strive to build a modern agricultural industrial system, production system and operation system, and improve agricultural quality, efficiency and competitiveness”, and accelerate the transformation of our country from a large agricultural country into a strong agricultural country.
I. Actively innovate and improve the systems and mechanisms for modern agricultural development
Innovation is the primary driving force for development. To vigorously advance agricultural modernization, it is necessary to increase the intensity of innovation and strive to form systems and mechanisms that adapt to modern agricultural development and meet the requirements of the market economy.
It is necessary to innovate agricultural operation methods. This is an objective need of agricultural modernization. The Recommendations stress that it is necessary to “accelerate the transformation of agricultural development methods, develop moderate-scale operations in multiple forms, and give play to their leading role in modern agricultural development”. Too small a scale is the greatest constraint on our country's agricultural modernization. Expanding the scale of agricultural operations can bring more modern production factors, operation models and development concepts into agriculture, promote the application of agricultural machinery and scientific and technological achievements, open up agricultural product markets, and raise the level of agricultural organization, industrialization and marketization. It is necessary to actively use multiple forms such as specialized cooperation, shareholding cooperation, land transfer, land equity contribution and land trusteeship to develop moderate-scale agricultural operations. Efforts should be made to cultivate new types of operating entities, and to guide and support large growers and breeders, family farms, farmers' cooperatives and agricultural enterprises to develop and grow. Given our country's national conditions, household operations will occupy a fundamental position for a fairly long period. It is necessary to accelerate the development of operational services, do a good job in public-interest services, and improve the agricultural socialized service system, which is also an effective way to develop scale operations.
It is necessary to innovate the rural property rights system. This is an important safeguard for agricultural modernization. The rural property rights system covers a wide range of areas, and the most important is land property rights. The Recommendations propose to “stabilize rural land contracting relations, improve the measures for separating land ownership rights, contracting rights and operation rights, advance the orderly transfer of land operation rights in accordance with the law, and build a policy system for cultivating new types of agricultural operating entities”, and to “deepen the reform of the rural land system. Improve the powers and functions of rural collective property rights”. This further clarifies the main tasks of rural property rights system reform and is of great significance for activating factors such as rural land and promoting the optimal allocation of resources. It is necessary to adhere to collective ownership of rural land, uphold the basic rural operation system unwaveringly, and safeguard farmers' land contracting and operation rights in accordance with the law. It is necessary to coordinate the pilot reforms of rural land expropriation, market entry of collectively operated construction land, and the homestead system, and steadily and orderly carry out pilot programs for mortgage loans using rural contracted land operation rights and farmers' housing property rights. It is necessary to actively develop and strengthen the collective economy and explore effective forms for realizing the rural collective economy. It is necessary to safeguard the rights of farmers as members of collective economic organizations, grant farmers the rights to possession, income, paid withdrawal, mortgage, guarantee and inheritance of collective asset shares, establish a rural property rights transfer and trading market, and stimulate the vitality of rural development.
It is necessary to innovate the support system for modern factors such as science and technology. This is an inherent requirement of agricultural modernization. The Recommendations propose to improve the “modern agricultural science and technology innovation and extension system”, “develop modern seed industry”, promote the development and growth of the agricultural machinery and equipment industry, “raise the level of agricultural mechanization”, and “advance agricultural standardization and informatization”, among others. To promote agricultural science and technology innovation, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the agricultural science and technology system and improve incentive policies for scientific research personnel and grassroots agricultural technology extension personnel. It is necessary to strive to make breakthroughs in a number of common key technologies and accelerate the resolution of prominent problems such as upgrading the modern seed industry, full mechanization of the production of major crops, and agricultural informatization. The application of modern factors such as agricultural science and technology inevitably requires the modernization of workers. It is necessary to attach importance to improving the overall quality of farmers, cultivate new types of professional farmers, and shift agricultural development onto a track mainly relying on scientific and technological progress and the improvement of workers' quality. Advancing agricultural modernization is also inseparable from financial support. It is necessary to “deepen rural financial reform and improve the agricultural insurance system”, and through financial innovation improve the ability of credit, insurance and other services to serve agriculture.
II. Coordinate and promote to improve the quality of the modern agricultural industry
Modernized agriculture is inevitably agriculture with a reasonable internal structure and one that adapts to economic and social development. Therefore, to vigorously advance agricultural modernization, it is necessary to persist in coordinated development.
It is necessary to promote coordinated development within agriculture and form a modernized agricultural production structure. In a large developing country like ours with a population of more than 1.3 billion, safeguarding national food security has always been the primary task of agricultural modernization. For this reason, the Recommendations stress that it is necessary to “adhere to the strictest farmland protection system, hold the red line of farmland, implement the strategy of storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology, improve grain production capacity, and ensure basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple foods. Comprehensively designate permanent basic farmland, promote on a large scale farmland water conservancy, land consolidation, improvement of medium- and low-yield fields and construction of high-standard farmland, strengthen the construction of major production areas for bulk agricultural products such as grain, and explore the establishment of grain production functional zones and important agricultural product production protection zones”. If grain production is kept stable, the overall agricultural situation is kept stable, the supply of staple foods is ensured, food security has a basic guarantee, and more resources can be devoted to developing diversified production. While emphasizing the improvement of grain production capacity, the Recommendations clearly point out that it is necessary to “promote the coordinated planning of grain, economic crops and feed, and the integration of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery”, which points out the direction for agricultural structural adjustment. It is necessary to encourage farmers to base themselves on resource endowments and face market demand, adjust the structure of crop planting and livestock and aquaculture breeding, strive to meet society's multifaceted demand for agricultural products, and continuously increase farmers' incomes. It is necessary to give play to regional comparative advantages, accelerate the creation of leading agricultural products and pillar industries with regional characteristics, and optimize the regional layout of agriculture.
It is necessary to promote the coordinated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas and form a modernized agricultural industrial system. The Recommendations propose to promote “the integration of planting, breeding and processing, and the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries”, “promote deep processing of agricultural products and the development of rural service industries”, and “advance the development of industrial chains and value chains, develop the multiple functions of agriculture, and improve the comprehensive benefits of agriculture”. The coordinated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries is a new connotation of agricultural modernization and also the key to improving the comprehensive benefits of agriculture and promoting increases in farmers' incomes. It is necessary to focus on introducing new technologies, new forms of business and new models, actively promote the value-added processing of agricultural products, accelerate the development of modern circulation methods such as order-based direct sales, chain distribution and e-commerce, do everything possible to raise agricultural added value, tap the ecological value, leisure value and cultural value of agriculture, develop modern characteristic industries such as rural tourism, and continuously expand new areas of agricultural modernization.