Promoting the separation of grain pricing from subsidies, with reform of the rural property rights system as the top priority
Introduction
Chen Xiwen stated that the principle for the next step is to separate grain prices from subsidies. The current minimum purchase price and temporary storage price, to a certain extent, combine price and subsidy together; in the future, price and subsidy should be separated. Grain prices should mainly be formed by the market, so that market participants will become active; if the market price is too low, the government can adopt appropriate policies to directly subsidize farmers. The separation of “price and subsidy” should be the future trend.
Our reporter Zhou Hui reports from Beijing
On November 4, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to interpret the “Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Deepening Rural Reform.”
Chen Xiwen, deputy head and director of the office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, said that the Plan is a systematic overall design for rural reform, clarifying the major principles, basic direction, and bottom lines of rural reform.
The entire rural reform plan focuses on five core areas, including reforming and improving the rural property rights system, innovating agricultural business forms, reforming and improving the state support and protection system for agriculture, advancing institutional mechanisms for enhanced integrated development, and strengthening grassroots organizations in rural areas and improving rural social governance.
Property rights system reform placed in the first position
Chen Xiwen said that among the five key areas, placing rural property rights system reform first has a foundational significance and role for the entire rural economic system.
The main part of the rural collective economy is cultivated land. Chen Xiwen said that cultivated land involves hundreds of millions of farmers, and how to further clarify the cultivated land property rights system is currently a major issue. The confirmation, registration, and certification of rural land contractual management rights has already been piloted in 12 provinces this year. As of June this year, the contracted cultivated land of farmers covering 260 million mu has had contractual management rights clarified, and some certificates have begun to be issued.
Regarding land reform, which the market closely follows, the Plan clarifies the pilot approach for rural land expropriation, market entry of collective operating construction land, and reform of the homestead system from the perspective of top-level design for rural reform.
Chen Xiwen said that some contents of land system reform conflict with the current legal system. With the approval of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, pilots are currently being carried out in 33 places, and the pilots will run until the end of 2017.
Chen Xiwen stated that during the pilot period, the relevant legal provisions involved within the pilot scope will temporarily not be implemented. After the pilots end, the state will evaluate the results of the pilot reform. After the evaluation, it will then be determined whether to amend the law or restore the original law for implementation. Since last year, pilot work has been deployed in 33 county-level units and is currently being advanced.
Grain pricing: separating price and subsidy is the trend
The Plan puts forward principled opinions on the formation mechanism of the entire grain reform, namely that the formation of grain prices should be close to the market while also taking into account farmers' lawful returns.
Chen Xiwen said that the current grain situation is very complex. On the surface, first, domestic grain output has been continuously growing for 12 consecutive years. Second, since 2010, the quantity of grain imported by China has been continuously increasing. Third, China's grain inventory is currently continuously increasing.
He analyzed the reasons, saying: first, agriculture itself currently lacks competitiveness. Second, protection policies have pushed grain prices continuously higher. Third, international grain prices are falling. Fourth, there is the freight issue. Fifth, there is the exchange rate issue.
In September this year, for the first time in seven years of implementing the temporary storage policy for corn, the purchase price fell. In response, Chen Xiwen said that in the past two years, the state's basic policies for the three main grains, such as wheat and rice, have maintained unchanged price levels in places where the minimum price has already been implemented. The minimum purchase prices for wheat and rice implemented in 2015 were not raised, and those for 2016 are still under study. The temporary storage price for corn announced by relevant departments in September was, compared with last year, lowered by an average of 0.12 yuan in the main producing areas, and the market price is also falling, but it is still higher than the international market.
Chen Xiwen stated that the principle for the next step is to separate grain prices from subsidies. The current minimum price and temporary storage price, to a certain extent, combine price and subsidy together; in the future, price and subsidy should be separated. Grain prices should mainly be formed by the market, so that market participants will become active; if the market price is too low, the government can adopt appropriate policies to directly subsidize farmers. The separation of “price and subsidy” should be the future trend.
Combining the cultivation of new agricultural entities with professional farmers
The issue of the aging of the rural agricultural labor force has received attention in both the recommendations of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee and the Plan.
The Plan proposes cultivating new professional farmers as a strategic measure to vigorously advance agricultural modernization.
Han Jun, deputy director of the office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, said that many regions are also exploring how to solve the problem of who will farm the land. The most important thing is to retain part of the young people in rural areas, especially to keep middle-aged people in rural areas.
“How to make farming truly an attractive occupation is a difficult issue in the ‘three rural’ policy,” Han Jun said. First, the cultivation of new agricultural entities and the training of new professional farmers must be combined.
The resolution of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee proposed developing various forms of appropriately scaled agricultural operations, giving play to their leading role in modern agricultural development, and building a policy system for cultivating new agricultural operating entities.
Han Jun suggested that rural financial reform must be deepened, the agricultural insurance system must be improved, and supporting systems must keep up. New professional farmers should not only be able to farm, but also develop tourism and service industries, and then have decent incomes; at the same time, agricultural vocational education must also keep up.
Han Jun mentioned a set of survey data from Jiangsu Province that surprised him: “5%-6% of university students are willing to return to rural areas to farm.”
“If it were less than even 1%, that would be a big problem,” he said.