What are the paths for China's agricultural modernization?
Under different resource endowment conditions and stages of development, the development paths of agricultural modernization also differ. According to international experience, agricultural modernization in developed countries all takes scientization, intensification, efficiency, and ecologicalization as inherent requirements. China's agriculture faces problems such as small operating scale, extensive methods, low production efficiency, and a low degree of specialization. To accelerate the process of agricultural modernization, it is necessary to innovate agricultural operating entities, production models, agricultural product circulation models, and financing systems.
First, cultivate various forms of agricultural operating entities and build a new system of agricultural operating entities.
At present, China's agricultural operations are mainly small-scale, dispersed household operations, with small scale and a low degree of intensification, which causes the extension of agricultural science and technology to be constrained by funds and costs. Due to the existence of the urban-rural dual economy, the aging of the labor force and the hollowing out of rural areas are becoming increasingly serious, and the question of who will farm the land in the future is also very prominent. Therefore, cultivating various forms of new agricultural operating entities and building a new system of agricultural operating entities has become the prerequisite for advancing China's agricultural modernization.
⟦NL> Cultivating new agricultural operating entities should aim at intensification, organization, and socialization. On the basis of household contract operations, it is necessary to vigorously develop new agricultural operating entities such as family farms, specialized large households, specialized farmer cooperative organizations, leading enterprises, and agricultural investment group companies. An agricultural investment group company is a comprehensive agricultural enterprise that integrates financing, investment, and management operations. Seizing the opportunity of the central government's promotion of the reform of state farms, it is necessary to establish agricultural investment group companies, carry out resource allocation, promote the development of reclamation areas, and improve comprehensive benefits.
The basic national condition of large differences in rural development levels determines that in the process of cultivating new agricultural operating entities, it is necessary to advance in multiple forms, through multiple channels, and in a differentiated manner according to the natural conditions and economic development levels of each region. Under the condition of land transfer, farmer land share cooperatives can be developed on the basis of land transfer, effectively avoiding the problem of small scale. Without land transfer, it is also possible to cultivate moderately scaled operating entities. For example, explore ways such as land trusteeship to expand the production and operation area; through leading enterprises signing orders with farmers or cooperatives, production is carried out according to standards and requirements, achieving economies of scale, and so on.
Second, relying on specialized production and standardized production, build a new agricultural production system.
The agricultural production method dominated by dispersed households has low economic benefits and small scale, making it difficult to respond to large-scale procurement; its standardization level is relatively low, making it difficult to adapt to the high threshold of the large market. A new agricultural production system relying on specialized production and standardized production can find a closely connected link from agricultural production to sales between dispersed farmer operations and large-market competition, and is also an effective way to promote the transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements and advance industrialized operation.
Specialized agricultural production is an important guarantee for advancing standardized agricultural production. It is necessary both to concentrate advantageous agricultural industries according to local conditions and form a specialized industrial layout, and to introduce modern industrial development concepts and organizational methods such as industrial chains and value chains into agriculture, extend the industrial chain, build the supply chain, form the value chain, and improve the interest linkage mechanism.
At present, China's agriculture, with its dispersed small-scale production and operation by village, by household, and by field plot, cannot guarantee the requirements of standardized product production. It is necessary to explore and create specialized production models, gradually develop moderately scaled operations, promote new forms of specialized agricultural production such as company + farmers, the share cooperative system, and the farm system, and form as soon as possible a large agriculture pattern of “leading enterprise + base + farmers + standardization”, ultimately forming a new agricultural production system relying on specialized production and standardized production, and advancing the process of agricultural modernization.
Third, improve the backbone network for the circulation of agricultural products and advance the construction of the agricultural product circulation system.
At present, China's circulation of agricultural products has many links, high costs, product quality that cannot be guaranteed, large losses, and low efficiency, resulting in the coexistence of farmers' “difficulty in selling” and residents' “expensive buying”. To solve this problem, it is necessary, on the basis of improving the backbone network for the circulation of agricultural products, to innovate circulation methods and circulation formats, advance the combination of e-commerce and physical circulation, and realize seamless connection between production and circulation.
Improve the backbone network for the circulation of agricultural products, form a modern agricultural product market circulation system with backbone wholesale markets as the core, agricultural product distribution enterprises and chain supermarkets as supplements, and a modern logistics service system as the support, so that agricultural products can be linked upward to major supermarkets and downward to production bases, realizing seamless connection between producing areas and selling areas, and between production and circulation. First, build a group of backbone wholesale markets with reasonable layout, advanced trading methods, and complete functions, develop new circulation organizations such as chain supermarkets and direct-sale distribution, and establish a multi-level, multi-format, and multi-operation-mode agricultural product market system; second, accelerate the construction of logistics facilities such as storage, processing, transportation, and distribution of agricultural products, and establish a modern agricultural product logistics service system; third, vigorously support agricultural product distribution enterprises and build community platforms for direct sales of agricultural products. Vigorously establish various types of specialized cooperatives, encourage new industrial models such as “distribution center + farmers” and “processing enterprise + rural commodity circulation organization + farmers”, and develop intermediary organizations such as farmer cooperative marketing organizations and intermediate wholesalers. Fourth, accelerate the construction of information-based trading platforms. Treat agricultural product e-commerce and the Internet of Things as important channels, platforms, and directions for agricultural product sales, forming a seamless online connection among agricultural products, markets, merchants, and consumers.
Finally, innovate the operating mechanism of agriculture-related funds and improve the agricultural financing system.
The insufficient supply of agriculture-related funds severely restricts the extension of agricultural science and technology and the improvement of agricultural scale and efficiency in China, and is the crux constraining the development of modern agriculture. Although the pattern of diversified sources of agricultural funds in China has initially taken shape, due to reasons such as the existing rural investment and financing system arrangements and the imperfect dynamic mechanism of market entities, the channel between agricultural financial demand and supply is still not smooth enough, becoming one of the most important factors constraining agricultural modernization.
Innovating the operating mechanism of agriculture-related funds requires establishing a modern agricultural investment and financing system, and establishing an agriculture-related fund operating mechanism that is government-led, market-based, and coordinated among multiple entities including the government, enterprises, the private sector, and farmers. First, enrich the suppliers of rural financial funds and solve the problem of insufficient fund supply. It is necessary for state-owned commercial banks, policy banks, and rural credit cooperatives to fulfill their responsibilities and obligations to support agriculture, increase agriculture-related loans, and smooth the “main artery” of rural financial services; it is also necessary to relax market access, develop small and micro financial institutions, promote the development of new rural cooperative finance, and enrich the “capillaries” of rural financial services. Second, innovate fund supply methods and open more channels for farmers to obtain funds. Innovate rural mortgage guarantee methods, improve small-amount credit loans for farmers, and actively develop and innovate multiple loan methods such as farmer joint guarantees and pledge of marketable securities. Furthermore, pay attention to giving play to the synergistic effect of agriculture-supporting fiscal policy and finance. Through top-level design, straighten out the authority and responsibility relationships of central competent departments in the allocation of fiscal funds, launch the cleanup and integration of central special funds, improve the system of powers and expenditure responsibilities, form a unified agriculture-supporting policy system focusing on agricultural science and technology, agricultural ecology, and agricultural efficiency, improve the efficiency of the use of agriculture-related funds, and advance the process of agricultural modernization.
(Author affiliation: School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University)