Cultivating New Agricultural Operating Entities and New Opportunities for Rural Governance
[Guangming Daily Theoretical Practice Hot Topics] Author: Lan Yong. Since the 2013 No. 1 Central Document proposed encouraging and supporting the transfer of contracted land to specialized large households, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives, policies have been introduced across the country, promoting new agricultural
[Guangming Daily · Theory · Practice · Hot Topics]
Author: Lan Yong
Since the 2013 No. 1 Central Document proposed encouraging and supporting the transfer of contracted land to specialized large households, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives, policies have been introduced across the country, promoting the rapid development of new agricultural operating entities, continuously accelerating the pace of agricultural modernization, and the original rural governance structure has also been undergoing profound changes accordingly. In addition, with the continued warming of preferential agricultural policies, the value of rural resources has become prominent, and agriculture has gradually emerged from the value depression. The ensuing influx of talent, capital, technology, and information has brought numerous new opportunities for rural governance. These opportunities are mainly manifested in:
The rise of elites, with governance talent being replenished. For a long time, the scissors gap between industry and agriculture has caused the rural elite to flow to cities with denser industry to create personal value. Many rural residents once took great pains to obtain an urban household registration, and poor students from rural families even regarded escaping rural life as their learning goal and motivation. After generational replacement, today's rural areas are left with only the elderly, the weak, women, and children, lacking both excellent rural governance talent and the internal mechanisms to improve rural governance. In order to drive rural entrepreneurship and employment and improve rural governance, the state has introduced policies to send college student village officials to villages and townships for many consecutive years, but facts have proven that after their enthusiasm is worn away by the harsh rural environment, the stability of this group is worrying. However, in recent years, the government's new policies encouraging various forms of large-scale agricultural operations and building an intensive, specialized, organized, and socialized new operating system have enabled operating entities to develop land in a more effective way, unleashing the potential of rural land resources and making the prospects for agricultural industrialization broader.
The new round of wealth-generating opportunities has led local high-quality talent to begin returning from other industries, while among the traditional farmers who have long been rooted in rural areas, a group of new wealth-generating experts is also being nurtured. Although the main motivation for the rise of rural elites is the maximization of personal or family interests, if they want to rely on agriculture to become wealthy, they cannot do without a healthy and harmonious agricultural development environment. At the same time, local sentiment also determines that local elites have an inescapable responsibility for rural construction, and participating in and supporting rural governance is their natural mission. From a practical perspective, cases of reviving the culture of rural sages to promote rural governance can be found everywhere across the country. Unlike before, the new rural sages are mostly capable businesspeople, and leading villagers to become wealthy together is an important way for them to form regional influence and build a development ecosystem. Many family farm owners, large household heads, and cooperative leaders have successively become leaders of rural self-governance organizations, and the disordered state of rural areas has thereby been improved. Therefore, the cultivation of new agricultural operating entities provides talent support for modern rural governance, but how to guide these talents to play a greater positive role in rural governance while safeguarding their development opportunities and deserved interests remains an important topic worthy of in-depth study.
Organizational reshaping, with governance methods being improved. After the implementation of the household contract responsibility system in rural areas, farming households became independent market entities, and long-term self-responsibility for profits and losses gradually weakened their collective consciousness. In addition, after land was allocated to households, the collective economy in some areas existed in name only, causing grassroots self-governance organizations to lose the economic foundation for governing rural areas, thus aggravating the reality of rural areas having organizations but no collective. This made the connection between grassroots government and self-governance organizations and local villagers no longer close, and rural governance to a large extent became a matter of making bricks without straw. Villagers who lost the inspiration of organization carried out high-intensity, extensive operations on limited rural land for their own interests. In recent years, phenomena such as rural farmland being arbitrarily diverted to other uses, the ecological environment being wantonly destroyed, and food quality and safety being ignored have emerged one after another, which is the most vivid evidence. Contradictions and problems of this kind can only be truly and effectively resolved with the help of modern rural organizations that organically combine individual interests with collective interests.
Optimizing rural governance must reshape rural organizations. In recent years, with the continuous advancement of rural reform, new entities such as family farms, specialized large households, cooperatives, and leading enterprises have developed rapidly. Under a reasonable distribution model, they closely link organizational interests with the personal interests of villagers within the organization and even outside it, continuously expanding their actual influence in rural areas and also strengthening villagers' collective consciousness, providing a more solid organizational foundation for rural governance. But it must be clearly recognized that these new economic organizations have grown under the leadership of market forces, and the pursuit of economic interests is their inherent essential characteristic. To fully leverage their unique role in rural governance, correct guidance must be provided. Therefore, while promoting the cultivation of new agricultural operating entities, striving to strengthen the rural collective economy, continuously improving rural self-governance organizations, and promoting the effective integration of self-governance organizations with new economic organizations, merging economic development and rural governance into “one,” is the key to effectively improving the level of rural governance. At present, the operating models implemented in some places, such as whole-village land transfer, the formation of land share cooperatives, and the advancement of agricultural industrialization, are effective ways for the two types of organizations to jointly promote rural development and rural governance, and are meaningful attempts.
Resource convergence, with governance conditions being optimized. For a long time, fragmented land operations have hindered the realization of agricultural scale effects, and farmers' income from farming can no longer meet farmers' survival and living needs. “Farming does not make money” has become a common phenomenon. As a result, rural elites and young and middle-aged laborers began to migrate one-way from rural areas to cities, the reasonable rural population structure was distorted, the rural culture passed down from generation to generation was torn apart, and modern factors such as capital, technology, and labor were diverted away. In a rural society severely lacking resources, grassroots government and self-governance organizations could only adopt simple mediation, deterrence, and other means to handle various contradictions and problems that arose. This method of treating symptoms rather than root causes often easily led to long-term accumulated grievances among villagers and triggered vicious incidents, causing the state of rural governance to continuously deteriorate.
In recent years, with the acceleration of our country's rural reform, especially the rapid growth of new operating entities, the situation of fragmented and inefficient land operations has been improved, the attractiveness of the agricultural industry has gradually increased, the phenomenon of urban advantageous resources flowing back to rural areas has begun to appear, and rural governance conditions have gradually improved. First, with the return of rural elites and young and middle-aged laborers, the rural population structure has gradually been optimized, and the social foundation of rural governance has become more stable; second, with the growth of new entities and the development of modern agriculture, modern factors such as capital, technology, information, and culture have begun to converge in rural areas, and the resource foundation of rural governance has become richer; finally, the alliance among new operating entities has promoted the effective integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, driven the development of urban-rural integration, and made the ideological and cultural foundation of rural governance more solid. The return of elites, the convergence of factors, and urban-rural interaction have provided modern rural governance with superior ideological foundations and material conditions, and the predicament of “even the cleverest housewife cannot cook a meal without rice” has thereby been improved. Nowadays, communicating via WeChat, learning via the Internet, and doing business via Taobao are no longer novel things in rural areas. These new rural phenomena have given rural governance greater room for imagination. Since agriculture can be operated with industrial thinking, it will also become possible to govern rural areas by drawing on urban governance experience.
In summary, the cultivation of new agricultural operating entities has accelerated the pace of agricultural modernization, driven profound changes in the social and ecological structure of rural areas, and brought unprecedented new opportunities for modern rural governance. Under the new situation of rising elites, organizational reshaping, and resource convergence, how to seize these opportunities and promote the sustainable development of our country's rural governance is a major issue that governments at all levels and rural self-governance organizations currently need to face directly. Coordinating the forces of all parties, optimizing rural governance, and jointly building the material and spiritual civilization of modern rural areas is the realistic path for the orderly development of our country's rural areas.
(Author's affiliation: Business School, Hunan Agricultural University)
Author: Lan Yong
Since the 2013 No. 1 Central Document proposed encouraging and supporting the transfer of contracted land to specialized large households, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives, policies have been introduced across the country, promoting the rapid development of new agricultural operating entities, continuously accelerating the pace of agricultural modernization, and the original rural governance structure has also been undergoing profound changes accordingly. In addition, with the continued warming of preferential agricultural policies, the value of rural resources has become prominent, and agriculture has gradually emerged from the value depression. The ensuing influx of talent, capital, technology, and information has brought numerous new opportunities for rural governance. These opportunities are mainly manifested in:
The rise of elites, with governance talent being replenished. For a long time, the scissors gap between industry and agriculture has caused the rural elite to flow to cities with denser industry to create personal value. Many rural residents once took great pains to obtain an urban household registration, and poor students from rural families even regarded escaping rural life as their learning goal and motivation. After generational replacement, today's rural areas are left with only the elderly, the weak, women, and children, lacking both excellent rural governance talent and the internal mechanisms to improve rural governance. In order to drive rural entrepreneurship and employment and improve rural governance, the state has introduced policies to send college student village officials to villages and townships for many consecutive years, but facts have proven that after their enthusiasm is worn away by the harsh rural environment, the stability of this group is worrying. However, in recent years, the government's new policies encouraging various forms of large-scale agricultural operations and building an intensive, specialized, organized, and socialized new operating system have enabled operating entities to develop land in a more effective way, unleashing the potential of rural land resources and making the prospects for agricultural industrialization broader.
The new round of wealth-generating opportunities has led local high-quality talent to begin returning from other industries, while among the traditional farmers who have long been rooted in rural areas, a group of new wealth-generating experts is also being nurtured. Although the main motivation for the rise of rural elites is the maximization of personal or family interests, if they want to rely on agriculture to become wealthy, they cannot do without a healthy and harmonious agricultural development environment. At the same time, local sentiment also determines that local elites have an inescapable responsibility for rural construction, and participating in and supporting rural governance is their natural mission. From a practical perspective, cases of reviving the culture of rural sages to promote rural governance can be found everywhere across the country. Unlike before, the new rural sages are mostly capable businesspeople, and leading villagers to become wealthy together is an important way for them to form regional influence and build a development ecosystem. Many family farm owners, large household heads, and cooperative leaders have successively become leaders of rural self-governance organizations, and the disordered state of rural areas has thereby been improved. Therefore, the cultivation of new agricultural operating entities provides talent support for modern rural governance, but how to guide these talents to play a greater positive role in rural governance while safeguarding their development opportunities and deserved interests remains an important topic worthy of in-depth study.
Organizational reshaping, with governance methods being improved. After the implementation of the household contract responsibility system in rural areas, farming households became independent market entities, and long-term self-responsibility for profits and losses gradually weakened their collective consciousness. In addition, after land was allocated to households, the collective economy in some areas existed in name only, causing grassroots self-governance organizations to lose the economic foundation for governing rural areas, thus aggravating the reality of rural areas having organizations but no collective. This made the connection between grassroots government and self-governance organizations and local villagers no longer close, and rural governance to a large extent became a matter of making bricks without straw. Villagers who lost the inspiration of organization carried out high-intensity, extensive operations on limited rural land for their own interests. In recent years, phenomena such as rural farmland being arbitrarily diverted to other uses, the ecological environment being wantonly destroyed, and food quality and safety being ignored have emerged one after another, which is the most vivid evidence. Contradictions and problems of this kind can only be truly and effectively resolved with the help of modern rural organizations that organically combine individual interests with collective interests.
Optimizing rural governance must reshape rural organizations. In recent years, with the continuous advancement of rural reform, new entities such as family farms, specialized large households, cooperatives, and leading enterprises have developed rapidly. Under a reasonable distribution model, they closely link organizational interests with the personal interests of villagers within the organization and even outside it, continuously expanding their actual influence in rural areas and also strengthening villagers' collective consciousness, providing a more solid organizational foundation for rural governance. But it must be clearly recognized that these new economic organizations have grown under the leadership of market forces, and the pursuit of economic interests is their inherent essential characteristic. To fully leverage their unique role in rural governance, correct guidance must be provided. Therefore, while promoting the cultivation of new agricultural operating entities, striving to strengthen the rural collective economy, continuously improving rural self-governance organizations, and promoting the effective integration of self-governance organizations with new economic organizations, merging economic development and rural governance into “one,” is the key to effectively improving the level of rural governance. At present, the operating models implemented in some places, such as whole-village land transfer, the formation of land share cooperatives, and the advancement of agricultural industrialization, are effective ways for the two types of organizations to jointly promote rural development and rural governance, and are meaningful attempts.
Resource convergence, with governance conditions being optimized. For a long time, fragmented land operations have hindered the realization of agricultural scale effects, and farmers' income from farming can no longer meet farmers' survival and living needs. “Farming does not make money” has become a common phenomenon. As a result, rural elites and young and middle-aged laborers began to migrate one-way from rural areas to cities, the reasonable rural population structure was distorted, the rural culture passed down from generation to generation was torn apart, and modern factors such as capital, technology, and labor were diverted away. In a rural society severely lacking resources, grassroots government and self-governance organizations could only adopt simple mediation, deterrence, and other means to handle various contradictions and problems that arose. This method of treating symptoms rather than root causes often easily led to long-term accumulated grievances among villagers and triggered vicious incidents, causing the state of rural governance to continuously deteriorate.
In recent years, with the acceleration of our country's rural reform, especially the rapid growth of new operating entities, the situation of fragmented and inefficient land operations has been improved, the attractiveness of the agricultural industry has gradually increased, the phenomenon of urban advantageous resources flowing back to rural areas has begun to appear, and rural governance conditions have gradually improved. First, with the return of rural elites and young and middle-aged laborers, the rural population structure has gradually been optimized, and the social foundation of rural governance has become more stable; second, with the growth of new entities and the development of modern agriculture, modern factors such as capital, technology, information, and culture have begun to converge in rural areas, and the resource foundation of rural governance has become richer; finally, the alliance among new operating entities has promoted the effective integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, driven the development of urban-rural integration, and made the ideological and cultural foundation of rural governance more solid. The return of elites, the convergence of factors, and urban-rural interaction have provided modern rural governance with superior ideological foundations and material conditions, and the predicament of “even the cleverest housewife cannot cook a meal without rice” has thereby been improved. Nowadays, communicating via WeChat, learning via the Internet, and doing business via Taobao are no longer novel things in rural areas. These new rural phenomena have given rural governance greater room for imagination. Since agriculture can be operated with industrial thinking, it will also become possible to govern rural areas by drawing on urban governance experience.
In summary, the cultivation of new agricultural operating entities has accelerated the pace of agricultural modernization, driven profound changes in the social and ecological structure of rural areas, and brought unprecedented new opportunities for modern rural governance. Under the new situation of rising elites, organizational reshaping, and resource convergence, how to seize these opportunities and promote the sustainable development of our country's rural governance is a major issue that governments at all levels and rural self-governance organizations currently need to face directly. Coordinating the forces of all parties, optimizing rural governance, and jointly building the material and spiritual civilization of modern rural areas is the realistic path for the orderly development of our country's rural areas.
(Author's affiliation: Business School, Hunan Agricultural University)