How can "One Village, One Product" be both well-received and commercially successful?
Recently, Maju Village in Shizhu Town, Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province, was especially lively, with villagers gathering at the village activity square to chat and look around. It turned out that Maju Village had been selected for the “fifth batch of national One Village, One Product demonstration villages and towns,” and a plaque unveiling ceremony was being held on the square.
“Our village nestles against the mountains and by the water, sits right next to the expressway, and has rich agricultural resources and a solid industrial base. Advantageous One Village, One Product industries represented by cherries and vegetables are flourishing, driving the improvement of industrial chains such as planting, processing, warehousing and cold-chain distribution. The entry of enterprises and the guidance of cooperatives have further strengthened farmers' confidence in devoting themselves to One Village, One Product.” said Li Yunnan, Party secretary of Maju Village. He said they are now selling the village's high-quality agricultural products to farther places through e-commerce platforms, and at the same time, leveraging the advantage of orchard scale, developing eco-tourism has also been put on the agenda.
General Secretary Xi Jinping said: “A single skill mastered well can win you fame everywhere. With one industry per village and one product per township, farmers will benefit from it.” Facts have proven that the development pattern of One Village, One Product, one industry per township and one industry per county has already taken shape, and is showing increasingly strong development momentum in strengthening the county economy and driving farmers to employment and prosperity.
Under the new economic normal, where should One Village, One Product develop? A relevant official of the Ministry of Agriculture made an analysis and answered related questions.
Let farmers learn breeding and cultivation skills, processing techniques and marketing skills
In Zhaojin Town, Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City, the development of One Village, One Product has not only driven the creation of a number of farmers' cooperatives for native honey, honeysuckle, wild walnuts and others, but also accelerated the development of industries in a more market-oriented direction. Modern enterprises such as red tourism, property services and ecological agriculture have emerged as the times require, enabling farmers to find employment nearby and share in the industrial dividends brought by the development of One Village, One Product.
Farmers are the main body of rural reform and development. Developing One Village, One Product has stimulated farmers' entrepreneurial enthusiasm, helped them better recognize local resource advantages and development potential, and enabled them, in the process of developing specialty products, to learn advanced breeding and cultivation skills, processing techniques and marketing skills, creating a large number of new-type professional farmers. It can be said that developing One Village, One Product is a vivid embodiment of China's “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” in rural areas.
The rapid development of One Village, One Product has also cultivated a large number of specialized villages and towns with distinctive advantages. As their leading industries gradually grow, many villages and towns have effectively driven the development of related industries such as agricultural product processing, storage, packaging and transportation in themselves and surrounding areas. Some specialized villages and towns have seized market opportunities, fully tapped the functions of agriculture such as leisure and sightseeing, cultural inheritance and ecological protection, and actively developed rural tourism, folk culture industries and ecological specialty agriculture; still other villages and towns have keenly perceived new market changes, followed changes in market sales models, promptly introduced advanced factors, and actively developed emerging business forms such as e-commerce and online marketing, promoting the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas.
Practice has proven that One Village, One Product, as an effective model for agricultural and rural economic development, has played a unique and important role in promoting the building of modern specialty agriculture, accelerating rural economic prosperity, advancing poverty alleviation and prosperity, developing the county economy, and promoting farmers' employment and income growth.
Uneven development calls for a thinking “revolution”
Under the new normal, agricultural development must transform its development mode. The new normal requires that agricultural development shift from extensive growth that competes on resources and inputs to a path of intensive, efficient, environmentally friendly and safe sustainable development; and that the agricultural structure shift from single production to market demand and a sound industrial chain.
However, at the current level of development, the overall development level of One Village, One Product in China still needs to be improved. The number of specialized villages is not yet large enough, the industrial level is low, product quality is not high, and rural talent is lacking. Some places do not fully understand the importance of developing One Village, One Product, pay insufficient attention to it, lack the necessary policy support, have incomplete agricultural socialized services, and their development environment needs further optimization.
Therefore, developing One Village, One Product must transform development concepts and ways of thinking. It is necessary to strengthen the awareness of efficiency, plan the development of One Village, One Product with an industrialization concept, accelerate the integration of production, processing and sales as well as the integration of trade, industry and agriculture, and form an industrialized operation model of one product per village, one cooperative per product, one industry per township and one enterprise per industry; strengthen brand awareness, focus on building brands for specialty products, promote the development of One Village, One Product with the concept of brand-driven development, and seek efficiency from brand operation; and strengthen innovation awareness, use emerging business forms such as agricultural product e-commerce and “Internet Plus Agriculture” to boost the development of One Village, One Product and achieve high quality and good prices for specialty products.
Only by turning “production-oriented” into “consumption-oriented” can one capture the market's “appetite”
At present, China's per capita GDP has reached 7,000 US dollars, entering a stage of accelerated transformation and upgrading of the food consumption structure, with consumer demand for agricultural products showing characteristics of diversification, differentiation and personalization. People not only demand to eat enough and eat well, but also to eat safely, nutritiously and healthily, which has created enormous market consumption power for agricultural products.
The biggest feature of One Village, One Product agricultural specialty products is being special and excellent: what others do not have, I have; what others have, I have better; what others have better, I have something special, which exactly caters to people's consumer demand. Under such circumstances, it is necessary to accelerate the development of One Village, One Product, identify market positioning, turn “production-oriented” into “consumption-oriented,” develop products that are special and professional, new and novel, refined and beautiful, and enrich the “rice bag,” “vegetable basket,” “fruit plate,” “tea can” and “milk bottle.”
Developing One Village, One Product in poor areas requires differentiated competition
In pursuing development, less developed areas must base themselves even more on resource endowments and industrial foundations, do a good job in the specialty article, and achieve differentiated competition and staggered development. Developing One Village, One Product is an important way for less developed areas to carry out poverty alleviation and development and help farmers escape poverty and become prosperous, and it is an inevitable choice.
To develop One Village, One Product in poor areas, it is necessary to implement whole-village advancement and overall development, with one village leading many villages and many villages connected into a contiguous area, cultivate and strengthen specialty leading industries, transform resource advantages into industrial advantages and industrial advantages into economic advantages, and embark on the road of poverty alleviation and prosperity as soon as possible. It can be said that the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects is the process of the great development of One Village, One Product. The higher the level of moderate prosperity, the more necessary it is to accelerate the development of One Village, One Product.
Reduce and waive fees and strengthen promotion to let One Village, One Product go farther
Starting in 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture arranged special funds and carried out pilot brand building for national One Village, One Product demonstration villages and towns, playing a demonstration and guiding role. Agricultural departments at all levels should actively seek funding and project support and increase financial support for One Village, One Product. Appropriate reductions or waivers should be given for the “three products and one label” certification fees for One Village, One Product agricultural products. At the same time, coordination with departments such as industry and commerce and quality inspection should be strengthened, and procedures should be simplified and fees reduced or waived in the review and recognition of China Geographical Indication certification trademarks and National Geographical Indication protection products.
Existing policies supporting agriculture and benefiting farmers should, as far as possible, incorporate support for regional specialty industries and the development of One Village, One Product. Policy resources should be integrated, and projects such as national comprehensive agricultural development, modern agriculture demonstration zone construction, beautiful countryside construction and poverty alleviation and development should be actively used to support the development of One Village, One Product.
Since 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture has recognized five batches of 1,606 national One Village, One Product demonstration villages and towns, creating a number of specialized villages and towns with relatively strong influence and well-known brands of specialty agricultural products. To truly turn these villages and towns into “star villages and towns,” it is necessary to strengthen publicity and promotion of the famous, high-quality and specialty products of the demonstration villages and towns, so that these agricultural products truly become the market's “darlings.”