How can new momentum be injected into our country's agricultural development? Experts put forward suggestions in five areas

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 16 (Reporter Yu Wenjing) At present, the challenges and structural contradictions facing our country's agricultural development are constantly gathering. Ye Xingqing, director of the Rural Economy Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said on the 16th that future agricultural development should inject new momentum from five aspects: structural adjustment, high-standard farmland construction, improving the use efficiency of inputs, appropriately scaled operations, and “Internet+” modern agriculture. 

This was learned by the reporter from the China Rural Voice “Great Country Foundation China Rural Development Golden Autumn Report Meeting” held on the 16th.

Sun Zhonghua, chief agronomist of the Ministry of Agriculture, said at the report meeting that at present, the various challenges and structural contradictions facing our country's agricultural development are constantly gathering, and pressure is increasing in areas such as ensuring the stable supply of major agricultural products such as grain, accelerating the cultivation of new agricultural operating entities, improving the level of agricultural product quality and safety, ensuring sustainable agricultural development, and coordinating the use of international and domestic “two resources and two markets” to ensure the security of the agricultural industry.

⟦NL> In this regard, Ye Xingqing said that efforts should be focused on five aspects to inject new momentum into agricultural development:

——Replace the external pulling force weakened by the constraints of the “ceiling” with the internal momentum newly added by optimizing the agricultural structure. Facing the constraints of the two “ceilings” of prices and subsidies, we should gradually move away from the policy inertia of relying on administrative power to promote agricultural development, rely more on market forces, and enhance the vitality of agriculture's own development. Shift from “production orientation” to “consumption orientation,” accelerate the integration of agriculture and animal husbandry, and promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries.

——Use the newly added production capacity from high-standard farmland construction to offset the production capacity withdrawn from ecological and environmental governance. Adjust the use of cultivated land in areas with severe pollution and severe groundwater overexploitation, implement a new round of returning farmland to forest and grassland, and withdraw these “unhealthy production capacities” while avoiding a major impact on agricultural production. The national overall plan for high-standard farmland construction should be implemented in depth, and efforts should be made to complete the task of building 800 million mu of high-standard farmland by 2020, increasing the comprehensive grain production capacity per mu by more than 100 kg.

——Respond to the reduction of agricultural inputs by improving utilization rates. When the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and other inputs reaches a certain level, it will increase costs, pollute the environment, and reduce quality. It is necessary to improve the use efficiency of inputs, reduce quantity without reducing effectiveness, carry out soil testing and formulated fertilization, advocate the use of new-type fertilizers such as water-soluble fertilizers and biological fertilizers, and develop unified prevention and control of crop diseases and pests.

——Resolve the dilemma of small-scale part-time farming through appropriately scaled operations. As the main labor force of households shifts to employment in non-agricultural industries, more and more small-scale part-time farming households will choose extensive farming, or even abandon their land. It is necessary to gradually release potential production capacity by cultivating new-type operating entities.

——Enhance agricultural competitiveness through “Internet+.” “Internet+” modern agriculture has broad development prospects. Through Internet thinking and technological means, improve the quality of agricultural products, promote the extension of agricultural technology, recreate the circulation format of agricultural products, and provide data support and information-based services for agricultural production and operation decisions.