Agricultural indicators are the key basis for accurately judging China's economy
To accurately assess China's economic situation, we must fully and profoundly recognize the excellent situation of China's agriculture. The across-the-board strong performance of the agricultural economy is itself the most direct and most effective testimony to China's stable economic growth. The excellent agricultural situation will not only play a role in ensuring supply, boosting confidence and strengthening the foundation for China's current economic transformation and development and its steady entry into the new normal, but will also exert an indispensable influence on the stability of the world economy.
To accurately assess China's economic situation, we must fully and profoundly recognize the excellent situation of China's agriculture. The across-the-board strong performance of the agricultural economy is itself the most direct and most effective testimony to China's stable economic growth. The excellent agricultural situation will not only play a role in ensuring supply, boosting confidence and strengthening the foundation for China's current economic transformation and development and its steady entry into the new normal, but will also exert an indispensable influence on the stability of the world economy.
In recent times, due to factors such as the downturn in some economic data in the first half of the year and recent stock market fluctuations, some unoptimistic or even pessimistic voices about China's economic situation have emerged at home and abroad. Apart from a lack of comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of China's economic transformation and development, these voices have another obvious flaw: they downgrade or ignore the important role of agriculture in China's economy. As a “big player” in the global agricultural economy, China's agriculture has a crucial impact on the global economy. Ignoring agricultural indicators when judging China's economic situation can only be one-sided, superficial or even wrong.
How is China's agricultural situation? The answer has a striking word: highlight. From the spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics to economists, a common view is that the agricultural situation is a standout highlight in China's economic development over these years. There are many data points that reflect this highlight. In addition to the well-known continuous increase in grain production, which ensures that the Chinese people's rice bowls are mainly filled with Chinese grain, there are also many data points on the output of other major agricultural products as well as investment and consumption. For example, in terms of per capita availability of major agricultural products, almost all have exceeded or approached international levels. China's per capita availability of vegetables is 540 kg, 3.5 times the world average; per capita fruit consumption is more than 20 kg higher than the world average; per capita consumption of poultry eggs is nearly twice that of the United States and the European Union; and the overall per capita availability of meat, poultry eggs and aquatic products has basically approached that of the United States.
The increase in the output and production capacity of major agricultural products means an increase in agricultural input, a rise in the supporting power of science and technology, and growth in major means of production such as agricultural machinery, which in turn directly promotes growth in other industries and increases farmers' incomes, thereby bringing production consumption and living consumption in the entire countryside into a new stage. An indisputable fact is that, with the steady advancement of agricultural modernization and urbanization, important work such as appropriately scaled land management and farmland consolidation, the orderly transfer of farmers and the construction of small towns, major water conservancy projects and rural water, electricity, road and network infrastructure, and major medical insurance and rural old-age security is being continuously accelerated, and the level of development is constantly rising. This has not only brought enormous changes to the rural environment, but has also brought enormous business opportunities in investment, employment and consumption. The fact that many enterprises have shifted into agriculture in recent years and numerous entrepreneurs have entered the agricultural “blue ocean” is based on the basic judgment that agriculture has broad prospects.
It should be seen even more clearly that, in the process of China's deep economic transformation and development, agricultural transformation and development is still running ahead. Rural reform, with reform and innovation of the rural land management system and mechanisms as its core content, has given rise to new types of operating entities, green agricultural growth, agricultural internet, and rural financial reform, among other areas, improving quality and efficiency. The acceleration of rural reform and innovation has not only broadened the field of agricultural input, gradually transforming the previously rather single land input-output pattern into a full-chain, wide-field input-output pattern, but has also, because of the added weight of green development, promoted an increase in the proportion of input in science and technology, informatization, seeds and the environment, making the internal driving force for sustainable agricultural development stronger, thereby forming a broader and stronger pull and boost for economic development.
Of course, agriculture's share of GDP is not high; this is a general rule of economic development. However, as the country with the largest agricultural population in the world, a not-high agricultural share precisely shows that the structure of China's primary, secondary and tertiary industries is more coordinated, and the across-the-board strong performance of the agricultural economy is itself the most direct and most effective testimony to stable economic growth. The excellent agricultural situation will not only play a role in ensuring supply, boosting confidence and strengthening the foundation for China's current economic transformation and development and its steady entry into the new normal, but will also exert an indispensable influence on the stability of the world economy. If China's agriculture were poor, global agriculture would panic. Therefore, to accurately assess China's economic situation, we must fully and profoundly recognize the excellent situation of China's agriculture, so as to grasp the overall situation and ride the momentum forward.
In recent times, due to factors such as the downturn in some economic data in the first half of the year and recent stock market fluctuations, some unoptimistic or even pessimistic voices about China's economic situation have emerged at home and abroad. Apart from a lack of comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of China's economic transformation and development, these voices have another obvious flaw: they downgrade or ignore the important role of agriculture in China's economy. As a “big player” in the global agricultural economy, China's agriculture has a crucial impact on the global economy. Ignoring agricultural indicators when judging China's economic situation can only be one-sided, superficial or even wrong.
How is China's agricultural situation? The answer has a striking word: highlight. From the spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics to economists, a common view is that the agricultural situation is a standout highlight in China's economic development over these years. There are many data points that reflect this highlight. In addition to the well-known continuous increase in grain production, which ensures that the Chinese people's rice bowls are mainly filled with Chinese grain, there are also many data points on the output of other major agricultural products as well as investment and consumption. For example, in terms of per capita availability of major agricultural products, almost all have exceeded or approached international levels. China's per capita availability of vegetables is 540 kg, 3.5 times the world average; per capita fruit consumption is more than 20 kg higher than the world average; per capita consumption of poultry eggs is nearly twice that of the United States and the European Union; and the overall per capita availability of meat, poultry eggs and aquatic products has basically approached that of the United States.
The increase in the output and production capacity of major agricultural products means an increase in agricultural input, a rise in the supporting power of science and technology, and growth in major means of production such as agricultural machinery, which in turn directly promotes growth in other industries and increases farmers' incomes, thereby bringing production consumption and living consumption in the entire countryside into a new stage. An indisputable fact is that, with the steady advancement of agricultural modernization and urbanization, important work such as appropriately scaled land management and farmland consolidation, the orderly transfer of farmers and the construction of small towns, major water conservancy projects and rural water, electricity, road and network infrastructure, and major medical insurance and rural old-age security is being continuously accelerated, and the level of development is constantly rising. This has not only brought enormous changes to the rural environment, but has also brought enormous business opportunities in investment, employment and consumption. The fact that many enterprises have shifted into agriculture in recent years and numerous entrepreneurs have entered the agricultural “blue ocean” is based on the basic judgment that agriculture has broad prospects.
It should be seen even more clearly that, in the process of China's deep economic transformation and development, agricultural transformation and development is still running ahead. Rural reform, with reform and innovation of the rural land management system and mechanisms as its core content, has given rise to new types of operating entities, green agricultural growth, agricultural internet, and rural financial reform, among other areas, improving quality and efficiency. The acceleration of rural reform and innovation has not only broadened the field of agricultural input, gradually transforming the previously rather single land input-output pattern into a full-chain, wide-field input-output pattern, but has also, because of the added weight of green development, promoted an increase in the proportion of input in science and technology, informatization, seeds and the environment, making the internal driving force for sustainable agricultural development stronger, thereby forming a broader and stronger pull and boost for economic development.
Of course, agriculture's share of GDP is not high; this is a general rule of economic development. However, as the country with the largest agricultural population in the world, a not-high agricultural share precisely shows that the structure of China's primary, secondary and tertiary industries is more coordinated, and the across-the-board strong performance of the agricultural economy is itself the most direct and most effective testimony to stable economic growth. The excellent agricultural situation will not only play a role in ensuring supply, boosting confidence and strengthening the foundation for China's current economic transformation and development and its steady entry into the new normal, but will also exert an indispensable influence on the stability of the world economy. If China's agriculture were poor, global agriculture would panic. Therefore, to accurately assess China's economic situation, we must fully and profoundly recognize the excellent situation of China's agriculture, so as to grasp the overall situation and ride the momentum forward.