How to respond to new challenges under the new normal of agricultural development? Tradition and modernity coexist

As China's economic development enters the new normal, reform enters deep-water areas, and economic and social development enters a new stage, the environment, conditions, tasks and requirements of China's agricultural development have all undergone new changes. To understand the new normal, adapt to the new normal, and lead the new normal, developing modern agriculture requires new concepts, new ideas and new measures.

Numerous challenges

⟦NL> In recent years, the pace of China's agricultural modernization has been accelerating, but various risks and structural contradictions have also been accumulating and clustering. First, the constraints of relatively tight agricultural resources and the problem of deteriorating agricultural environment have become increasingly prominent. China's agricultural resource endowment is inherently insufficient; per capita arable land and freshwater resources are only 1/3 and 1/4 of the world average respectively; the ecological environment is severely damaged, and its carrying capacity is increasingly approaching the limit; the intensity of resource development and utilization is too great, and the string is being pulled tighter and tighter. Especially after the problem of food and clothing has been solved, people's demand for diversified agricultural products and requirements for food quality and safety are growing higher and higher. Second, the challenge of changes in the employment structure of the rural labor force has become increasingly prominent. With the massive transfer of rural labor to employment, the quality of the agricultural labor force has undergone a structural decline, and the problems of part-time farming, aging farmers and hollowed-out rural areas have become prominent. Third, the problem of structural imbalance in agricultural production has become increasingly prominent. Regional layout does not match resource endowment conditions, and the north-to-south grain transport and south-to-north water diversion coexist; the structure of grain, cash crops and feed is not entirely reasonable, and the increase in stocks of some agricultural products coexists with the increase in imports of some agricultural products; the integration of planting and breeding is not close enough, and the decline in soil fertility coexists with the failure to effectively utilize manure from the breeding industry. Fourth, the contradiction between the low comparative efficiency of agriculture and the inversion of domestic and international agricultural product prices has become increasingly prominent. On the one hand, domestic agricultural production costs continue to rise, agricultural product prices run at a low level, causing the comparative efficiency of agriculture to continue to decline; on the other hand, international market prices for bulk agricultural products have fallen, generally lower than domestic prices for similar products, causing imports to continue to increase. To resolve the above contradictions and problems, it is necessary to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model.

Tradition and modernity coexist

In recent years, although China's agriculture has maintained a good momentum of increasing grain output and income, the contradictions between quantity and quality, total amount and structure, input and output, cost and benefit, production and environment, and the present and the long term have become increasingly prominent. Overall, the model of China's agricultural development is still one in which tradition and modernity coexist. First, although China's agricultural technical facilities and equipment conditions have gradually improved, the problems of incomplete supporting canal systems in farmland water conservancy—the "capillaries" being underdeveloped, the "last kilometer" of agricultural science and technology extension not being in place, and the low utilization rate of agricultural inputs have not been fundamentally solved; second, although new types of agricultural operating entities have developed rapidly, small-scale agricultural operations still account for the majority, which limits the improvement of China's agricultural labor productivity; third, although the agricultural product market system has taken initial shape, farmers in many places still plant and breed according to habit, by feel, and by imitation, and find it difficult to escape the strange cycle of "more when there is more, less when there is less"; fourth, although China is a major country in planting and breeding, the comparative advantages of agricultural regions have not yet been fully brought into play, the industrial chains of agricultural production, processing, distribution and consumption are disconnected, and the market competitiveness of agriculture is not strong. Only by accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model can China's agriculture become an industry with prospects, attractiveness and competitiveness.

The time is ripe

First, China's main agricultural products are currently in ample supply, which provides a guarantee for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. After consecutive years of bumper harvests in China's agriculture, stocks of main agricultural products are abundant, with some products having reached historical highs; the slowdown in economic growth has weakened the growth in demand for exports, consumption and processing of agricultural products, and the pressure on agricultural production to maintain quantity has been somewhat eased, opening a time window for promoting the shift of agricultural development from mainly pursuing output and quantity to placing equal emphasis on quantity, quality, efficiency, ecology and safety. Second, the full implementation of the new national food security strategy has left room for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. Ensuring basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple rations is the basic goal of the national food security strategy under the new situation. The shift of agricultural production from safeguarding everything and all products to safeguarding key products and staple rations provides a more relaxed policy environment and resource space for deeply advancing agricultural structural adjustment. Third, the upgrading and transformation of residents' consumption structure of agricultural products has added impetus to accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. China has now entered a stage of accelerated upgrading and transformation of the food consumption structure; people not only want to eat their fill and eat well, but also want to eat safely, nutritiously and healthily, which provides broad market space for the production of high-quality, safe and ecological agricultural products and strong impetus for improving the quality of agricultural products and the level of food safety. Fourth, ample supply in the international agricultural product market has provided conditions for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. At present, the overall supply and demand situation in the global grain market is one in which production exceeds demand, and the stock-to-consumption ratios of bulk agricultural products are all at historical highs, providing realistic possibilities and operational space for China to better coordinate the use of both domestic and international resources and both domestic and international markets.

It is precisely against the above background and conditions that the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation of the Agricultural Development Model." The "Opinions" clearly proposed taking the transformation of the agricultural development model as the fundamental way to accelerate the modernization of agriculture. The "Opinions" clarified the basic ideas and overall requirements for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model, and put forward the key tasks and main measures for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. Transforming the agricultural development model is a long-term strategic task in China's modern agricultural construction, and also a task with strong policy and operational dimensions. It is necessary to implement local responsibilities and improve the working mechanism; strengthen departmental collaboration and introduce supporting policies; and strengthen organizational leadership and overall coordination to truly put all tasks and measures into effect.