How can major grain-producing counties become strong counties?
On August 22, the China High-end Forum on Food Security and Urban-Rural Coordinated Development in Major Grain-Producing Counties, hosted by the China Well-off Society Construction Research Association, was held in Beijing. More than 60 experts and scholars from more than 10 government departments and research institutions, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, attended the forum.
China has 800 major grain-producing counties, whose grain output accounts for more than half of the national total and which play an irreplaceable role in safeguarding national food security. However, many of these major grain-producing counties are still financially poor counties, generally trapped in a predicament where the greater their grain contribution, the less their fiscal revenue, the harder it is for farmers to increase their incomes, and the more backward their economy. A survey report by the China Well-off Society Construction Research Association shows that the comprehensive urbanization rate of the 800 major grain-producing counties is only about 24%, among which there are 105 national-level poverty-stricken counties, with 36 million poor people. How to drive major grain-producing counties to become strong grain-producing counties through coordinated urban-rural development became the focus of the forum.
The representatives attending the forum unanimously held that the phenomenon of “grain-finance inversion” between grain output and fiscal revenue faced by major grain-producing counties concerns China's food security and also concerns whether the strategic goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects can be achieved on schedule. The key to solving this problem lies in transforming the development model, accelerating the process of urban-rural integration, driving agricultural modernization with industrialization and informatization, and, in the coordinated progress of agricultural modernization and new-type urbanization, promoting the agricultural transformation and upgrading of major grain-producing counties and realizing moderate prosperity in all respects.
“Coordinated urban-rural development cannot be separated from industrial support. In the process of urban-rural integration, major grain-producing counties need to break old notions, not simply pursue grain output, but stretch the industrial chain as much as possible, organically integrate the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and enhance comprehensive grain production capacity.” said Jiang Heping, a professor at the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Jiang Gaoming, chief researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that green production is an important path for the economic transformation of major grain-producing counties. For example, developing circular agriculture that combines planting and breeding can both improve grain quality and strengthen agricultural competitiveness, and increase arable land potential, store grain in the land, and safeguard food security.
At the forum, the Expert Think Tank Committee of the China Well-off Society Construction Research Association was officially established. The expert think tank will devote itself to in-depth research on rural policy and development, offer advice and suggestions for solving the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and play a positive role in promoting the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.