How can the stranglehold on agricultural development be broken?

Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation of Agricultural Development Modes", which is the first important document at the national level to systematically deploy work on transforming agricultural development modes. How should agricultural development modes be transformed? What are the current priorities? How can the goals be achieved? A reporter interviewed Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture.

Under the new situation, there is an urgent need to accelerate the transformation of agricultural development modes

“We often say that China feeds 20% of the world's population with 10% of the world's arable land and about 6% of its freshwater resources. But behind this tremendous achievement, great costs have also been paid.” Han Changfu said that on the one hand, agricultural resources have long been overdrawn and overexploited, and the strain on resource use is growing tighter and tighter; on the other hand, agricultural non-point source pollution has worsened, agricultural ecosystems have degraded, and the carrying capacity of the ecological environment is getting closer and closer to its limit. Agricultural development faces two “strangleholds” - resource conditions and the ecological environment. Accelerating the transformation of development modes and achieving sustainable development is extremely urgent and brooks no delay.

Han Changfu said that at present and for some time to come, accelerating the transformation of agricultural development modes should take the development of appropriately scaled operations in multiple forms as the core, focus on building a modern agricultural management system, production system and industrial system, and strive to transform agricultural management methods, production methods, resource utilization methods and management methods, promoting agricultural development from being mainly oriented toward quantity growth to placing equal emphasis on quantity, quality and efficiency, from mainly relying on input of material factors to relying on scientific and technological innovation and improving the quality of the labor force, and from extensive management dependent on resource consumption to sustainable development, taking a modern agricultural development path featuring high output, safe products, resource conservation and environmental friendliness.

⟦NL> Transforming modes absolutely does not mean relaxing grain production

As economic development enters a new normal, some new changes have also appeared in the grain supply and demand situation. Will transforming agriculture affect food security?

“Transforming agricultural development modes absolutely does not mean relaxing grain production, and must never weaken the comprehensive agricultural production capacity.” Han Changfu said that the "Opinions" propose adhering to the enhancement of grain production capacity as the primary prerequisite. We must ensure that our rice bowl is always firmly held in our own hands and consolidate the foundation for transforming agricultural development modes. At the same time, the "Opinions" have made corresponding adjustments in the approach to safeguarding national food security, mainly promoting a shift in grain production from focusing on annual output to steadily enhancing grain production capacity, achieving “stable output”, “storing grain in the land” and “storing grain in technology”.

Han Changfu explained that “stable output” means concentrating efforts and doing everything possible to safeguard the most basic and most important grains and staple foods, and on this basis, giving overall consideration to the production of important agricultural products such as cotton, oil and sugar, and “shopping basket” products. “Storing grain in the land” means accelerating the construction of high-standard farmland. Using high-standard farmland construction as a platform, integrating the paid use fees for newly added construction land, comprehensive agricultural development funds, modern agricultural production development funds, and so on, using them in a coordinated way and concentrating efforts on construction, to build 800 million mu of high-standard farmland by 2020. “Storing grain in technology” means taking an intensive development path that relies on scientific and technological progress and raises per-unit yield levels.

The core of transforming modes is to develop appropriately scaled agricultural operations in multiple forms

The "Opinions" propose that accelerating the transformation of agricultural development modes should take the development of appropriately scaled agricultural operations in multiple forms as the core. How should scaled land operations adapt to the new requirements of transforming agricultural development modes?

Han Changfu said that the "Opinions" clearly elaborate on this, namely that on the basis of steadily carrying out the work of confirming, registering and certificating rural land contractual management rights, all localities should adopt measures such as fiscal rewards and subsidies to support the development of appropriately scaled agricultural operations in multiple forms, and guide farming households to transfer contracted land in accordance with the law through subcontracting, leasing, exchange, transfer, shareholding and other methods. Where conditions permit, on the premise of adhering to the agricultural use of agricultural land and resolutely preventing “non-agriculturalization”, cultivated land may be consolidated in contiguous tracts uniformly according to farmers' wishes, minimizing field ridges, expanding cultivated land area and raising the level of mechanized operations.

Specifically, efforts should be made in three aspects: First, encourage innovative forms of land transfer. Accelerate the development of land management rights transfer markets in multiple forms, and encourage contracted farming households to transfer contracted land in accordance with the law through subcontracting, leasing, exchange, transfer and shareholding. Encourage places with conditions to formulate support policies, guide farming households to transfer contracted land for the long term and promote their transfer to employment, and so on.

Second, reasonably determine the scale of land operations. The scale of land operations is not the bigger the better; there should be an appropriate range, and it should be determined reasonably according to local conditions. According to estimates, at the present stage, for land operation scales where farming income is equivalent to local income from work in the secondary and tertiary industries, and where the land operation scale is equivalent to 10—15 times the local average contracted land area per household, key support should be given.

Third, improve the agricultural social service system. Raise the level of scaling through establishing and improving the agricultural social service system. Encourage the development of trusteeship service models that neither change farmers' contracting relationships nor leave the land uncultivated, and encourage large grain growers, large agricultural machinery operators and agricultural machinery cooperatives to carry out full-process trusteeship or trusteeship of major production links, achieving unified cultivation and scaled production.

Transforming modes, resolutely controlling agricultural non-point source pollution

Regarding the issue of agricultural non-point source pollution of social concern, Han Changfu said that in some local areas of our country the situation of agricultural non-point source pollution is showing a trend of improvement, but overall the problem is still relatively prominent, and in some places it is even intensifying. The "Opinions" propose fighting a tough battle in agricultural non-point source pollution control and striving to achieve “one control, two reductions, three basics”.

“One control” means strictly controlling the total amount of agricultural water use and vigorously developing water-saving agriculture. “Two reductions” means gradually reducing the total application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides through implementing zero-growth actions for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Strive to achieve zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by 2020, with the utilization rate raised to above 40%. “Three basics” means achieving basically resource-oriented utilization of livestock and poultry manure, crop straw and agricultural film.

“Regarding agricultural non-point source pollution, I also want to explain two points: First, the ‘emission amount’ of agricultural non-point source pollution is not equal to the actual ‘pollution amount’. Take chemical fertilizers as an example: 35% of the nitrogen in chemical fertilizers applied to farmland in our country is absorbed by crops in the current season, and most of the remainder is gradually absorbed and utilized by subsequent crops, farmland ditches, buffer zones, wetlands or lower-level farmland, with ultimately only about 7% entering water bodies, so the amount truly causing environmental pollution is very limited. Second, much agricultural non-point source pollution is reversible. Industrial pollution is basically irreversible and can only rely on dilution and landfill, whereas most agricultural non-point source pollution can be absorbed and digested through agronomic measures; for example, planting reeds can purify eutrophic water bodies.” Han Changfu said.

Han Changfu also said that from the perspective of world agricultural development, solving the food security problem is inseparable from the large-scale use of production materials such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and developed countries such as the United States, the European Union and Japan have all gone through stages of severe agricultural non-point source pollution. Regarding the issue of agricultural non-point source pollution, we must attach great importance to it and resolve to solve it, but we must also view it comprehensively, historically and dialectically.

Better safeguarding “safety on the tip of the tongue”

As living standards improve, ordinary people are paying increasing attention to “safety on the tip of the tongue”. Han Changfu said that the Ministry of Agriculture will, in accordance with the requirements of the "Opinions", persist in combining production and regulation, and strive to grasp both “producing it” and “regulating it” with equal firmness.

At the source of production, accelerate the formulation of standards, promote standardized production, and strive within 5 years for production bases in major “shopping basket” producing counties nationwide to basically achieve production according to standards; strengthen input control and promote green production; implement producer responsibility and promote scaled production; establish a traceability system and promote branded production. Carry out traceability pilots focusing on “shopping basket” products such as live pigs, and strive within 5 years for most cooperatives and leading enterprises to achieve traceability.

At the regulatory level, it is necessary both to strengthen law enforcement and supervision and carry out special rectification, and to innovate regulatory models and promote social co-governance. Carry out activities to create national agricultural product quality and safety counties, strengthen territorial management responsibilities, and actively explore effective regulatory models.