What is the state of the agricultural and rural economic situation? The Development and Reform Commission: continuing to stabilize and improve
I. Overall stability of the agricultural and rural economy in the first half of the year
Since the beginning of this year, the overall situation of agricultural production and the rural economy has been stable, another bumper summer grain harvest was achieved, production of other major agricultural products has been basically stable, and farmers' incomes have continued to maintain relatively rapid growth.
(1) Another bumper summer grain harvest. The national summer grain area was about 415 million mu, an increase of 1.66 million mu over the previous year; total summer grain output was 282.1 billion jin, an increase of 8.9 billion jin over the previous year, up 3.3%. Among this, winter wheat output was 247.2 billion jin, an increase of 7.1 billion jin. The sown area of autumn grain remained stable, and crop growth was normal.
⟦NL> (2) Cash crops were basically stable. Summer-harvested rapeseed output was 13.88 million tons, an increase of 160,000 tons over the previous year, up 1.2%. Vegetable production was basically stable. A survey by the Ministry of Agriculture showed that from January to April, the vegetable area in the fields of 580 key vegetable-producing counties continued to grow, and by the end of April the area had increased by 1.6% year on year.
(3) Meat output declined somewhat. According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of the year the output of pork, beef, mutton and poultry meat was 39.06 million tons, down 2.4% year on year, of which pork output was 25.74 million tons, down 4.9%; the hog inventory was 417.39 million head, down 6% year on year; and the number of hogs slaughtered was 334.37 million head, down 5.1% year on year. Hog prices have risen considerably over the past 4 months. According to a survey, in June the profit per head for hogs raised in major producing provinces and autonomous regions reached 210.2 yuan, an increase of 163 yuan over April.
(4) Farmers' incomes grew steadily. In the first half of the year, the national per capita disposable income of rural residents was 5,554 yuan, an increase of 482 yuan over the same period of the previous year, a real increase of 8.3%, continuing to exceed the growth rates of gross domestic product and the per capita disposable income of urban residents.
II. Comprehensive deepening of rural reform and accelerated advancement of agricultural modernization
In accordance with the overall requirements of stabilizing grain production and increasing incomes, improving quality and efficiency, and innovation-driven development, all regions and departments continued to comprehensively deepen rural reform, actively promoted the transformation of the agricultural development model, and promoted synchronized development of agricultural modernization with new industrialization, informatization and urbanization, providing strong support for sustained and healthy economic and social development.
(1) Investment in agriculture and rural areas continued to increase. The share of central budgetary investment allocated to agriculture and rural development has exceeded 50% for five consecutive years, with efforts focused on advancing reform of the agricultural investment and financing system, actively promoting the integration of agriculture-related funds, striving to improve the efficiency of fund use, and making smooth progress in agricultural and rural infrastructure construction. Agricultural subsidy policies were improved, 20% of the comprehensive agricultural input subsidy funds were adjusted nationwide to support moderately scaled grain operations, and pilot reform of the agricultural "three subsidies" was carried out in some regions. The central government continued to increase support for major grain-producing, oil-producing and seed-production counties, and improved the benefit compensation mechanism for major grain-producing areas.
(2) Rural reform was comprehensively deepened. Rural land reform advanced steadily, with pilot reforms for rural land expropriation, market entry of collective operational construction land, and the homestead system implemented in 33 county-level administrative areas. Reform of the rural financial system continued to deepen, pilot mortgage loans using rural contracted land management rights and farmers' property rights began, and pilot mutual fund cooperation within farmers' cooperatives advanced steadily. Water conservancy and forestry reform progressed smoothly, with pilot registration and confirmation of water rights and pilot water rights transfer (trading) carried out in some regions. The "Implementation Opinions on Encouraging and Guiding Social Capital to Participate in the Construction and Operation of Major Water Conservancy Projects" was issued, and pilot reform of the property rights system for farmland water conservancy and innovation of operation and maintenance mechanisms was carried out in 100 counties. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "State-owned Forest Farm Reform Plan" and the "Guiding Opinions on Reform of State-owned Forest Areas." The "Decision on Deepening the Comprehensive Reform of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives" was issued and implemented. All localities, following the direction of separating government from affairs and cooperatives from enterprises, vigorously advanced institutional reform and mechanism innovation in supply and marketing cooperatives.
(3) The price formation mechanism for agricultural products was gradually improved. The minimum purchase price and temporary purchase and storage policies for grain continued to be improved, and the minimum purchase prices for wheat and rice were kept unchanged from the previous year. Local governments were responsible for organizing various enterprises to purchase rapeseed, and the central government provided appropriate support to some major producing areas. Experience from the pilot reform of target prices for cotton in Xinjiang, China and soybeans in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia was thoroughly summarized, subsidy methods were improved, operating costs were reduced, and subsidy funds were ensured to be delivered to farmers promptly and in full. The scale of reserves of important agricultural products was optimized, and regional distribution and variety structure were adjusted. The management system of central grain reserves was improved, and qualified diverse market entities were encouraged to participate in policy-based purchase and storage of bulk agricultural products.
(4) Construction of major water conservancy and other projects progressed smoothly. As of the end of June, construction had started on 60 of the 172 major water conservancy projects. A number of projects, including Centianhe in Hunan and Hekou Village in Henan, were accelerated, and projects newly started last year, such as the Han-to-Wei River Diversion in Shaanxi, Datengxia on the Xijiang River, Jiayan in Guizhou, and Artash in Xinjiang, China, were fully implemented. Rural drinking water safety projects were accelerated, with the drinking water safety problem solved for 9.6 million rural people, and construction progress clearly accelerated. Key forestry ecological projects were accelerated, and by the end of June a total of 64.5 million mu of afforestation area had been completed nationwide.
(5) The new agricultural operating system was accelerated. Land transfer and scaled agricultural operations developed in depth. In recent years, the scale and speed of cultivated land transfer in China accelerated markedly. By the end of 2014, the area of contracted cultivated land transferred nationwide was 403 million mu, with a transfer ratio of 30.4%. Large specialized households, family farms and other scaled operating entities initially emerged, and farmers' cooperatives continued to grow. By the end of March this year, there were 1,348,500 legally registered farmers' cooperatives nationwide, with 95.59 million households actually participating, accounting for 36.8% of all rural households nationwide. Relevant departments issued and implemented the "Opinions on Strengthening Supervision and Risk Prevention of Industrial and Commercial Capital Leasing Farmland," making the entry of industrial and commercial capital into agriculture more standardized and orderly.
III. Key work for the next step
(1) Strengthen field management of autumn grain and flood control and drought relief work. Great efforts must be made to manage autumn-ripening crop production, provide technical guidance services, and promote technical measures for disaster resistance, disaster reduction, stable production and increased output to ensure increased production and a bumper harvest. Based on guarding against major floods and resisting major droughts, continue to strengthen meteorological monitoring, forecasting, early warning and inspection, closely monitor changes in rainfall, water conditions, flood conditions and drought conditions, and make every effort to guard against torrential rain and floods. Further strengthen the construction of water conservancy infrastructure, including river dikes and reinforcement of dangerous reservoirs, and continuously improve disaster prevention and resistance capacity.
(2) Improve market regulation policies for agricultural products. Strengthen market price monitoring of agricultural products and implement the minimum purchase price policies for rice and wheat. Improve the temporary purchase and storage policy for corn, advance market-oriented purchasing and sales, straighten out the price formation mechanism, release reform signals to society as soon as possible, and reasonably guide agricultural production and market expectations. Do a good job in regulating imports and exports of agricultural products and strictly control grain imports. Closely track dynamic market changes in bulk agricultural products at home and abroad, and promptly study and formulate corresponding countermeasures in response to new situations and new problems emerging in agricultural and rural development.
(3) Continue to strengthen agricultural and rural infrastructure construction. Implement the investment plans already issued, accelerate the progress of projects under construction, and focus on the construction and implementation of key projects such as rural drinking water safety, farmland water conservancy construction, field projects for building the capacity to increase grain production by 100 billion jin, and forestry ecology, so as to promote agricultural production development and improvement of rural livelihoods. Accelerate approval of major water conservancy projects and promote implementation of the policy of equal compensation for land expropriation at the same price for major water conservancy project construction. Actively study simplifying the approval links for major water conservancy projects, delegate approval authority, and optimize approval procedures. At the same time, study in depth the plan for setting up, integrating and optimizing special agricultural investment programs for the "13th Five-Year Plan," cutting the general and highlighting the key, and concentrating them on major project construction.
(4) Promote integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. Take promoting integrated industrial development in rural areas as an important lever for transforming the agricultural development model, with improving the interest linkage mechanism as the core, and accelerate the formation of a modern industrial system in which agriculture is deeply and cross-connected with the secondary and tertiary industries. Vigorously develop agricultural product processing and agricultural services, and build the entire agricultural industrial chain. Give play to the multifunctionality of agriculture, accelerate the development of sightseeing and leisure agriculture, expand the space for agricultural development, and increase farmers' incomes. Focus on introducing new technologies, new business forms and new models into agriculture, promote the combination of e-commerce and physical circulation, improve the backbone network for agricultural product circulation, and advance various forms of production-sales linkage. Study the establishment of an investment fund for integrated rural industrial development, give play to the guiding role of government investment, drive and guide social funds toward rural areas, and improve the quality of rural economic development.
(5) Do a good job in employment for migrant workers. Closely monitor the employment situation of migrant workers, formulate work plans in advance, and promptly provide all-round services for migrant workers' employment. Strengthen skills training for migrant workers, improve policies and measures to promote migrant workers' employment, and improve the stability of their employment. Implement all measures to promote migrant workers returning to their hometowns to start businesses, fully stimulate the enthusiasm of migrant workers and others to return home to start businesses, and create more opportunities for local and nearby employment. Accelerate the process of new industrialization and urbanization in labor-exporting areas, fully join the upsurge of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, accelerate the cultivation of new drivers of economic and social development, and generate new momentum for improving people's livelihoods, adjusting the economic structure, and maintaining social harmony and stability.