For agriculture to be strong, farmers must be strong

Currently, during the peak season of summer grain purchasing, the State Administration of Grain recently issued an emergency notice, requiring strict supervision and serious investigation and punishment of the practice of giving IOUs to farmers selling grain. The notice pointed out that since the second half of 2014, a few grain business enterprises have, in grain purchasing, violated national grain purchasing policy and given IOUs to farmers selling grain, seriously harming farmers' interests and affecting the implementation of the central government's preferential agricultural policy. Therefore, the State Administration of Grain requires that all types of grain business enterprises must implement, without any discount, the grain purchasing policy of settling with grain-selling farmers in cash and not giving IOUs. They must immediately carry out self-examination and self-correction of their payment of grain funds to farmers, and if any payment owed to farmers for selling grain exists, it must be settled in full immediately.

The practice of giving IOUs to farmers occurred repeatedly as early as the 1980s. Farmers' Daily once ran a front-page headline report titled "Ten Thousand IOUs, Bringing Five Difficulties," reporting the phenomenon of giving IOUs in Hubei and other places, prompting relevant departments and local areas to pay attention to and resolve this problem that caused trouble for many farmers. Nearly 30 years have passed, our society's wealth has grown enormously, and the market economy system has become much more complete. Now, seeing once again that some places are repeating the practice of giving IOUs to farmers, the author truly feels saddened by the hardships farmers face, and even more angry that giving IOUs has such strong "vitality."

Why are farmers repeatedly given IOUs? Let us not scrutinize in detail the rights and wrongs of the process by which certain grain enterprises give IOUs to grain-selling farmers, because a social phenomenon that appears repeatedly must have deep-seated social causes. Through the internet, we can easily find that recent news reports about giving IOUs are not rare. Giving IOUs means that farmers' interests are delayed and infringed upon, and daring to delay and infringe upon them means contempt and fearlessness. Through the phenomenon of giving IOUs, what we can see is that over so many years farmers' overall social status cannot be said to have improved, and their market bargaining position and ability as business operators have not significantly strengthened. These two causes have also influenced each other and existed for a long time.

If China is to be strong, agriculture must be strong; and if agriculture is to be strong, farmers must be strong. Our country is currently in the mid-to-late stage of industrialization and in an accelerated period of urbanization and informatization, and in a period of agricultural development transformation. This situation determines that our agriculture not only bears its own tasks, but also faces the issue of making up shortcomings, catching up, and pursuing. Agriculture not only meets the people's rigid demand for agricultural products and provides raw materials for industry, but also provides a huge market for industrial products and strong support for industrialization and urbanization. The agricultural chain, from field production to processing, trade, and services, absorbs the largest employed population. At present and for a considerable time to come, agriculture in our country will remain the industry employing the largest number of farmers and an important source of farmers' income. Against the background of the state vigorously promoting the development of modern agriculture, if farmers become strong, our agriculture can truly become strong, food and food safety can be effectively guaranteed, and the weak links in the development of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics can be made up, thereby promoting the realization of the country's "synchronization of the five modernizations" development.

Let us still take solving the difficult problem of IOUs as an example. Many years ago, the State Administration of Grain required all grain purchasing operators to strictly implement the "five musts and five must-nots" purchasing code, namely: must purchase with open doors and at any time, and must not torment farmers; must determine grades fairly and measure accurately, and must not cheat farmers; must set prices according to quality and pay a premium for high quality, and must not harm farmers; must settle in cash and not issue IOUs, and must not scheme against farmers; must provide quality service and solve difficulties, and must not treat farmers coldly. The rules can be said to have been formulated in great detail. In recent years, to protect farmers' enthusiasm for growing and selling grain, the state and relevant departments have issued documents many times and repeatedly ordered that farmers' grain-selling payments must be paid in a timely manner and that IOUs must not be given to farmers, so as to ensure farmers' interests. This year's emergency "prohibition" further requires relevant central grain enterprises, in accordance with the central government's requirements of "three stricts and three honests," to urge directly affiliated enterprises and their leased warehouse grain storage points and entrusted collection and storage warehouse points to strictly implement the national grain purchasing policy, take practical measures, strictly standardize the workflow of grain purchasing and fund settlement, prevent any form of IOUs, and effectively protect farmers' interests and their enthusiasm for growing grain, and effectively maintain social stability. These requirements both keep pace with the times and are strict and practical, but no one can guarantee that this will be the last "prohibition." To solve the difficult problem of IOUs, farmers must still become "strong," so that IOUs dare not be issued, or if issued, a huge reputational and market price must be paid.

How can farmers become strong? The author believes that farmers must learn and organize, actively adapt to the characteristics of market economy development in the information age, and on the basis of actively enhancing their own abilities, join or newly establish suitable organizations such as specialized farmer cooperatives to improve their existing social and market status. The state and local areas should support the new agricultural management system in absorbing and driving as many farmers as possible, should encourage more knowledgeable and capable young people to devote themselves to agriculture and become new-type farmers, so that every farmer can, in the era development background of mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation, better transform their own resource advantages into real productive forces.

Of course, for farmers to become strong, there will be a long process. Currently, during the peak season of summer grain purchasing, early rice purchasing is also gradually unfolding. To avoid IOUs, the most realistic hope is that grain administrative management departments at all levels and central and local state-owned grain enterprises truly understand thoroughly the spirit of the Party Central Committee and the State Council's policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich farmers, implement them in place, protect farmers' interests and their enthusiasm for growing grain, and enable farmers to receive immediate benefits from growing grain and not suffer losses.