How to build a new type of agricultural management system? Three suggestions for reference

As a grassroots rural worker, I have long been puzzled by this: we must both consolidate national food security and raise the comparative returns of farming and farmers' incomes, so where is the way? We must both uphold the long-term stability of the two-tier management system that combines unified and separate operations, and solve the problems brought by household-based operation, such as poor circulation of agricultural products, the quality and safety of agricultural products, and agricultural non-point source pollution, so where is the way out? We must both encourage farmers to work in cities to increase their incomes and solve the problem of a large outflow of rural labor leaving no one to farm the land, so where is the hope for agricultural modernization? In my view, building a new type of agricultural management system must be treated as the key to deepening rural reform, as the second rural revolution after the household contract responsibility system, and must be placed in a more prominent position.

Building a new type of agricultural management system involves every aspect of rural economic and social development and is a systematic project. On this, I offer three specific suggestions:

1. Farmer cooperatives, especially land share cooperatives, must be taken as the development direction of new type agricultural management entities

In developing new type management entities, which category should be the first choice in terms of direction and universal promotion value? In my view, priority should be given to encouraging and promoting farmer cooperatives, especially land share cooperatives, including supporting moderate-scale operations led by cooperatives. Scale operations must be moderate, and there cannot be too many large-scale family farms and specialized large households. Our country has a large population and little land. Taking Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, as an example, the per capita arable land of farmers is only 1.8 mu. If each large household farms 30 mu of land per laborer and 60 mu per household, then one large household would farm the land of about 8 farming households, and 80 to 90 percent of farming households would have to leave the land. Industrialization and urbanization cannot absorb so many people, which would bring a series of social problems. We cannot learn the large-farm management model of the United States. Agricultural enterprises have raised the level of agricultural modernization, but relatively high land rents (land rent on the outskirts of Xiangyang has exceeded 1000 yuan/year/mu) may cause production costs to rise rather than fall, and will bring about problems of non-grain and non-agricultural use. Simple land transfer makes it very difficult for households that transfer out land to share in the value-added returns of the land, and the management risks of the transferee may also leave transferring-out households unable even to collect rent, bringing risks to both farmers and agriculture. In my view, the land share cooperative is a new type management entity best suited to China's national conditions. It can effectively raise the degree of agricultural organization, can absorb a large amount of rural labor, can improve the comprehensive returns of agriculture, can allow farmers to share fairly in the value-added returns of land, can ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products, can greatly reduce agricultural non-point source pollution, and can open a path of modern agricultural organization. It should be promoted as the main model. Specialized large households, family farms, and agricultural enterprises can also undergo this type of "shareholding" transformation and lead farmer cooperatives, especially land share cooperatives. Farmers who join cooperatives can still voluntarily go out to work, so farmers are not rigidly tied to the countryside.

2. We must take the path of integrated development of the three industries within agriculture

Scale does not necessarily maximize returns; industrialization can maximize returns. The squeeze effect formed by rising agricultural production costs and narrowing room for increases in agricultural product prices makes the path of relying on continuously raising agricultural product prices to increase farmers' incomes unworkable, and the path of large-scale operation is also impossible, so the only path is integrated development, seeking economic returns, jobs, and farmers' incomes from the integrated development of the three industries. In recent years, Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, relying on distinctive agricultural resources, has implemented the combination of enterprises and farmers, the combination of planting and breeding with processing, and the combination of agriculture and tourism, establishing a new business format of integrated development of the three industries featuring "farmer planting and breeding, local processing, leisure tourism, and circular ecology." Hongquan Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Company in Yicheng City started from breeding pig reproduction and fattening, then extended its business chain to bio-fertilizer, bio-feed, organic vegetable planting, agricultural product processing and distribution, and agricultural leisure sightseeing, achieving full coverage and deep integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. The integrated development of the three industries not only increases agricultural operating returns, but more importantly allows farmers to share in this value-added return.

3. Agricultural socialized services must be effectively strengthened

With agriculture having developed to today's stage, the demand for socialized services appears more urgent than at any time before. In building a new type of agricultural management system, sound socialized services must follow in support. To strengthen agricultural socialized services, we must strengthen both public-interest services and commercial and mutual-aid services; we must do a good job in both production services and circulation services; and we must do a good job in both services for allocating resources and factors and training services for new type professional farmers. At present, the services with which farmers are relatively satisfied are agricultural machinery services, agricultural input services, and plant protection services. The comprehensive mechanized operation rate in Xiangyang City has already exceeded 74 percent. The services with which farmers are most dissatisfied are post-production services and financial services. Primary agricultural products are sold cheaply, protective-price purchase policies are intercepted by "middlemen," and difficulty in obtaining rural loans has always been a prominent problem. What rural areas need to strengthen are agricultural science and technology services and training services for new type professional farmers. What farmers place high hopes on is that "Internet Plus Agriculture" can bring more real benefits and convenience to the broad masses of farmers. Governments at all levels should support the construction of the agricultural socialized service system just as they support agricultural production. It is necessary to innovate service methods that the farmer masses need. For example, the Shuangfengshou Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Xiangzhou District of our city provides trusteeship and semi-trusteeship services for the land of farmer households that go out to work. When farmers go out, they can entrust their land to the cooperative for trusteeship and cultivation, whether for one or two years, or for one or two seasons, or even for a single production step, and when farmers return home they can take back their contracted land at any time. There is no long-term land transfer contract, only a short-term trusteeship agreement, so farmer households can advance or withdraw freely. This model is especially welcomed by farmers. This cooperative has 85,000 mu of land under trusteeship and semi-trusteeship, involving 11 townships in Hubei and Henan provinces.

To sum up the above three suggestions: in building a new type of agricultural management system, vigorously developing farmer cooperatives, especially land share cooperatives, is the direction; integrated development of the three industries is the focus; and strengthening agricultural socialized services is the guarantee.