Differentiated competition and green production become new directions for agricultural development

The "Huashan model" brings us many insights for advancing agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics:

The first insight is that it solves the problem of fragmented farmland, promotes the transfer and concentration of farmland, and develops agricultural operations at an appropriate scale. This problem is the biggest problem facing agricultural modernization, and also the most troublesome one. There are many models for cracking this difficult problem, including some areas using collective economic organizations to exercise collective ownership, uniformly consolidating the land contracted to households, and then dividing it into operation zones of an appropriate scale. There are also some places that develop land share cooperatives through land transfer. The "Huashan model" is one in which a leading enterprise intervenes, organizes farmers, and then carries out land consolidation, dividing the land into squares in units of 40 mu. The enterprise invested tens of millions of yuan in farmland infrastructure construction, and then, according to farmers' wishes, contracted the land to some farmers to develop agricultural production. This in fact solves the problems of land consolidation and land transfer. Relying purely on market mechanisms, transaction costs are too high, and it is difficult to reach consensus. With an external force playing the role of the first driving force, this process is greatly accelerated.

The second insight is differentiated competition. What we call operations at an appropriate scale means that the scale of operation is equivalent to 10 to 15 times the local average contracted area. Such new types of operating entities are the focus of our support. But let us think about it: to achieve such a goal, 9/10 or 14/15 of farmers must be transferred out, and this is a long-term process. Even if this goal is reached, our average operating scale will still be small by global standards. To improve agricultural competitiveness, we still have to take the path of differentiated competition. The insight the "Huashan model" gives us is that, although it is also rice, Huashan's rice is different from ordinary rice. It should be brand agriculture, and the purchase price is much higher than that of ordinary rice. Moreover, it also solves another problem, which is the integration of the three industries proposed in this year's Central Document No. 1. In the "Huashan model," we see a very good integration of the primary and secondary industries. If tourism is developed, the integration of the three industries will be even better. This is the choice for Chinese agriculture to take the path of differentiated competition in the next step.

The third insight is green production. A prominent problem facing agricultural development is that there are many hidden quality and safety risks in the production field. An important starting point of the "Huashan model" is that the leading enterprise wants to control the safety of its raw materials. This in fact points us to another way of thinking: to push China's agriculture onto the path of green development, the entry of leading enterprises is indispensable. Everyone is talking about "synchronization of the four modernizations." In the future, I am afraid we will need to advance the "synchronization of the five modernizations," adding "greenization" on the basis of the "synchronization of the four modernizations."

The fourth insight is farmers moving into cities locally and nearby. The "Huashan model" solves this problem very well. Urbanization has reached this stage now, and the next step is to improve the quality of urbanization. An important lever for improving the quality of urbanization is to solve the problem of the "three 100 million people." The most difficult among the "three 100 million people" is the urbanization of 100 million people locally and nearby in the central and western regions. The "Huashan model" has explored a very good path on the issue of new urbanization, realizing the overall relocation of 585 households and more than 2,400 people into the city. Among this, there is the issue of fundraising, and also the issue of how farmers share in the value-added returns from land. Among these 585 households, in the end only 138 households were still willing to engage in agriculture, while the other more than 400 households became fully urbanized. This is a very good exploration of the path of new urbanization in agricultural areas. Finally, it needs to be emphasized that China's agricultural modernization will certainly be diversified, and the models will also be diverse. The "Huashan model" has replicable and promotable value in the southern rice-growing areas.