Make Three Adjustments and Actively Respond to the New Normal in Agriculture
As economic development enters a new stage, China's agricultural development has also shown new characteristics and new trends, forming a new normal in agriculture. This has put forward new requirements for agricultural development concepts, policies and working methods. We must comprehensively understand and grasp the characteristics and laws of the new normal in agriculture, and actively respond to it with the “three adjustments”.
Grasp the characteristics and laws of the new normal in agriculture
The agricultural supply model has shifted from relying mainly on the domestic market and domestic resources to relying on both the international and domestic markets and both types of resources. On the premise of ensuring absolute food security, moderately expanding imports of agricultural products in short supply domestically and moderately accelerating the pace of agriculture going global have become the basic model of agricultural product supply at present and for a fairly long period to come.
The structure of agricultural demand has shifted from a preference for low added value and an emphasis on quantity and basic subsistence to a preference for high added value and an emphasis on quality and safety. The upgrading trend of residents' consumption demand structure shows signs of accelerating, and personalized, diversified consumption of agricultural products has become the mainstream.
The mode of agricultural operation has shifted from decentralized operation and short industrial chains to appropriately scaled operation and the whole industrial chain. On the one hand, the degree of commercialization, scaling, intensification, specialization, organization and socialization of agricultural production has continued to rise; on the other hand, agriculture is no longer the pure agricultural production link of the past, but also includes a series of closely coordinated links before, during and after production, and the circulation of agricultural products is also organically integrated with “Internet Plus”, with unlimited development potential.
The function of agricultural resources has shifted from the supply function of agricultural products to composite functions such as ecological protection, sightseeing and leisure, and cultural inheritance.
Agricultural regulation behavior has shifted from relying solely on government support to placing greater emphasis on the decisive role of the market in resource allocation.
Adjust agricultural development concepts to respond to the new normal
To respond to the new normal in agriculture, concepts and ideas must come first. In recent years, the internal conditions and external environment of China's agricultural and rural economic development have undergone profound changes, the cost of production factors has continued to rise, and consumers attach greater importance to nutrition, quality and safety in their demand for agricultural products. We should treat the objective fact that agriculture urgently needs transformation with a calm mind, shake off anxiety, and by adjusting agricultural development concepts, respond to the new normal in agriculture with the concept of the “four persistences”.
Persist in leading agriculture with the concept of modern development. In line with the concepts of comparative advantage, overall planning, scaled operation and highlighting distinctive features, we should cultivate leading agricultural enterprises and follow the path of industrialized agricultural operation in which the market guides enterprises, enterprises drive bases, and bases connect with farming households. Persist in building agriculture with the approach of modern industry. To fundamentally resolve the contradiction between decentralized small-scale production and the socialized big market, we must draw on modern industrial concepts, advance specialized production, industrialized operation and socialized services in agriculture, and change agricultural development from relying on “capable individuals” to relying on both “capable individuals” and “legal persons”. Persist in advancing agriculture with modern modes of operation. We should change the decentralized operation of millions of households into professional cooperation and collective development, strengthen facilities for the processing, storage and sale of agricultural products and the building of information systems, advance farmer-supermarket, farmer-school, farmer-enterprise and farmer-cooperative docking, reduce circulation costs, improve circulation efficiency, and change from relying on the “single nipple” of industry to nourish agricultural development to relying on the “double nipples” of industry and commerce. Persist in upgrading agriculture with advanced science and technology. Although the contribution rate of China's agricultural scientific and technological progress reached 56% in 2014, compared with 70%-80% in developed countries, there is still much room for improvement. In the final analysis, the growth potential of agriculture under the new normal still depends on agricultural science and technology.
Adjust agricultural support policies to respond to the new normal
To respond to the new normal in agriculture, support policies must be transformed. Agriculture is a typical weak industry, and government policy support is crucial to agricultural and rural development. However, at the stage of the new normal, macroeconomic growth is slowing, and the agricultural economic structure and contradictions that were not prominent in the past have become further highlighted, especially problems such as the imbalance between supply and demand of agricultural products, backward modes of agricultural operation, and agricultural ecological protection, which have become more prominent, and some new contradictions and problems may also emerge. Under such circumstances, the agricultural support tools commonly used in the past may no longer be fully applicable, and it is necessary to study and propose policy measures suited to the new normal in agriculture and strengthen policy innovation at the three levels of the individual, the organization and the environment.
At the individual level, improve the human capital level of farmers, especially new-type professional farmers, by improving the “knowledge-based empowerment mechanism”. Agricultural development under the new normal is inseparable from new-type professional farmers who are educated, understand technology, are good at operation, can manage and are of high quality. Through education, training, science and technology extension and other means, we should gradually raise farmers' knowledge level and cultivate agricultural actors that can truly be retained and have prospects. At the organizational level, properly coordinate the interest relationship between farmers and both sides of supply and demand in the agricultural product market by improving the “relational empowerment mechanism”. Farmers should be enabled to widely form communities of interest with cooperatives and leading enterprises while their rights and interests are protected. At the environmental level, transform the government's macro support policy system into operable practice by improving the “institutional empowerment mechanism”.
Adjust agricultural working methods to respond to the new normal
To respond to the new normal in agriculture, working methods must be innovated. In view of the new situations, new changes and new characteristics presented by the new normal in agriculture, if traditional working methods are used to analyze the problems and obstacles in the new normal in agriculture, many economic phenomena will be difficult to explain clearly. We must innovate and improve the ideas and methods of agricultural work, analyze and take the pulse of the agricultural and rural economy from a new perspective, and do a good job in agricultural and rural work with the new approach of the “four needs”.
We should be good at dealing with farmers, learn from farmers, and stimulate farmers' drive for farming and their intrinsic initiative, while also making efforts from the outside, learning to deal with agricultural entrepreneurs, and relying on the power of the market to better upgrade agriculture and enrich farmers. We should change from running to the fields and standing at the field edges to running to the wharves and grasping the leading enterprises, vigorously cultivate leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, and through models such as “company + farmers”, “company + base + farmers” and “company + standards + farmers”, promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture into modern agriculture. We should change from grasping links and urging progress to policy guidance and information services, and run modern agriculture demonstration models well. Relying only on “managing” and “urging” is far from enough for agricultural work, and may even be counterproductive. It is better to rely more on “guiding” and “assisting”, so that farming households truly feel the government's sincerity and urgency in doing a good job in agriculture and enriching farmers, and work together with one mind to do a good job in agriculture. We should change from waiting, relying and asking to being urgent, striving and seizing, and focus on doing a good job in agriculture-related project construction and investment attraction.