Transforming the Agricultural Development Model and Accelerating the Pace of Modern Agricultural Development

 

Agricultural modernization is the fundamental direction of China's agricultural development. Since the reform and opening up, and especially since the beginning of the new century, China's modern agricultural development has made considerable progress, and the level of agricultural modernization has risen markedly. At present, China is in a critical period of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and accelerating modernization. Accelerating the development of modern agriculture and advancing agricultural modernization is a major task dictated by both reality and history.

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As China's economy enters a new normal, reform enters deep water, and economic and social development enters a new stage, the environmental conditions and internal drivers of agricultural development are undergoing profound changes, and the need to advance agricultural modernization by transforming the agricultural development model has become more urgent.

First, to respond to the many challenges facing China's agricultural development, the transformation of the agricultural development model must be accelerated. In recent years, the pace of China's agricultural modernization has accelerated, but various risks and structural contradictions have also been accumulating and gathering. For example, the constraints of tightening agricultural resources and deteriorating agricultural environment have become increasingly prominent; the challenge of changes in the employment structure of the rural labor force has become increasingly prominent; the problem of structural imbalance in agricultural production has become increasingly prominent; and the contradiction between the low comparative returns of agriculture and the inversion of domestic and international agricultural product prices has become increasingly prominent. These contradictions and problems may not be temporary phenomena that have appeared in the short term; they all bear obvious stage-specific characteristics. To resolve these contradictions and problems, the transformation of the agricultural development model must be accelerated.

Second, to improve the quality and efficiency of agricultural development, there is an urgent need to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model. In recent years, although China's agriculture has maintained a good momentum of increasing grain output and incomes, contradictions in such areas as quantity and quality, total volume and structure, input and output, cost and benefit, production and environment, and the present and the long term have become increasingly prominent. On the whole, China's agricultural development model still features the coexistence of the traditional and the modern. Only by accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model can the industrial quality, development quality and operating efficiency of agriculture be improved, and can agriculture become an industry with prospects and appeal.

Third, accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model also faces rare opportunities and favorable conditions. First, China's supply of major agricultural products is currently abundant, which provides a guarantee for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. Second, the full implementation of the new national food security strategy has left room for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. Third, the upgrading and transformation of residents' consumption structure for agricultural products has added impetus to accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. Fourth, the abundant supply of the international agricultural product market has provided conditions for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model. At present, the overall supply and demand situation in the global grain market is one of production exceeding demand, and the stock-to-consumption ratios of bulk agricultural products are all at historic highs, which provides realistic possibilities and room for maneuver for better coordinating the use of both domestic and international resources and both domestic and international markets.

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⟦NL> To advance the transformation of China's agricultural development model, we must persist in taking reform as the driving force, science and technology as the guide, and the rule of law as the guarantee. In this process, in accordance with changes in market demand and the characteristics of resource endowments, we must scientifically determine the self-sufficiency level of major agricultural products, production priorities and regional layout, and, on the premise of ensuring “basic self-sufficiency of grains and absolute security of staple food”, continuously optimize the planting and breeding structure, product structure and regional structure.

First, we must pay more attention to raising grain production capacity and tapping the potential of grain production. To advance agricultural modernization, we must persist in taking the safeguarding of national food security as the primary task. On the one hand, stabilizing grain output is the premise. We must always keep the string of food security taut and keep the rice bowl firmly in our own hands. We must secure the most basic and most important grains and staple food, and on this premise, we must make overall plans for the production of important agricultural products such as cotton, oil, sugar and the “vegetable basket”. We must persist in placing equal emphasis on quantity, quality and efficiency, and achieve more balanced and more comprehensive development. On the other hand, enhancing grain production capacity is fundamental. We must adhere to the basic requirement of “one stabilization and two guarantees”: stabilize the sown area of grain, especially the sown area of cereals, and protect and mobilize both the enthusiasm of farmers for farming and growing grain and the enthusiasm of major producing area governments for valuing agriculture and promoting grain production.

Second, we must pay more attention to the quality and safety of agricultural products and raise the level of food quality and safety. Modern agriculture is first and foremost agriculture of quality and safety. Consumers must be able to eat their fill, eat well and eat safely and with peace of mind, and we must persist in addressing both “producing it” and “managing it”. On the one hand, we must vigorously promote standardized production. We must continue to promote standardized production of horticultural crops, standardized large-scale breeding of livestock and poultry, and healthy aquaculture, strengthen source control, standardize production processes, and strive to build a large number of standardized agricultural production bases and well-known agricultural product brands. On the other hand, we must continuously strengthen food safety supervision. In accordance with the arrangements and requirements of the central authorities, we must promptly improve the quality and safety standards system and the monitoring and evaluation system for agricultural products, launch the construction of a traceability management information platform, improve regulatory bodies and regulatory mechanisms, intensify comprehensive law enforcement and special rectification, and comprehensively raise the level of quality and safety of agricultural products.

Third, we must pay more attention to innovation in agricultural technology and innovation in business models, and promote higher agricultural efficiency and higher farmers' incomes. First, we must advance agricultural science and technology innovation. We must accelerate the breeding of new varieties with high and stable yields, high quality and high efficiency, promote the integration of agricultural machinery and agronomic techniques, strengthen the training of agricultural and rural talent, raise the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress and the level of agricultural facilities and equipment, and improve agricultural production efficiency and operating efficiency. Second, we must build a new type of agricultural operating system. We must persist in the foundational position of family operation, promote the common development of multiple operating models such as family operation, collective operation, cooperative operation and enterprise operation, cultivate new types of operating entities such as large planting and breeding households, family farms, cooperatives and leading enterprises, and establish and improve the agricultural socialized service system. Third, we must develop appropriately scaled agricultural operations. We must persist in the development direction of appropriately scaled operations, promote the orderly and standardized transfer of land operating rights, and improve the efficiency of scaled operations. Fourth, we must improve the efficiency of agricultural product processing and distribution.

Fourth, we must pay more attention to the protection of agricultural resources and the environment, and achieve sustainable agricultural development. On the one hand, we must effectively intensify the protection of arable land, water, grasslands, waters and tidal flats, resolutely implement the strictest arable land protection system and the system of intensive and economical land use, develop ecological circular agriculture, and improve resource use efficiency. On the other hand, we must strengthen the treatment of prominent agricultural environmental problems, intensify the treatment of soil, water and the environment, reduce the intensity of agricultural land development and utilization, promote agricultural technologies that save costs and increase efficiency, strictly control the abuse and indiscriminate use of agricultural inputs, and purify and restore the production environment of agricultural product producing areas.

Fifth, we must pay more attention to adapting to market demand and resource conditions, and deepen the adjustment of the agricultural structure. To develop modern agriculture, we must adapt to market changes and meet market demand, and we must base ourselves on resource endowment conditions and give full play to comparative advantages. By further optimizing the agricultural regional layout, optimizing the planting and breeding structure, and developing the multiple functions of agriculture, we must advance the adjustment of the agricultural structure.

At the same time, we must also pay more attention to using both markets and both resources, and improve the market competitiveness of agriculture. We must not only expand agriculture's opening to the outside world, but also strive to build a policy system for agriculture's opening to the outside world. We must seize the major strategic opportunity of the “Belt and Road” initiative and actively participate in international agricultural competition and cooperation.