Central government cumulative special subsidy funds reached 2.6 billion yuan; the subsidy policy hit the pain points
——Overview of the implementation of the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site
“Potatoes that were grown through hard work could not be sold for a while, so they had to be placed in crude earthen cellars. Because the storage conditions were too poor, sometimes we could only watch as the potatoes slowly sprouted and rotted.” More than one farmer has reported similar situations. In reality, this is the practical dilemma facing the primary processing of agricultural products at the production site in our country.
In 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance launched and implemented the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site. Through the “build first, subsidize later” approach, subsidies were used as a lever to mobilize substantial investment of private capital and accelerate the improvement of the technical equipment level for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site in pilot provinces and regions across the country. After four years of policy implementation, what have the effects been, and what experience has been gained?
Reduce post-production losses and promote quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of agricultural products
For a long time, the primary processing links of agricultural products at the production site in our country, such as storage, preservation, and drying, were mainly completed by farmers, cooperatives, and some micro and small enterprises. The facilities were crude and technology was lacking, leading to rapid decline in post-production quality and high loss rates of agricultural products.
From 2012 to 2014, Anyue County, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province, added about 60,000 tons of lemon storage capacity, and the rot rate dropped from the original 8% to 4%, directly increasing economic income by about 2 million yuan. In Gansu Province, the newly added facilities are expected to reduce post-production losses of potatoes and apples by 96,000 tons per year, and in the storage link alone, reduce losses by more than 150 million yuan.
New drying facilities solved the problems of excessive residues, substandard hygiene, and quality and safety hazards in traditional drying methods, reduced environmental pollution, shortened the drying cycle, and improved product quality and sales prices. In southern Xinjiang, the first-grade rate of dried apricots produced using hot-air drying rooms reached 50%, far higher than the 30% first-grade rate of traditional natural sun-drying. The price of hot-air dried apricots was more than 2 times that of traditionally sun-dried apricots, and it also drove the price of fresh apricots up by 1 to 2 yuan per kilogram. In Ningxia, the quality of goji berries dried in newly built goji berry drying rooms was significantly improved compared with those dried by traditional sun-drying methods, the selling price increased by 4 yuan per jin, and the net profit increased by 3 yuan per jin.
According to preliminary estimates, after the standardized facilities built with subsidies were put into use, the post-production loss rates of potatoes, fruits, and vegetables dropped from more than 15% to less than 6%, equivalent to a cumulative increase in output of 660,000 tons over four years.
Off-season and opportunistic sales drive farmers' employment and income growth
“New cellars replace old earthen cellars, potatoes become golden beans, and a poor village finds a path to prosperity.” This is how farmers in Zhangbei County evaluate the new-type potato storage cellars. Before the subsidy project was implemented in 2011, the selling price of commercial potatoes in Zhangbei County had remained between 0.3 and 0.4 yuan per jin. Because there were no qualified storage cellars, apart from keeping enough seed potatoes and potatoes for their own use, farmers had to sell all the remaining potatoes within half a month after harvest, otherwise they would face the risk of freezing and rotting. This left farmers with no voice in the market, and they had to sell even if the price was very low. After the new-type potato storage facilities were completed, the county's storage capacity increased substantially, and the potato sales period was extended to 7 months, allowing off-season and opportunistic sales. Farmers no longer worried about difficulties in selling or poor prices.
On the eve of the 2014 Spring Festival, farmers in Jingning County, Gansu Province, used fruit cellars for storage so that apples could “be launched at a different time” and sold for a good price. Taking 2013 as an example, when apples had just come in, the direct selling price was 3 yuan per jin. If they were put into fresh-keeping storage until April of the following year, they could be sold for 6 yuan per jin.
In addition, through storage followed by opportunistic sales, Sichuan Province achieved good benefits: fruits increased in value by 50%, vegetables by 60%, tuber crops doubled in income, and Chinese medicinal materials increased in income by 2 times. In Pinghe County, Fujian Province, the “China Pomelo Capital,” after implementing the subsidy policy last year, the sales time for honey pomelos was extended by 3 to 4 months. Through cold storage and preservation, income increased by more than 3.7 million yuan, driving exports of 90,000 tons of honey pomelos to the EU and generating more than 80 million yuan in foreign exchange.
According to statistics, as of 2015, the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site had cumulatively reduced losses and increased income for farmers by 900 million yuan, and increased income through off-season sales by 4.5 billion yuan. The ratio of central government fiscal input to farmers' income increase reached 1:3, and the actual service life of the facilities was more than 15 years.
Cultivate characteristic industries and extend the agricultural product processing chain
“The subsidy policy is highly precise and strongly oriented, effectively solving the problems in implementation areas of large post-production losses of agricultural products, prominent quality and safety hazards, and difficulties in selling and low prices. It has strengthened farmers' market expectations and increased their enthusiasm for developing characteristic planting industries.” said Zong Jinyao, Director of the Agricultural Product Processing Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture. Developing characteristic industries is an efficient way to accelerate the adjustment of the agricultural industrial structure and transform the agricultural development model. The greatest achievement of implementing the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site in recent years is that, through concentrated construction of primary processing facilities, localities have strengthened the industrial chain, value chain, and product chain, cultivated and developed a number of characteristic advantageous industries, and promoted the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries through leading industries. In the arrangement of funds for the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site, it is necessary to further focus on key points, focus more on local advantageous and characteristic industries, strengthen facility construction and technology promotion, and accelerate the formation of a characteristic industry development pattern of “one village, one product; one township, one industry.”
The apricot industry is a traditional industry in southern Xinjiang. In the past, because market prices for fresh apricots and dried apricots were sluggish, farmers were not highly motivated to plant and produce, neglected the management of apricot trees and other resources, and serious felling of apricot trees occurred, causing the apricot planting area to decrease year by year and the industry to gradually shrink. In the past two years, Xinjiang took the implementation of the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site as an entry point, integrated nearly 500 million yuan in agriculture, poverty alleviation, forestry, and other funds, and supported the construction of more than 7,000 apricot drying rooms and cold storage warehouses in southern Xinjiang, effectively improving the backward situation of apricot drying and storage facilities in southern Xinjiang and stabilizing the development of the apricot industry there.
Zong Jinyao emphasized that primary processing of agricultural products is not just a matter of drying and storage, but involves industrial chain construction in multiple links such as post-production cleaning, grading and sorting, drying, pre-cooling, preservation, packaging, and storage of agricultural products. Implementing the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the production site is not just about building a cellar, a warehouse, or a room, but about promoting the development of primary processing of agricultural products across the entire industrial chain through building cellars, warehouses, and rooms.
Through the construction of potato storage facilities, Gansu Province has driven the rapid development of potato processing enterprises. At present, 60 potato processing enterprises have been built, with a starch processing capacity of more than 800,000 tons. Processed products have extended from mainly primary products such as starch to deeply processed products such as French fries, potato chips, food, modified starch, and additives, further strengthening the potato industry chain.
Stabilize market supply and improve the marketing system
The concentrated construction of facilities has driven the development of specialized markets and the construction of market information service systems, played a positive role in increasing supply and stabilizing the market, and effectively promoted the coordinated development of production, processing, and sales.
Relying on the support of the subsidy policy, Dingxi City, Gansu Province, supported specialized cooperatives in building storage warehouses around agricultural product sales markets, forming a group of potato storage warehouses with a stable product source, providing a reliable guarantee for market supply, driving the rapid development of the city's agricultural product market circulation system, and forming an agricultural product trading wholesale and purchasing and sales service network and a village, township, and county three-level regional marketing system with specialized wholesale markets as the main body, medium and small markets and related farmers' markets as supplements, large purchasing and reselling households as support, and purchasing outlets as the foundation. During the peak agricultural product purchasing and sales season, the trading function of wholesale distribution markets is fully brought into play to provide quality services for agricultural product sales.
With the rapid development of Internet Plus, localities rely on primary processing facilities to vigorously promote e-commerce, and new business forms and new models are flourishing. Some farmers in Cangxi County, Sichuan Province, through the kiwifruit cold storage warehouses they built, use the Internet to open online stores to produce and sell on their own, which not only solves sales problems but also has very obvious income-increasing effects.