State Council makes arrangements to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model

■Encourage the development of circular agriculture integrating crop cultivation and livestock breeding, promote crop rotation and intercropping and relay intercropping of major crops, implement actions to upgrade the processing of staple foods such as potatoes, and actively develop herbivorous livestock farming

■Promote moderate-scale operations in various forms, cultivate new types of business entities, and encourage the development of large-scale crop cultivation and livestock breeding, agricultural product processing, and rural services

■Strengthen support from agricultural science and technology, implement projects to upgrade the modern seed industry, advance agricultural mechanization and informatization, and strengthen international cooperation

■Vigorously develop water-saving agriculture, fully implement standardized production, and strengthen the resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure, crop straw, and agricultural film as well as the treatment of agricultural non-point source pollution

The roadmap for key agricultural work in the second half of the year was released yesterday, with “agricultural modernization” still the key term.

The State Council executive meeting held yesterday made arrangements to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model and take a path of safe, efficient, and green development. This is the second time since the Central Document No. 1 at the beginning of the year focused on agricultural modernization that the State Council has explicitly stated at the mid-year point that agricultural modernization must be advanced.

The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to adhere to enhancing grain production capacity as the primary prerequisite, improving quality and efficiency as the main direction, sustainable development as an important component, reform and innovation as the fundamental driving force, and respect for farmers' principal position as the basic principle, improve mechanisms such as subsidies and prices, and vigorously transform the modes of agricultural operation, production, and resource utilization.

“‘Agriculture, rural areas, and farmers’ work concerns the overall national situation; therefore, when arranging key work for the second half of the year, agricultural issues are discussed as a main topic.” Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with a Shanghai Securities News reporter, “From the current situation, the supply of agricultural products in the second half of the year will still be relatively sufficient, and the main agricultural work will focus on transforming the mode of production.”

How can the transformation of the agricultural development model be accelerated? According to the arrangements of the meeting, the second half of the year will proceed along the following four lines: first, by transforming low- and medium-yield farmland and increasing effectively irrigated area, raise the level of food security. Match market demand to optimize the agricultural structure, encourage the development of circular agriculture integrating crop cultivation and livestock breeding, promote crop rotation and intercropping and relay intercropping of major crops, implement actions to upgrade the processing of staple foods such as potatoes, and actively develop herbivorous livestock farming.

Second, promote moderate-scale operations in various forms, cultivate new types of business entities, strengthen farmland protection, guide farmers to transfer contracted land in an orderly manner in accordance with the law, encourage the development of large-scale crop cultivation and livestock breeding, agricultural product processing, and rural services, advance integrated development of production, processing, logistics, and marketing, and extend the value chain.

Third, strengthen support from agricultural science and technology, implement projects to upgrade the modern seed industry, advance agricultural mechanization and informatization, strengthen international cooperation, and improve agriculture's overall competitiveness and risk resistance.

Fourth, vigorously develop water-saving agriculture, fully implement standardized production, strengthen the resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure, crop straw, and agricultural film as well as the treatment of agricultural non-point source pollution, strive to achieve zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by 2020, improve the quality of agricultural products, and provide source-level safeguards for food safety on the dining table.

This year's Central Document No. 1 took accelerating agricultural modernization as its main content, and the above four measures are directly in line with it. After economic data for the first half of the year was released, as the central government began arranging key economic work for the second half of the year, once again making arrangements to accelerate the building of agricultural modernization is of extraordinary significance.

Of particular note is that in advancing rural land system reform, the policy has also been further refined. The meeting clearly required that promoting moderate-scale agricultural operations be carried out on the basis of farmers' voluntary participation and through various methods such as shareholding, trusteeship, and cooperative operation.

Li Guoxiang pointed out in this regard, “Moderate-scale agricultural operations can reduce costs and reduce abuses such as the excessive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which is conducive to agricultural modernization. Shareholding, trusteeship, and other methods are all forms of land transfer. These methods are more acceptable to farmers, better conform to the requirements of rural land reform, and are the direction encouraged by policy in the future.”

The meeting that day also studied and arranged other work, deciding to promote a random inspection mechanism to create a fair market environment through innovative ongoing and ex-post oversight; and to determine the full implementation of critical illness insurance for urban and rural residents, so that by the end of 2015 critical illness insurance covers all participants in the basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents, and by 2017 a relatively complete critical illness insurance system is established.