Difficult to Eliminate Fake and Inferior Agricultural Materials, Market Regulation Faces Four Major Challenges

Right now is the spring planting period, transactions in various agricultural materials markets are active, and it is also the time when fake and inferior agricultural materials are rampant. In order to purify the agricultural materials market and put an end to agricultural materials cheating and harming farmers, departments at all levels are carrying out in-depth campaigns to crack down on fake agricultural materials and protect farmers, and are intensifying regulation of the agricultural materials market. However, according to a recent investigation by the author, the following four difficulties still exist in the regulation of the agricultural materials market:

First, it is difficult to identify authenticity. On the one hand, there is a wide variety of agricultural materials, and it is often difficult to determine the authenticity of inferior agricultural materials from surface observation; the lack of law enforcement testing methods makes it hard to distinguish true from false. On the other hand, the appraisal fees for agricultural materials involved in cases remain high. A chemical fertilizer quality inspection report costs at least 200~300 yuan, and at most 500~600 yuan. The excessively high cost of cracking down on counterfeiting in the agricultural materials market also affects, to a certain extent, the identification of authenticity.

Second, it is difficult to supervise and regulate. At present, markets selling inferior agricultural materials are all in rural areas, and the more remote the mountain areas and small villages, the more market there is. Some fake and inferior agricultural materials also carry the banner of "delivering goods to the fields and serving farmers," are transported to village edges and field sides for dumping, and are highly mobile. Because rural areas are vast and wide-ranging, and due to limitations in manpower, material resources and financial resources, law enforcement departments have certain blind spots in regulating these agricultural materials that "go up to the mountains and down to the villages."

Third, it is difficult to crack down on counterfeiting and penalize inferior goods. At present, many agricultural materials business entities are disorganized and disorderly, mostly individually contracted operations. The relative backwardness of the rural economy, the low quality of personnel, weak legal awareness and strong clan concepts create a poor law enforcement environment, and the rate at which parties voluntarily comply with administrative penalties is low. Cases that are investigated and handled often show the phenomena of "handled but not concluded" and "penalized but not fined."

Fourth, it is difficult to dig deep and eradicate the roots. Agricultural materials products circulate over a wide range and involve many links, and inferior agricultural materials products often have to go through several sales links and cross districts or even provinces before their source can be traced. However, anti-counterfeiting information resources in various places cannot be interconnected and shared, and each place cracks down on counterfeiting on its own, making it difficult to govern from the source.

In response to the above problems in the regulation of the agricultural materials market, the author suggests that relevant functional departments: first, increase funding support and try to establish special funds for cracking down on fake agricultural materials, with earmarked funds used only for their designated purpose; second, seek government support, do a good job in coordination, reduce or exempt the evidence collection and appraisal fees of law enforcement departments, and lower the cost of cracking down on counterfeiting; third, improve publicity methods and carry out law-delivery-to-the-countryside publicity in ways farmers like to see and hear, enhancing farmers' legal awareness and ability to identify fakes and guard against fakes; fourth, set up reliable agricultural materials supply points, select law-abiding operators as honest agricultural materials sales reliable stores and put up signs, give them priority in recommendations to farmers, and also set up an industry "claims fund" and vigorously promote a "compensation first" system.