Modern agriculture development showcases China's confidence
From "facing the yellow earth with back to the sky" to "farming easily with a click of the mouse"; from "wearing masks and carrying sprayer tanks" to "calling on a mobile phone and letting 'dragonflies' do the spraying"; from "peddling through streets and alleys to earn a shout" to "building a sales empire on WeChat Moments"; from "crowdfunding to enlighten poor villages" to "PPP for soil improvement"... On the vast fields, wonderful stories of modern agriculture keep emerging.
These stories are but individual spray droplets in the surging tide of China's modern agriculture, and beneath these dazzling droplets, amid the rolling spring tide, flows astonishing strength: grain production achieved twelve consecutive increases, exceeding 1.2 trillion jin for 3 consecutive years; infrastructure kept improving, with effectively irrigated farmland exceeding 52%; equipment and facility levels rose steadily, with the comprehensive mechanization level of major crops reaching 61%; scientific and technological support grew ever stronger, with the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress reaching 56%... China's modern agricultural development has staged a stunning leap, standing at a new high point and entering a brand-new realm.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that for China to be strong, agriculture must be strong; for China to be beautiful, rural areas must be beautiful; for China to be prosperous, farmers must be prosperous. At the sprint stage of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the Chinese creation, Chinese experience and Chinese practices of modern agriculture converge into Chinese strength and Chinese confidence. This strength and this confidence are the strong support for securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and the profound foundation for composing the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Conceptual guidance drawing on practical experience and modern wisdom
Concepts are the forerunners of action. In a country like ours with a large population and little land, developing agricultural modernization especially requires the guidance of scientific concepts. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed the five major development concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing. These are not only the overall guidance for development as a whole, but also the source of strength for us to accelerate agricultural modernization and realize the synchronized development of industrialization, informatization, urbanization, agricultural modernization and greenization. They are deeply imprinted in our journey of transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and they guide China's modern agriculture in its historical advance, steady and swift, moving ever forward.
Only by adhering to the concept of innovation can agriculture remain eternally vigorous. Looking back at thousands of years of agricultural civilization, every agricultural technological innovation has brought leaps in productivity; every agricultural institutional reform has released tremendous economic and social vitality; looking at the present, innovating in agricultural technology, in management systems, in industrial organization forms, and in support and protection systems, the concept of innovation is deeply rooted in every entity, every link and every field of modern agricultural development; looking to the future, we must adhere even more to the concept of innovation, drawing the strength of confidence from innovation and using innovation to push agricultural modernization to a new level.
Only by adhering to the concept of coordination can agriculture overcome difficulties. "Harmony is like one, and the notes are coordinated." To adhere to the concept of coordination, we must grasp the key points and focus, quickly make up for the shortcomings of agriculture in the "synchronization of the five modernizations" and advance building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in parallel; to adhere to the concept of coordination, we must coordinate global agricultural governance and establish endogenous mechanisms more conducive to enhancing China's agricultural competitiveness and promoting farmers' income growth; to adhere to the concept of coordination, we must promote coordinated symbiosis between urban and rural areas, between regions, between the economy and society, between the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and among the various industries within agriculture, with rational layout, complementary advantages and harmonious advancement of modern agricultural development.
Only by adhering to the concept of green can agriculture achieve sustainable development. Agriculture "produces" the color of life for the entire modern society. Green development concepts such as the "two zero-growth" goals, the green yield increase model research, storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology are not only proactive transformations under increasingly strained resource and ecological pressures, but have also been internalized as the dominant color guiding us to transform the agricultural development mode and achieve sustainable agricultural development. Moreover, we must use the green concept to guide and give play to the multifunctionality of agriculture, so that the nostalgia for mountains and waters hidden deep in everyone's heart can be seen, remembered and touched because of "green."
Only by adhering to the concept of openness can agriculture achieve co-opetition and upgrading. China's modern agricultural development has never been about building behind closed doors; it is openness that makes modern agriculture colorful and full of vitality. To adhere to the concept of openness, we must aim our sights at both domestic and international markets and both types of resources; we must improve the institutional mechanisms for factor flows between urban and rural areas, connecting urban management experience, capital strength and rural land and labor resources; we must strengthen exchanges and mutual learning between agricultural industries and regions, strengthen the invigoration of the internal aspects of agriculture and rural areas, and advance modern agricultural construction with open concepts, mindset and measures.
Only by adhering to the concept of sharing can agriculture achieve inclusive and win-win outcomes. "Never forget the original intention, and one can reach the end." Letting farmers participate equally in the modernization process and share in the fruits of modernization is the starting point and the ultimate goal of our advancement of modern agriculture. In development decision-making, we must always keep in mind the original intention of "sharing," which is also the experience, goal and driving force of our historical process of revolution, construction and reform and opening up. We must establish interest-linking mechanisms between small farmers and "large entities," strengthen support and driving effects for vulnerable agricultural industries, and enhance their comparative benefits. We must increase support for major grain-producing areas and ecological protection areas, establish and improve institutional mechanisms for linked sharing and common development between regions, and guide modernization fruits to be more "beneficial to grain," more "beneficial to agriculture" and more "beneficial to the poor."
China's confidence originates from confidence in concepts. Only by adhering to the five major concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing can the Chinese story of modern agriculture be told more and more brilliantly, can the China's confidence built upon it display even greater spiritual strength, and can it propel the great Chinese ship of modern agriculture to sail far through the waves.
A path choice suited to national conditions, agricultural conditions and development dreams
Only the foot knows whether a shoe fits. Developing modern agriculture must be highly suited to our national and agricultural conditions. No country's path of agricultural development is as complex as ours; nor can any country's development experience be simply taken to solve our problems. We have neither the abundant per capita natural resource endowments of Europe and America, nor the relatively specialized socialized service systems of Japan and South Korea. The path of agricultural modernization we have chosen must fully draw on international experience, strive to absorb traditional wisdom, and, even more, be based on the reality of our national conditions of a large population and little land, firmly choosing a path with Chinese characteristics.
To take the path of modern agriculture with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to moderate-scale operation based on family management. To develop modern agriculture, a certain production scale is indispensable, but under conditions of a large population, little land and limited resource conditions, our agricultural modernization process cannot follow the large-farm scale development path of the West; it must explore model innovation under win-win conditions of fairness and efficiency, development and stability. If 10,000 mu of land is farmed by one person, that person can make big money; if it is farmed by 100 people, although the money each earns is not as much as one person would, it can support 100 family farms and bring 100 families into moderate prosperity. This is where the economic and social value of moderate-scale operation is mainly reflected. Therefore, China's modern agricultural development path must not only ensure food security and enhance industrial competitiveness, but also achieve farmers' income growth and social stability, calculating the economic account, the political account and the social account together.
To take the path of modern agriculture with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to development models that suit local conditions and are diverse in type. China has a vast territory, varying climatic conditions and diverse land types. No single development model or experience can dominate everywhere; different regions explore modern agricultural development paths suited to their own characteristics in light of their respective resource endowments. Whether it is the large-scale agriculture of the Northeast, the intensive agriculture of the coastal areas, or urban agriculture and plateau characteristic agriculture; whether it is land-saving agriculture, labor-saving agriculture, or water-saving agriculture and agriculture with efficient use of land and water resources, all highlight regional production characteristics and turn constraining factors into core competitiveness. There is both small and refined, and large and comprehensive; each development model highlights modern production factors suited to local realities and is a path of industrial upgrading in line with its own conditions and development laws.
To take the path of modern agriculture with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to combining traditional agricultural wisdom with modern science and technology. As a developing country and also a country with a large population, China faces arduous tasks of economic development. At this stage, meeting the growing demand for both quantity and quality of agricultural products is the main task of agriculture at present. Under such circumstances, we cannot copy Western experience; modern agriculture must be a sustainable agriculture that is resource-saving, environment-friendly and economically efficient. We must adhere to the principle of placing equal emphasis on output and quality, and on production and the environment. We must fully tap the essence of traditional agriculture and actively utilize modern biotechnology, information technology, new materials and advanced equipment; we must fully rely on and utilize natural forces, making use of renewable resources and biological energy in local ecosystems as much as possible, and at the same time take appropriate human measures and rationally use chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals, truly achieving comprehensive and coordinated development of economic, ecological and social benefits.
There is no mountain higher than a person, and no road longer than a foot. Looking back at decades of China's agricultural development, the development path voted for with the feet of hundreds of millions of people has a solid and powerful pace, neither fast nor slow, with clear and firm tracks. We must uphold confidence in the path of modern agriculture with Chinese characteristics, firmly take the modern agricultural development path of high output, safe products, resource conservation and environmental friendliness, and use confidence to pave the broad road of the country's modernization and the dreams of hundreds of millions of farmers to become prosperous.