Focusing on agriculture, rural areas and farmers under the new normal: food security becomes a priority this year

Editor's note: The No. 1 Central Document has focused on “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” for 12 consecutive years, and almost every year it highlights the issue of food security. Over the past decade or more, China's total grain output has increased year after year, but this has also been closely followed by many serious problems that are hard to avoid, such as a shortage of rural labor, persistently high agricultural production costs, large-scale non-point-source soil pollution, groundwater pollution and other issues. So how should we rationally view China's consecutive grain output increases, and what is the objective situation of China's food security at present? Let us hear the analysis of Kong Xiangzhi, commentator for China Rural Radio, vice president of the China Agricultural Technical Economics Society, and dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China:

According to a report by Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers in China, eleven consecutive years of grain output increases is a very great achievement, but it should also be seen that the increase in grain output is the result of the internal structural adjustment of grain over many years. Last year our imports exceeded 70 million tons, and 60% of the world's soybean market was imported into China. As a result, in China, especially in the Northeast region, many farmers stopped planting soybeans and switched to corn. Corn yields are several times that of soybeans, so grain output went up. Overall, the increase in grain sown area has not been very obvious; our land is only so much. That is the first aspect.

The second aspect is that grain output has been increasing for eleven consecutive years. In fact, this has drawn down our resources heavily, especially in major grain-producing areas, where groundwater levels have fallen and large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have been used, causing soil and groundwater pollution and a whole series of other problems, including the safety level of the grain itself. I mean its pesticide and fertilizer residues. These are all problems that cannot be ignored.

⟦NL> There is also another point. When we talk about China's food security problem, in essence it is not about the part people eat. The part people eat is mainly rice and wheat, and there is no problem there. In recent years imports of soybeans and corn have increased greatly, but imports of wheat and rice have basically not increased, only adjusting some surpluses and shortages, one or two million tons, which is a very small amount. The 70 million tons of soybeans imported are essentially a feed problem. So the food security problem may essentially be, under the premise of absolute security of staple grains, solving the feed security problem. For a crop like corn, we people eat very little of it; it is mainly used as feed. And for making feed, making silage corn, or not planting corn and directly planting feed, the benefits may be greater, and for pigs, horses, cattle and sheep it may be more nutritious when eaten. So this year's No. 1 Central Document proposed structural adjustment, and a very important part of that structural adjustment is adjusting the three-dimensional structure, that is, taking part of the area planted to corn and using it to plant silage corn or feed.

Facing the current situation of China's food security, how can we transform the mode of agricultural development, increase grain production capacity, raise farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain, and thereby build a stable and reliable national food security guarantee system?

The first is structural adjustment. The central government has clearly proposed structural adjustment. The first time was in 1985, the second time in 1998, and in 2013 it proposed the building of new-type business entities. New-type business entities are in fact the most important entities in structural adjustment. Without new-type business entities, the original small farmers find it very hard to carry out structural adjustment, because they are not commercialized, their commercialization rate is relatively low, and they may even be self-sufficient. More than half are non-professional farmers, simply growing a few mu of land to eat for themselves and serve their own families, and for them it does not matter what structural adjustment is.

Second, from the perspective of grain, how to truly direct subsidies to the farmers who grow grain is very important. The so-called four major subsidies - direct grain subsidies, improved seed subsidies, comprehensive subsidies for agricultural production materials, and agricultural machinery purchase subsidies - must be continued. At present, the comprehensive agricultural mechanization rate has already reached 61%, but it is still far behind developed countries. In addition, for the other three subsidies, how to integrate them so that they truly promote new-type agricultural business entities and truly promote grain-growing farmers is probably the focus of reform.

The third is deepening services. We know that the returns from growing grain are very low. Growing one mu of wheat or rice gives you a return of only about two or three hundred or three or four hundred yuan. If costs rise a little, then it is no longer profitable and becomes a loss. In some places the government purchases deepened services to reduce farmers' burdens and lower their production costs. Last year when we conducted a survey in Henan, there was one-stop machinery services from sowing to harvesting. In one county, the government purchased services for 30,000 mu. For these 30,000 mu, farmers only needed to pay one third of the operation fee, while the other two thirds was provided by the government. 30,000 mu is very small. I think this is only a pilot. If the scope gradually expands in the future and all farmers can enjoy government subsidies, this would greatly boost the enthusiasm of grain-growing farmers. So how to strengthen deepened services is very important for grain growing.

Another point is the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. How to extend the grain industry chain through grain processing, keep more profits in the major grain-producing areas and in the hands of grain-growing farmers, and improve the comparative benefits of the grain industry is crucial to the future development of the grain industry.