China's agricultural development still faces prominent structural problems

A relevant official from the Development Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture recently stated that while China's grain output has increased for many consecutive years, structural problems in China's agricultural development remain prominent in areas such as quantity and quality, total volume and structure, cost and benefit, and production and environment.

The first is that the hard constraints of resources and the environment and the contradiction with production development are becoming increasingly prominent. "The resource conditions for agricultural production are already very tight, and problems such as the decline in the quality of the black soil in Northeast China, excessive heavy metals in farmland in some areas, and groundwater overexploitation are prominent," the official pointed out.

The second is that the contradiction between the variety and quality structure of agricultural products and the rapid upgrading of residents' consumption is becoming increasingly prominent. The development of high-quality, diversified and specialized agricultural products still lags behind, and there is still a certain gap between the production of high-quality beef and mutton, dairy products, fruits and vegetables and other agricultural products and the consumption demand of Chinese people.

In addition, the official pointed out that at present in China's agricultural production, the problems of weak integration of planting and breeding and poor circulation are becoming increasingly prominent, the structure of grain, cash crops and feed is unreasonable, and the supporting connection between crop farming and livestock farming is insufficient. The integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries is insufficient, the comparative benefit of agriculture is low, and the level of agricultural product processing and the rate of conversion and value addition remain low.

The Ministry of Agriculture stated that China's agriculture has entered a critical period of transformation and upgrading, and further adjusting and optimizing the agricultural structure has become a realistic choice for improving the quality and benefit of agricultural development.