How should we view agricultural modernization and what should we do? Read this one article to understand the development path
How to view it:
Agriculture is the foundation of the state, and agricultural modernization is the foundation and support of national modernization. Because it is greatly affected by natural conditions and also needs to bring in modern factors from outside, agricultural modernization has more constraints and a more complex process. It is a “slow variable” in modernization, and even more a “key variable”. How agricultural modernization proceeds determines, to a large extent, the progress of the entire country's modernization.
Looking at today's world, those countries with developed economies also have a high level of agricultural modernization, while those countries with backward agriculture and impoverished farmers have not truly achieved modernization. In recent years, although China's agricultural modernization has made considerable progress, it still lags behind the rapidly advancing industrialization and urbanization, becoming a prominent “short plank” in modernization. Compared with the international advanced level, China's agricultural modernization still has a large gap. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the “four modernizations in sync” development strategy. The sooner this “short plank” of agricultural modernization is fixed, the better; otherwise it will hold back the entire modernization process.
What to do:
Agricultural modernization is the foundation and support of national modernization, and it is still a prominent “short plank”. The key and difficult points in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects are still in the countryside. As China's economic development enters a new normal, accelerating agricultural modernization is of great significance for stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, and benefiting people's livelihood. Tapping the consumption potential of farmers, the largest group, can better give play to the basic role of consumption; rural agricultural infrastructure and public services are backward, with huge demand for new investment. Making good use of this space can better give play to the key role of investment; making the agricultural industry bigger and stronger can form many new industries, new business forms, and new models, and cultivate new growth points for the economy.
——Li Keqiang speaking at the 2014 Central Rural Work Conference
Agricultural and rural work must fully implement the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee, take Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the “Three Represents”, and the Scientific Outlook on Development as guidance, thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important speeches, actively adapt to the new normal of economic development, and follow the general requirements of stabilizing grain and increasing income, improving quality and efficiency, and innovation-driven development. We must continue to comprehensively deepen rural reform, comprehensively advance the building of the rule of law in rural areas, and promote the synchronized development of new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization. We must strive to tap new potential in improving grain production capacity, open new paths in optimizing the agricultural structure, seek new breakthroughs in transforming the agricultural development model, achieve new results in promoting farmers' income growth, and take new steps in building a new countryside, so as to provide strong support for the sustained and healthy development of the economy and society.
——Excerpted from the “Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Increasing the Intensity of Reform and Innovation and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization”
How to view it:
Two “ceilings”: At present, the prices of major domestic agricultural products are already higher than import prices, and further price increases have encountered a “ceiling”; some agricultural subsidies fall within the category of “amber box” policies and are restricted by WTO rules, and further increases in some subsidies have also encountered a “ceiling”.
Two “tightening bands”: The ecological environment is severely damaged, and its carrying capacity is getting closer and closer to the limit; the intensity of resource development and utilization is too great, and the string is being pulled tighter and tighter.
To achieve sustainable and stable agricultural development, there is no other way but to accelerate agricultural modernization, promote the transformation of the agricultural development model, and move as quickly as possible from extensive management that relies on exhausting resources, piling on agricultural inputs, and straining the ecological environment to intensive management that focuses on improving quality and efficiency.
What to do:
Improve the effectiveness of agricultural subsidy policies. To increase farmers' income, it is necessary to improve the state's support and protection system for agriculture. Maintain the continuity and stability of agricultural subsidy policies, gradually expand the scale and scope of “green box” support policies, adjust and improve “amber box” support policies, and fully give play to the income-increasing effects of policies that benefit farmers. Continue to implement policies such as direct subsidies to grain farmers, improved seed subsidies, subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools, and comprehensive subsidies for agricultural inputs. Select some localities to carry out reform pilots to improve the targeting and effectiveness of subsidies. Improve the policy for subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools, tilt it toward main producing areas and new agricultural business entities, and expand the scope of subsidies for the purchase of water-saving irrigation equipment. Implement subsidy policies for the extension of major technical measures in agricultural production. Implement fiscal reward and subsidy policies for major grain and oil production counties, major grain crop seed production counties, major hog-exporting counties, and major cattle and sheep breeding counties. Expand the scope of awards and subsidies for modern agricultural demonstration zones. Improve the systems of compensation for interests in major grain-producing areas, compensation for cultivated land protection, and ecological compensation.
Improve the price formation mechanism for agricultural products. To increase farmers' income, it is necessary to maintain a reasonable price level for agricultural products. Continue to implement the minimum purchase price policy for rice and wheat, and improve the temporary purchase and storage policy for important agricultural products. Summarize the pilot experience of target price reform for cotton in Xinjiang, China and soybeans in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, improve subsidy methods, reduce operating costs, and ensure that subsidy funds are delivered to farmers in full and on time. Actively carry out pilot projects for agricultural product price insurance. Reasonably determine the reserve scale of important agricultural products such as grain, cotton, sugar, and meat. Improve the national grain reserve release and adjustment mechanism and strengthen supervision of reserve grain. Implement the plan for newly added local grain reserve scale, establish a system for commercial and trade enterprises to store important commodities on behalf of the state, and improve the system for sugar enterprises to store on behalf of the state. Use modern information technology to improve statistical surveys of planting area and output, and improve methods for monitoring costs and prices.
Strengthen agricultural ecological governance. Implement the overall plan for addressing prominent agricultural environmental problems and the plan for sustainable agricultural development. Strengthen the treatment of agricultural non-point source pollution, carry out in-depth soil testing and formulated fertilization, vigorously promote biological organic fertilizers and low-toxicity and low-residue pesticides, carry out regional demonstrations of resource utilization of straw and livestock and poultry manure and recycling of residual agricultural film, and enjoy relevant fiscal and tax policies according to regulations. Implement the environmental impact assessment system for large-scale livestock and poultry breeding, and vigorously promote the development of the agricultural circular economy. Continue to implement the grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward policy, and carry out pilots for sustainable development of agriculture and animal husbandry in the arid areas of Northwest China, governance of cultivated grasslands in the farming-pastoral ecotone, and protection of the black soil in Northeast China. Increase efforts to proliferate and protect aquatic biological resources. Establish and improve the water resources demonstration system for plans and construction projects and the national water resources inspection system. Vigorously promote water-saving technology and comprehensively implement regional large-scale efficient water-saving irrigation actions. Increase efforts in water pollution prevention and water ecological protection. Implement a new round of projects to return farmland to forest and grassland.
——Excerpted from the “Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Increasing the Intensity of Reform and Innovation and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization”
How to view it:
At present, China's average operating land per household is only a little more than 7 mu, which is ultra-small scale in the world. As environmental conditions change, small-scale operation is increasingly showing its limitations. For agriculture to develop, it must break through the restriction of small operating scale. Moderate-scale operation is not only the spontaneous choice of farmers, but also the inevitable path of agricultural modernization. Land transfer is an important way of moderate-scale agricultural operation. The opinions issued by the central government on guiding the orderly transfer of rural land operating rights and developing moderate-scale agricultural operation clearly propose encouraging farmers to transfer contracted land in various ways in accordance with the law, and encouraging localities to implement support policies for land transfer. All localities must correctly understand and implement the spirit of the central government, actively guide and provide good services, not use coercive orders, not make decisions on behalf of farmers, and let farmers become conscious participants in land transfer and moderate-scale operation and the true beneficiaries.
Promoting moderate-scale agricultural operation cannot be understood simply as the expansion of land operating scale, and even less can it be simply equated with land annexation. On this issue, as long as it complies with national laws and policies, conforms to the direction of reform, and is welcomed by farmers, we must encourage and support it no matter what form it takes. It must also be seen that for a fairly long period in the future, small-scale farmers will still be the majority, and attention must be paid to helping them solve the practical difficulties they face.
What to do:
For family farms and other scale-operation entities, guidance and regulation in the direction of operation must be strengthened. They must adhere to giving priority to grain and agriculture, must not engage in “de-grainization”, and must resolutely prohibit the “de-agriculturalization” of cultivated land, so that land transfer becomes a powerful weapon for improving comprehensive grain and agricultural production capacity and better safeguards national food security.
Moderate-scale agricultural operation can be developed in various ways. In many places, moderate-scale operation has been achieved even without land transfer. For example, some have expanded the area of production and operation through land share cooperation and association or land trusteeship. Some have signed contracts with farmers or cooperatives through leading enterprises, produced according to standards and requirements, and achieved economies of scale. Some have developed large agricultural machinery households, agricultural machinery cooperatives, circulation cooperatives, and other forms of agricultural socialized services, implementing “several unifications” in seed and fertilizer supply, agricultural machinery operations, production management, and product sales, and achieved regional scale-operation effects.
——Li Keqiang speaking at the 2014 Central Rural Work Conference
Accelerate the building of a new agricultural operating system. Adhere to and improve the basic rural operating system, adhere to the dominant position of farmer household operation, guide the standardized and orderly transfer of land operating rights, innovate land transfer and scale-operation methods, actively develop moderate-scale operation in multiple forms, and improve the degree of farmers' organization. Encourage the development of farmer family farms of appropriate scale and improve the support and service system for grain production scale-operation entities. Guide farmers' professional cooperatives to broaden their service areas, promote standardized development, implement an annual report and public disclosure system, and deepen the action to create demonstration cooperatives. Promote the building of agricultural industrialization demonstration bases and the transformation and upgrading of leading enterprises. Guide farmers to invest land operating rights as shares in cooperatives and leading enterprises. Encourage industrial and commercial capital to develop modern planting and breeding industries suitable for enterprise-based operation, agricultural product processing and circulation, and agricultural socialized services. The transfer of land operating rights must respect farmers' wishes, and it is not permitted to impose hard targets or force promotion. Formulate as soon as possible the access and supervision measures for industrial and commercial capital leasing agricultural land, and strictly prohibit unauthorized changes in agricultural use.
——Excerpted from the “Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Increasing the Intensity of Reform and Innovation and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization”
How to view it:
China is one of the countries with the highest degree of agricultural openness in the world, and agriculture is deeply integrated into the international market. This brings rare opportunities and favorable conditions for agricultural modernization, as well as various risks and challenges. If done well, there will be favorable winds from all directions; if not done well, there will be ambushes on all sides. We must assess the situation, plan scientifically, and maximize gains while avoiding harms. We must increase efforts to introduce key foreign technologies, management experience, germplasm resources, and high-level scientific research talent. We must regulate the scale and pace of imports and exports of agricultural products to prevent shocks to the domestic market and agricultural production. We must promote agriculture “going global” and cultivate a group of internationally competitive grain traders and agricultural enterprises.
What to do:
Improve the ability to coordinate the use of both international and domestic markets and resources. Strengthen regulation of agricultural product imports and exports, actively support exports of competitive agricultural products, and properly manage the scale and pace of agricultural product imports. Improve the management of imports, exports, and tariff quotas for important agricultural products such as grain, cotton, and sugar, and strictly implement the cotton sliding-scale duty policy. Severely crack down on agricultural product smuggling. Improve policies for border residents' mutual trade. Support the strengthening of agricultural product trade and accelerate the cultivation of internationally competitive agricultural enterprise groups. Improve the inter-ministerial joint conference system for agricultural foreign cooperation and promptly formulate plans for agricultural foreign cooperation. Innovate models of agricultural foreign cooperation, focus on strengthening cooperation in agricultural product processing, storage and transportation, trade, and other links, support overseas agricultural cooperation and development, promote the building of science and technology demonstration parks, and provide services such as technical training, demonstration of scientific research achievements, and brand promotion. Improve policies on investment, fiscal and tax matters, finance, insurance, trade, customs clearance, inspection and quarantine, and other areas that support agricultural foreign cooperation, and implement support policies for the exit of agricultural equipment and agricultural inputs needed for engaging in agricultural production abroad. Fully give play to the roles of various chambers of commerce in information services, legal consultation, dispute arbitration, and other areas.
——Excerpted from the “Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Increasing the Intensity of Reform and Innovation and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization”