How to Build a Highly Efficient Fiscal Support System for Agriculture

In recent years, the agriculture departments of Zhejiang Province have closely centered on the new strategy of building "Beautiful Zhejiang, Prosperous Zhejiang," proactively adapted to the new requirements of comprehensively deepening reform, taken fiscal management system reform as the driving force, actively innovated management methods, clarified the three pairs of relationships between government and market, between fiscal and operational departments, and between the provincial level and the city/county levels, streamlined administration and delegated power, clarified responsibilities and strengthened performance management, focused on building a new system of fiscal support-agriculture policies, project management and supervision and evaluation under the new normal, and promoted the development of modern agriculture across the province, achieving positive results.

I. Clarify the relationship between government and market, and build a fiscal support-agriculture policy system. With the rapid development of China's economy, all levels have continuously increased support for policies benefiting and strengthening agriculture, and Zhejiang Province's provincial-level fiscal support-agriculture investment has grown by more than 10% for many consecutive years. At the same time, because Zhejiang Province's agriculture is small in scale, diverse in variety and widely distributed, agricultural projects have the characteristics of "small scale, many types and scattered distribution," giving rise to problems such as relatively dispersed fiscal support-agriculture investment and insufficient support for key areas and critical links.

Starting in 2013, Zhejiang Province further sorted out and clarified the key areas and critical links of fiscal support-agriculture policy support. After sorting, the fiscal support-agriculture policy funds under the unified management of agriculture were integrated into 6 major categories of policy projects, basically forming a fiscal support-agriculture policy system that matches the needs of Zhejiang's modern agricultural development and is compatible with the reform of fiscal special fund management. First, develop grain production. Focus on supporting subsidies for scaled, mechanized and socialized services in grain production, as well as the construction and maintenance of grain production infrastructure, production and service facilities, to improve comprehensive grain production capacity; second, develop livestock production. Focus on supporting the transformation and upgrading of the livestock industry, increase the construction of public service facilities and service systems for the livestock industry, and promote the scaled, facility-based, standardized and ecological development of the livestock industry; third, ecological agriculture and agricultural product quality and safety. Focus on supporting the development of ecological circular agriculture and green agricultural product production, and carry out the construction of a whole-process traceability system and quality testing system for agricultural products; fourth, develop agricultural mechanization and smart agriculture. Focus on supporting the development of agricultural mechanization and smart agriculture, promote the combination of agricultural machinery and agronomy, and the integration of agricultural mechanization and informatization, and increase the construction of agricultural informatization and the application of agricultural Internet of Things technology; fifth, develop agricultural science and technology and modern seed industry. Focus on supporting agricultural science and technology innovation and the construction of an agricultural technology extension system, and strengthen the demonstration and promotion of new technologies, new varieties and new models, the protection of germplasm resources, and the research and development of new variety breeding; sixth, modern agricultural upgrading and development. Focus on supporting the transformation and upgrading of leading agricultural industries, and increase the construction of key areas, critical nodes and weak links in industrial development, as well as major projects of overall and strategic significance to modern agricultural development.

II. Clarify the relationship between fiscal and operational departments, and build a fiscal support-agriculture project management system. Focus on strengthening work in three aspects. First, clarify responsibilities. In accordance with the requirements for establishing departmental responsibility lists, proceed from their respective functions and advantages, sort out and refine the division of responsibilities between the two departments, and clarify that the responsibility of the agriculture department is to formulate the support priorities and targets of fiscal special funds, propose allocation factors and fund allocation recommendations, and be responsible for project organization and management, supervision and technical guidance, etc.; the responsibility of the fiscal department is the budget arrangement, fund allocation, supervision and inspection, and performance evaluation of special funds. Second, strengthen integration. In accordance with the requirements of "abolish a batch, merge a batch, convert a batch," promote the coordinated integration of project funds on a large scale and with great intensity, cancel all assessment-type projects; convert the budget management model for projects with special allocation methods such as exhibition participation subsidy funds, as well as projects directly matching central fiscal funds; and for other transfer-type special funds, break the project classification structure and carry out comprehensive cleanup. After integration, the more than 50 special projects under the unified management of agriculture were greatly reduced to 6 projects in three major categories: public welfare, quasi-public welfare and competitive. Third, standardize management. Jointly with the provincial finance department, formulate management measures for special funds for modern agricultural production development, and clarify that the allocation methods of fiscal support-agriculture funds are the factor method, government purchase of services, competitive allocation and project subsidies, among which the factor method allocation is mainly applied to public welfare policy funds, government purchase of services is mainly applied to quasi-public welfare policy funds, and competitive allocation is mainly applied to competitive policy funds. Taking competitive allocation as an example, according to the provincial government's requirements on implementing the reform of competitive allocation of provincial-level fiscal special funds, in the past two years, jointly with the Provincial Department of Finance, it took the lead in launching the competitive allocation of major agricultural projects among provincial-level departments, and through two rounds of competitive review by materials and on-site review, selected and implemented 11 major agricultural projects with an investment scale of more than 100 million yuan from more than 30 projects reported from various places, fully reflecting the project construction idea of selecting the best among the good and selecting the superior for construction. This work has been fully affirmed by provincial leaders and relevant provincial-level departments.

III. Clarify the relationship between the provincial level and the city/county levels, and build a fiscal support-agriculture supervision and evaluation system. With the continuous increase in fiscal support-agriculture investment and the continuous strengthening of supervision, provincial-level departments, in order to strengthen project fund management, have made increasingly detailed provisions and requirements for specific projects. However, due to differences in actual conditions across regions, objectively some provisions are difficult to fully implement. On the other hand, cities and counties bear more responsibilities for matters within their authority, but the corresponding fiscal powers cannot be effectively guaranteed. In order to further clarify the responsibilities and authority for fund and project management between the province and the cities and counties, adhere to taking multiple measures simultaneously, play a combined punch, and accelerate the building of an objective, fair and efficient fiscal support-agriculture supervision and evaluation system.

First, proactively delegate power. Since last year, except for some projects using competitive allocation and government purchase of services, most agricultural project funds have adopted the factor method allocation, directly allocated in blocks to counties, and allocated and managed by the county level, enhancing the county level's overall coordination capacity. At the same time, earnestly do a good job in building the project reserve database, and projects meeting the conditions shall be included in the project reserve database before the end of September of the previous year. When allocating fiscal special funds, the best shall be selected from the project reserve database. In principle, projects not included in the project reserve database shall not be the objects of fiscal special fund allocation.

Second, strengthen disclosure. Establish the principle that "disclosure is the norm and non-disclosure is the exception," strengthen the disclosure of project application, project approval review, fund arrangement and use, etc., and require that, except for special projects, they should generally be publicly announced in relevant media or project management systems, and consciously accept the supervision of the people's congress, auditing and the general public. At the same time, effectively increase policy publicity, publicize modern agricultural development policy projects, advanced models and construction results in agriculture-related media, and improve public awareness of and participation in modern agricultural development work.

Third, strengthen performance. In accordance with the principle of "whoever uses the funds bears the responsibility, whoever allocates supervises," further strengthen fund and project supervision and performance evaluation. On the basis of requiring all regions to strengthen supervision, inspection and performance evaluation of project implementation and fund use, the provincial level formulates supervision, spot-check and performance evaluation plans, adopts methods such as key inspection and introducing third-party intermediary agencies for performance evaluation, strengthens supervision and spot checks on relevant projects, and establishes a project fund management mechanism combining inspection (performance evaluation) results with project arrangement, ensuring the realization of project fund performance targets. Since last year, intermediary agencies have been introduced to conduct performance evaluation of provincial fiscal subsidy projects such as modern agriculture and ecological circular agriculture, achieving good results.