How to advance the deep integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas
A new highlight of this year's Central Document No. 1 is that to increase farmers' income, the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas must be advanced. The document states that to increase farmers' income, it is necessary to extend the agricultural industrial chain and raise agricultural added value; vigorously develop specialty farming and breeding, agricultural product processing, and rural services, and support the development of one village one product and one township (county) one industry; actively develop the multiple functions of agriculture and tap the value of rural ecological leisure, tourism and sightseeing, and cultural education; support the construction of a number of distinctive landscape tourism villages and towns with historical, regional and ethnic characteristics, and create diverse and distinctive rural tourism and leisure products.
Based on domestic and international practical experience, the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas refers to taking agriculture as the basic foundation and, through industrial linkage, industrial clustering, technological penetration, institutional innovation and other means, carrying out cross-sector intensive allocation of capital, technology and resource factors, so that agricultural production, agricultural product processing and sales, catering, leisure and other service industries are organically integrated together, making the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas closely connected and develop in coordination, and ultimately achieving the extension of the agricultural industrial chain, the expansion of the industrial scope and the increase of farmers' income. Obviously, taking agriculture as the basic foundation and advancing the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas is conducive to farmers sharing the dividends brought by the “integration” of the three industries, to attracting modern factors to transform traditional agriculture and realize agricultural modernization, to expanding agricultural functions and cultivating new growth points in rural areas, and to strengthening the interconnection of agricultural and rural infrastructure and promoting the building of a new countryside.
Internationally, Japan's Naoyoshi Imamura earlier proposed the development concept of industrial chain integration and fusion. He believed that increasing farmers' income must adopt the approach of industrial chain integration. In 1994 he proposed the concept of the “sixth industry” of agriculture, namely primary industry + secondary industry + tertiary industry = sixth industry. Later he also proposed that the sixth industry = primary industry × secondary industry × tertiary industry. The Japanese government absorbed the development thinking of the “sixth industry” and in 2008 formulated the Act on Promotion of Agriculture-Commerce-Industry Collaboration to support cooperation among agriculture, commerce and industry. In March 2010, the Japanese Cabinet meeting passed the new Basic Plan for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas, proposing to increase farmers' income and create new business models through the development of the “sixth industry,” and also to combine sixth industrialization with the environment and a low-carbon economy to create new industries in rural areas. That year the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also successively promulgated the Sixth Industrialization: Local Production for Local Consumption Act and related outline documents, put forward a number of policy measures to advance the development of the “sixth industry,” established a promotion committee, implemented preferential financing policies, set up investment funds, improved agricultural and rural infrastructure, supported cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises and agricultural producers, supported farmers in developing new products, new industries and new markets on their own, and supported agricultural technological innovation. After Japan implemented sixth industrialization, agricultural vitality was enhanced and farmers' income also increased markedly.
⟦NL> After entering the 21st century, with the rapid advancement of China's urbanization and industrialization, the continuous improvement of agricultural and rural infrastructure, and the rapid application of information technology, tendencies toward the integrated development of agriculture and the secondary and tertiary industries began to appear throughout the country. For example, in urban suburbs, sightseeing agriculture, leisure agriculture and urban agriculture were developed; in developed areas, information agriculture, facility agriculture and factory agriculture were developed; in main agricultural product producing areas, high-end value-added agriculture was developed, agricultural product processing bases were established, and direct-sale outlets for agricultural products were set up. To sum up, at present the integrated development of agriculture and the secondary and tertiary industries in various parts of China has four forms: first, integration through the internal industrial integration of agriculture, such as combining planting and breeding; second, integration through the extension of the agricultural industrial chain, that is, taking agriculture as the center and extending the chain forward and backward, linking the supply of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers with agricultural production, or linking the processing and sales of agricultural products with agricultural production, or establishing an integrated system of agricultural production, supply and marketing; third, integration through the cross-type fusion of agriculture with other industries, such as the integration of agriculture with culture and tourism; fourth, integration through the penetration of advanced factor technologies into agriculture, such as the rapid promotion and application of information technology, which both blurs the boundaries between agriculture and the secondary and tertiary industries and greatly shortens the distance between supply and demand sides, making online marketing and online leasing and trusteeship possible. From the domestic development practice of recent years, the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas has achieved remarkable results: the agricultural industrial chain has been extended, the scope of rural industries has been broadened, agricultural added value has increased, and farmers' income has also increased.
However, at present the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in China's rural areas is still at an early stage of development, with a low degree and shallow level of integration between agriculture and the secondary and tertiary industries; slow development of new-type agricultural operating organizations; weak diffusion and penetration of advanced technological factors; and insufficient supply of agriculture-related public services. For this reason, first, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the agricultural and rural management system and improve the level of integrated management and service for agriculture.
Actively advance the reform of the rural property rights system, focusing on promoting the separation of the three rights of land and the reform of the powers and functions of collective assets. Continue to deepen the reform of the rural financial system, and while ensuring the supply of policy-based finance, actively carry out financial institutional innovation, increase the coverage of village and township banks, expand the scope of commercial banks' rural credit business, and support the healthy development of new-type rural financial cooperative organizations. Second, accelerate the cultivation and development of new-type agricultural operating organizations, and encourage and support family farms, specialized cooperatives, associations, leading enterprises, agricultural socialized service organizations and industrial and commercial enterprises to carry out various forms of integrated rural industrial development. Third, establish a benefit coordination mechanism for the integrated development of rural industries to ensure that farmers and operating organizations can fairly share the “dividends” from the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Fourth, accelerate the construction of an industrial policy framework for the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas, formulate a standardization construction system for industrial integration, and carry out skills training for agriculture-related entrepreneurs and farmers to improve their capacity for industrial integration. Fifth, establish a fund for the integrated development of rural industries, continuously increase investment in agricultural and rural infrastructure construction and public services, and provide financial, tax, fiscal and other assistance and support for integrated industrial development.