What new concepts does China's agricultural development transformation need

Since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has always placed solving the issues relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the most important position in the work of the whole Party, and has successively issued twelve central “No. 1 documents” themed on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, implementing a series of unprecedented policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and enrich rural areas. Through major reform measures such as abolishing the agricultural tax, implementing direct subsidies for farmers, reforming the grain circulation system, the collective forest rights system and the rural financial system, and advancing coordinated urban-rural development, the enthusiasm of the farmer masses has been greatly stimulated and the face of agriculture and rural areas has been greatly improved. In terms of grain output growth, grain production has maintained sustained growth for more than ten consecutive years, which is very rare in the history of China and even the world. In terms of farmers' income growth, farmers' income has maintained relatively rapid growth for eleven consecutive years, with an average annual income increase of more than 650 yuan, and the growth rate of farmers' income has been higher than that of urban residents for five consecutive years. These achievements show that the situation of China's agricultural and rural development continues to improve, the Party's rural policies have won the support of the farmer masses, and the increase of farmers' income, the increase of grain output, and the development of rural infrastructure and social undertakings have entered the fastest period in history.

At present, China's agriculture is entering a new stage of development and is facing a new development situation. First, the import volume of major agricultural products is continuously growing. Although domestic major agricultural products are continuously increasing in output, the variety and quantity of imported agricultural products are both increasing; in 2013, imported grain exceeded 84 million tons for the first time, while various grain exports amounted to only 2.43 million tons. Second, the international competitiveness of agricultural product prices has declined. New changes are taking place in domestic and international agricultural product prices, and the domestic prices of most bulk agricultural products have exceeded international market prices, becoming an important reason for the continuous growth of China's agricultural product imports. Third, the impact of WTO rules on agriculture has deepened. At the beginning of China's accession to the WTO, China committed to import tariff quotas for some important agricultural products, which provided an important guarantee for China's agriculture to maintain stable development after WTO accession. However, as domestic agricultural product prices continue to rise and break through international market agricultural product prices, the high tariff barriers beyond the quotas may be gradually broken down. Once domestic agricultural product prices hit the “ceiling” of high tariffs, international agricultural products will enter the domestic market on an even larger scale, which will affect China's agricultural industry development, farmers' employment, food security and economic security. Fourth, profound changes have taken place in rural economic and social development. In the process of industrialization and urbanization, a large number of rural laborers have continuously moved to cities and towns, but since 2010, the growth rate of the number of migrant workers has continuously declined, and the growth rate of migrant workers' wage income from working away from home has also declined, indicating that the macroeconomic trend and changes in the structure of the secondary and tertiary industries in cities have had a clear impact on farmers' transfer employment. How this situation will change in the future and what impact it will have on rural economic and social development still require further study. Fifth, farmers' agricultural returns are facing challenges. At present, agricultural input costs are rising rapidly, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for farmers to increase income through grain production and operation. Correspondingly, farmers' income structure has also undergone obvious changes. In 2013, for the first time, wage income exceeded household operating income in farmers' per capita net income, while the proportion of planting income in farmers' per capita net income was already less than one quarter, making it increasingly difficult to use policy means to mobilize farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain.

Based on this new situation and these new changes, China's agricultural development is facing a series of unprecedented challenges: First, it faces the pressure of the inversion of domestic and international agricultural product prices. On the one hand, the prices of major domestic agricultural products are already higher than those in the international market; on the other hand, farmers are still dissatisfied with the current prices of agricultural products. However, if domestic agricultural product prices are raised further, it means that China will further open its doors to the international market, creating new pressure on domestic agricultural development. Second, it faces the challenge of rising agricultural production costs. At present, China's agricultural production costs are rising rapidly, especially the annual average growth rate of spending on productive services, which has reached 8%-9%, exerting great upward pressure on the costs of agricultural products. Third, the agricultural support and protection system faces new challenges. According to the negotiation commitments made at the beginning of WTO accession, China's de minimis subsidy standard for agriculture is 8.5%, and subsidies for some important agricultural products have currently reached or exceeded this standard. How to withstand the pressure from developed countries expecting to accelerate the opening of China's agricultural product market, further increase support and protection for agriculture, and continue to maintain the growth trend of agricultural input under the condition of slowing economic growth has become an urgent problem to be solved. Fourth, the agricultural ecological environment can hardly bear the current mode of agricultural production, and the challenges and pressures it faces are unprecedented. Fifth, China's agricultural scientific and technological strength is not strong. Although China is at the forefront of the world in certain fields such as hybrid rice breeding, it still lags behind developed countries in more agricultural research fields and in the application of agricultural science and technology. If this situation is not changed, it will be difficult to change China's passive position in agriculture internationally. Sixth, the degree of organization and marketization of agricultural production is relatively low, and it still faces many practical difficulties and problems.

⟦NL> China is the country with the largest population in the world and also a country with a relatively weak agricultural foundation, which determines the great difficulty of building modern agriculture in China. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: “We must see that agriculture is still the short leg of the ‘synchronization of the four modernizations’, and rural areas are still the weak link in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. For China to be strong, agriculture must be strong; for China to be beautiful, rural areas must be beautiful; for China to be prosperous, farmers must be prosperous.” During an inspection and research visit in Fujian not long ago, he stressed that “building a moderately prosperous society in all respects must not leave out the rural side”, and explicitly required “efforts to tap new potential in improving grain production capacity, open up new paths in optimizing the agricultural structure, seek new breakthroughs in transforming the agricultural development mode, obtain new results in promoting farmers' income growth, and take new steps in building a new countryside”, which is the overall requirement for rural reform and development in the coming period.

Accelerating the process of China's agricultural modernization is a major topic of the times. The agricultural development transformation of a populous country under resource and environmental constraints requires new strategic concepts and strategic measures. Researcher Chen Wensheng's book "On the Transformation of Agriculture in a Major Country" incorporates China's agricultural development transformation into the overall pattern of building a “two-oriented society” and promoting the coordinated development of industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, highlights Chinese characteristics and the “two-oriented” main line, and focuses on research into issues such as the multiple goals, endogenous driving forces, realization paths and supporting systems for transforming China's agricultural development mode under resource and environmental constraints. It explores effective paths for accelerating the transformation of the mode of resource factor utilization with agricultural scientific and technological innovation as the driving force, the transformation of the agricultural production system guided by “two-oriented” agriculture, the transformation of the agricultural socialized service system with rural informatization as the breakthrough, and the transformation of the agricultural development mode with agricultural institutional innovation as the engine, forming a theoretical framework for transforming the agricultural development mode in the building of a “two-oriented society” with “two-oriented” agriculture as the strategic orientation, scientific and technological innovation as the primary driving force, rural informatization as the breakthrough, and agricultural institutional innovation as the guarantee. It is a theoretical research achievement formed on the basis of deeply grasping the frontier changes and contemporary requirements of modern agricultural development at home and abroad. The book puts forward many theoretically innovative viewpoints and will provide useful enlightenment for people in all fields who are engaged in and concerned about China's agricultural development.