2015 Central Document No. 1 Locks in New Positioning for Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers
The "Central Document No. 1" originally referred to the first document issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China each year, and has now become a proper term for the Central Committee's emphasis on rural issues. Yesterday, this year's No. 1 document, "Several Opinions on Intensifying Reform and Innovation and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization," arrived as expected, designating the three major directions of "strong," "prosperous" and "beautiful" for China's future agricultural work, and setting the tone for agricultural institutional reform in the new stage from the perspectives of food safety, agricultural product prices and further improvement of rural public services.
Raising the quality of agricultural products and the level of food safety
The No. 1 document proposes that for China to be strong, agriculture must be strong. To strengthen agriculture, it must shift as soon as possible from extensive management that mainly pursues output and relies on resource consumption to intensive development that gives equal weight to quantity, quality and efficiency, focuses on improving competitiveness, focuses on agricultural scientific and technological innovation, and focuses on sustainability, taking the path of modern agricultural development featuring efficient output, safe products, resource conservation and environmental friendliness.
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said frankly that after years of growth at any cost, China's supply of agricultural products is currently in a state of surplus, but this mode of agricultural development comes at the expense of resources and the environment. Behind the increase in output, problems such as land pollution and declining groundwater levels have become increasingly prominent. The traditional model of agricultural development is no longer sustainable, and transforming the mode of agricultural development is urgent.
Regarding the transformation of the agricultural development mode, the No. 1 document makes clear that the quality of agricultural products and the level of food safety must be raised. Agricultural input management must be strictly enforced, and agricultural standardized production must be vigorously promoted. The policy of subsidizing quality and safety inspection and testing costs for important agricultural product production bases and wholesale markets must be implemented. A whole-process traceable, interconnected and shared information platform for the quality of agricultural products and food safety must be established.
Hong Tao, a professor at the School of Economics of Beijing Technology and Business University, a specially appointed expert of the Ministry of Commerce, and an expert on agricultural product market circulation of the Ministry of Agriculture, believes that the era of agriculture focusing purely on output has passed, and the future will gradually shift toward quality and efficiency, with quality mainly reflected in food safety. After years of development, China's output of meat, peanuts, vegetables, fruits and other products ranks first in the world, but a traceable monitoring system for agricultural products and food safety has not yet been fully established, and food safety problems occur from time to time. With the transformation of the agricultural development mode, food safety will be placed in a more important position, and in the future green, pollution-free, organic and geographical indication products will be the main direction for the development of agricultural products.
Improving the price formation mechanism for agricultural products
Increasing farmers' income is a focus every year. This year's No. 1 document proposes improving the price formation mechanism for agricultural products. To increase farmers' income, a reasonable price level for agricultural products must be maintained. The minimum purchase price policy for rice and wheat must continue to be implemented, and the temporary purchase and storage policy for important agricultural products must be improved. The experience of the pilot reforms on target prices for cotton in Xinjiang and for soybeans in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia must be summarized, subsidy methods must be improved, operating costs must be reduced, and it must be ensured that subsidy funds are delivered to farming households in full and on time.
According to a Beijing Business Today reporter, China began implementing the minimum price purchase and temporary purchase and storage systems in 2004, with the aim of having state-designated enterprises purchase at low prices to maintain market prices. But in recent years, this policy has caused the price gap between domestic and international markets for many agricultural products, including soybeans, cotton and white sugar, to widen increasingly. Taking cotton as an example, the previous international market price of cotton was about 14,000 yuan/ton, while the domestic target price was 19,800 yuan/ton, a price gap of 5,800 yuan/ton.
Hong Tao pointed out that large amounts of subsidies and purchase and storage no longer suit agricultural development, as they neither reflect the market's supply and demand rules nor bring challenges to sustainable income growth in rural areas. Although the reform of target prices for agricultural products may have a certain impact on farmers' income in the short term, in the long run it straightens out market relations and is conducive to income growth in rural areas.
In addition, the No. 1 document also makes clear that channels for increasing income from outside rural areas must be broadened. To increase farmers' income, the transfer employment and entrepreneurship of farmers must be promoted. The plan to upgrade the vocational skills of migrant workers must be implemented. The policy of equal pay for equal work must be carried out, the rights and interests of migrant workers in labor remuneration must be protected in accordance with the law, and a long-term mechanism for the normal payment of migrant workers' wages must be established.
Experts believe that in addition to agricultural products, working elsewhere is currently also an important source of farmers' income. In recent years, the share of income from planting has been continuously declining, while the share from non-planting sources has been continuously rising. The change in agricultural structure is precisely farmers transferring to the secondary and tertiary industries. At present, migrant workers still face deficiencies in skills training, wage levels, children's education, social security and other aspects. Implementing equal pay for equal work and expanding urban social insurance coverage for migrant workers actually increases farmers' income in disguised form, and is also conducive to ensuring that farmers' various rights and interests are protected.
Raising the individual contribution standard of the new rural cooperative medical system
For rural work, "beautiful" should not only be an intuitive feeling, but should be reflected even more in people's lives, that is, improving farmers' quality of life by raising the level of rural public services. The No. 1 document clearly states that China will establish a sustainable financing mechanism for the new rural cooperative medical system, simultaneously raise the per capita fiscal subsidy and individual contribution standards, and further improve the actual reimbursement level.
Recently, relevant Chinese departments have repeatedly stated their positions on improving the urban and rural medical insurance systems. At the beginning of this year, Mao Qun'an, director of the publicity department and spokesperson of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, also clarified the work plan to continue raising the government subsidy standards for urban residents' medical insurance and the new rural cooperative medical system this year, because China's basic medical insurance financing level is relatively low and there is still much room for improvement relative to actual demand.
In the view of Shan Jingjing, an associate researcher at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, raising the per capita fiscal subsidy and individual contribution standards is not the "fundamental solution" to raising the actual reimbursement level. She said frankly that in the past implementation of the new rural cooperative medical system, in order to raise reimbursement levels and proportions, farmers would seek extensive treatment for minor illnesses, and even when healthy would regularly go to hospital and receive intravenous drips in order to reimburse as much medical expense as possible. Such waste of medical resources caused by unreasonable institutional design and the inability of some areas to fully enjoy medical insurance rights exist at the same time.
Therefore, to improve the new rural cooperative medical system, the key is not only to achieve "sustainability" in financing, but also to provide full protection when spending money while leaving no institutional loopholes to exploit.