Agricultural industrialization reaches a new height, opening a new chapter of development
“The Central Rural Work Conference proposed strong support for our agricultural industrialization! As a grassroots agricultural enterprise, seeing this news really made our hearts race with excitement. With the nation backing us, what worries do we still have? We will join hands with farmers and cooperatives, and boldly develop planting and production, work together to make our tea garden bigger, make our tea leaves finer, and extend the tea industry chain longer.” At the start of the new year, Huang Xiaochun, general manager of Guangxi Baise Chunyun Green Tea Co., Ltd., said this is the best New Year gift we have received.
Huang Xiaochun's words reflect the common voice of agricultural enterprises determined to devote themselves to the cause of agricultural industrialization.
The Central Rural Work Conference emphasized that to advance agricultural modernization, efforts must be made to do five areas of work well, and the first among them is to vigorously develop agricultural industrialization, bring the industrial chain and value chain into agriculture, and promote the integrated interaction of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
Some experts said that the integrated interaction of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries means enabling agriculture to move from单纯的 agricultural product production toward integrated development in fields such as agricultural product processing, distribution and leisure services. In areas where conditions permit, promoting the development of agricultural product processing and leisure agriculture, and letting modern agriculture connect with both the “secondary industry” of processing and the “tertiary industry” of leisure agriculture, can, through extension of the industrial chain, achieve increased agricultural added value and higher farmer incomes, and become a new growth pole driving the development of our country's agriculture and rural economy.
The central authorities also proposed to “build an advantageous regional layout and a specialized production pattern&rdquo, “actively develop moderate-scale operations in various forms&rdquo, “innovate ways of promoting agriculture through industry&rdquo, “promote the combination of regional development and targeted poverty alleviation&rdquo, and “stimulate farmers' vitality for creation, innovation and entrepreneurship”, and so on. On careful reflection, we will find that these statements all bear the shadow of agricultural industrialization. In other words, to achieve the above goals, agricultural industrialization can play a big role.
How can we tell? Through developing agricultural industrialization, all localities can strengthen their local advantageous industries, spawn more “one village, one product” cases, and form a specialized production pattern; in developing moderate-scale operations, promoting agriculture through industry, and poverty alleviation and development, new types of business entities such as enterprises, cooperatives and large farming and breeding households can rightfully play the role of “bellwethers”; in improving farmers' quality, cultivating new-type professional farmers, and stimulating farmers' entrepreneurship, enterprises with advanced production technology and business concepts are the best teaching materials and the best “practical training bases”.
Why has the central authorities elevated vigorous development of agricultural industrialization to such a height?
As domestic and international environmental conditions change and deep-seated contradictions accumulated from long-term extensive operation gradually emerge, the challenges facing sustained and stable agricultural development are unprecedented; at present, the prices of major domestic agricultural products exceed import prices, while production costs are continuously rising; the agricultural ecological environment has been damaged, and resources such as arable land and fresh water are strained.
Based on this reality, we must accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model, and developing agricultural industrialization is one of the important paths to achieve this, thereby raising land output rate, resource utilization rate and labor productivity, accelerating the formation of some new industries, new business forms and new models, and further cultivating new growth points in the agricultural economy.
In recent years, agricultural industrialization has developed vigorously, making the links among all stages of agricultural products, from planting and breeding, processing and distribution to sales, smoother; making cooperation among business entities such as enterprises, cooperatives, family farms, bases and farmers more efficient; and above all letting localities, enterprises and farmers taste the sweetness of increased production, efficiency and income.
The central authorities' great attention to agricultural industrialization is like a shot in the arm, giving us more handles and more confidence to do a good job in agricultural industrialization in 2015 and beyond. The next step requires us to produce more detailed implementation rules and supporting measures, unite and give play to the strength and advantages of all business entities, and let agricultural industrialization play a more important role on the journey toward agricultural modernization.