Agricultural investment must only increase, never decrease, even when finances are tight
The Central Rural Work Conference proposed that the intensity of agricultural policy and funding investment must be increased. No matter how tight the financial resources, it is necessary to ensure that agricultural investment only increases and never decreases, to coordinate and integrate agriculture-related funds, to innovate agricultural investment and financing mechanisms, and to improve the financial system supporting agriculture. This not only reflects the consistent pro-agriculture thinking of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, but also points out the direction for further improving the policies that strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich farmers.
Due to the characteristics of agriculture and the attributes of the market mechanism, countries around the world, especially developed countries, have generally established support and protection systems. China's national conditions and agricultural conditions determine that the government has a greater responsibility in promoting agricultural development. In recent years, China's agricultural and rural development situation has been improving, and the substantial increase in fiscal investment in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers has played a key role. Under the new normal, the growth rate of fiscal revenue has slowed, and "when the big river has no water, the small river runs dry," which will inevitably affect the growth rate and increment of direct investment in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.
How to continue strengthening the fundamental position of agriculture against the backdrop of shifting economic growth gears and promote sustained increases in farmers' incomes, and how to innovate agricultural support and protection policies under "dual squeezing" and improve agricultural competitiveness, are major tests that current work on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers must face. To implement the spirit of the Central Rural Work Conference and increase the intensity of agricultural policy and funding investment, the overall direction is to persist in not reducing the intensity of agricultural support and protection, stabilize the stock, increase the total, improve methods, and gradually adjust, make good use of both the government's and the market's "two hands," and actively give play to the role of fiscal funds in "leveraging a thousand catties with four taels," guiding more capital to flow like living water to irrigate the tree of the economy.
Fiscal investment must integrate funds and improve efficiency. When financial resources are limited, it is necessary to work hard on strengthening the coordination and integration of funds and improving the efficiency of their use. Effective mechanisms must be established to manage and integrate funds well, cancel useless and ineffective ones, reduce duplicate and inefficient ones, and plug leaks and waste, using improved efficiency to offset the decline in growth rate. It is necessary to ensure that financial resources are concentrated in the key links and key areas of agricultural modernization, focusing on supporting agricultural infrastructure construction, structural adjustment, sustainable development, major grain-producing counties, and increases in farmers' incomes, and new subsidies must be tilted toward grain and other important agricultural products, new types of business entities, and main producing areas. It is necessary to improve the allocation of funds, especially to break through the fragmented fund arrangement model, and resolutely put an end to spreading money too thinly and "sprinkling pepper powder." It is necessary to improve the price formation and regulation mechanism for agricultural products, summarize the experience of target price pilot projects, improve subsidy methods, reduce operating costs, and explore new paths to prevent price risks and ensure increases in farmers' incomes.
Financial support for agriculture must keep the "main artery" flowing smoothly and enrich the "capillaries." The more agricultural scale operations develop and the more the level of agricultural modernization improves, the stronger the demand for finance becomes. It is necessary to comprehensively use fiscal and tax, monetary and credit, financial supervision, and other policies to promote the tilting of financial resources toward agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. State-owned banks and policy banks must fulfill their obligations and keep the "main artery" of rural financial services flowing smoothly; it is necessary to actively support small and micro financial institutions such as village and township banks and enrich the "capillaries" of rural financial services. It is necessary to advance the reform of the rural financial system, actively adapt to rural realities, agricultural characteristics, and farmers' needs, innovate agricultural investment and financing mechanisms, give play to the leveraging role of fiscal funds, and attract more social funds to invest in agriculture. It is necessary to expand the coverage of policy insurance, raise insurance subsidy standards, and improve the level of risk protection.
It is also necessary to seize the opportunity of digesting excess capacity to guide social capital into agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Under the new normal of economic development, the state focuses on adjusting structure, shoring up weaknesses, and benefiting people's livelihoods, which contains new opportunities for actual investment growth in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. The state has proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative and is increasing the intensity of transportation, information infrastructure, and other construction in the central and western regions and key areas, which will inevitably bring improvements in rural transportation and communication conditions, and the current period is one of digesting previously excess capacity, which is an opportunity for reducing the cost of agricultural and rural infrastructure construction. At the same time, as overcapacity appears in some industries and fields and investment tends toward saturation, the investment value of agriculture and rural areas has become more prominent, and the attraction to social capital will increase markedly. It is necessary to seize the opportunity of the vigorous rise of new models such as e-commerce and new business forms such as investment, innovate methods, keep channels open, guide industrial and commercial capital into the fields of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and ensure that overall investment in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers grows continuously.
As the year begins anew, all things take on a fresh look, and we set out again by carrying forward the past and opening the future! This year is the final year of the "12th Five-Year Plan" and also a key year for comprehensively deepening reform. The work on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers is arduous and heavy. We must unify our thinking and actions with the spirit and arrangements of the Central Rural Work Conference, actively adapt to the new normal, integrate resources from all sides, increase agricultural investment, and use real gold and silver to strengthen the bones and muscles of agriculture, propelling the work on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers to new achievements!