How can the development dilemma of China's agricultural modernization be resolved?
At present, China's agricultural and rural development still faces a very severe situation. The resource constraints on agricultural development are becoming increasingly prominent, and it is becoming more difficult to maintain stable agricultural development and sustained increases in farmers' incomes. There is an urgent need to establish a modern agricultural development model suited to national conditions, accelerate the process of agricultural modernization, and continuously raise farmland output rates, resource utilization rates, and labor productivity, thereby injecting strong momentum into increased agricultural production, higher farmers' incomes, and rural prosperity. The new book by Dr. Huang Qi of the China Hybrid Rice Origin Protection Research Center, "A New Model for China's Agricultural Transformation and Upgrading: Theoretical Research and Exploration of the Modern Agriculture 2.5 Industry," was published by the National Academy of Governance Press in May 2013. In this work, the author innovatively proposes the theoretical model and promotion approach of the modern agriculture 2.5 industry, providing constructive new ideas for agricultural modernization during China's period of transformational development.
This is a rigorous study in agricultural economics, but its value extends far beyond this field. From a broader perspective, this work is a valuable exploration aimed at resolving the development dilemma of China's agricultural modernization.
Schultz pointed out incisively in "Transforming Traditional Agriculture" that the traditional agriculture of developing countries cannot contribute to economic growth; only modernized agriculture can make a major contribution to economic growth. The key to the problem is how to transform traditional agriculture into modernized agriculture. Therefore, how to transform weak traditional agriculture into a high-productivity economic sector is the core issue studied and explained by Huang Qi in his new work "A New Model for China's Agricultural Transformation and Upgrading: Theoretical Research and Exploration of the Modern Agriculture 2.5 Industry."
Comprehensively transforming the traditional small-peasant economy and promoting the transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture is the essence of building modern agriculture with Chinese characteristics. In the new era, the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward the strategic task of "promoting the synchronized development of industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization." Under the framework of the new four modernizations, agricultural modernization has acquired richer connotations. It not only focuses on physical factors, but also pays attention to talent, information, scientific and technological organizational resources, and so on, expanding from a sole focus on the means of planting and production itself to the entire industrial chain of research and development, planting and production, processing, circulation, and sales. The modern agriculture 2.5 industry proposed in "A New Model for China's Agricultural Transformation and Upgrading: Theoretical Research and Exploration of the Modern Agriculture 2.5 Industry" opens a new chapter in solving China's "three rural issues."
The renowned economist Lin Yifu believes: "As long as we persist in reform in the correct direction, we can overcome difficulties in the process of advancing and surmount all kinds of obstacles; and reforms that continue to achieve success will in turn strongly support sustained, rapid, and healthy economic growth." Indeed, China's agricultural development and transformation currently face many difficulties and challenges. Yet in China's future, for a considerable period, tremendous room for development and potential will exist. How can reform and innovation drive agricultural and rural economic development? Accelerating the construction of a new model for agricultural modernization is also quite important.
The book "A New Model for China's Agricultural Transformation and Upgrading: Theoretical Research and Exploration of the Modern Agriculture 2.5 Industry," grounded in a profound understanding of global economic integration and the essence of China's agricultural development, strives to explore a powerful engine for China's agricultural modernization. First, it analyzes the current development trends of global modern agriculture from the aspects of science and technology, scale development, industry, and markets; second, it comparatively analyzes the history and experience of modern agricultural development in developed countries and regions; third, it conducts an in-depth analysis of the essence and current situation of China's agricultural development; fourth, it comprehensively expounds the historical background, connotations, development status, and development carriers of the modern agriculture 2.5 industry; finally, it proposes ideas and key paths for building the modern agriculture 2.5 industry into a powerful engine for agricultural modernization.
Paying attention to solving the "three rural issues" requires not only profound knowledge but also deep thought. Dr. Huang Qi starts from agricultural development and transformation and focuses on changes in the agricultural industry. He analyzes that the 2.5 industry is an industry that emerged after humanity entered the post-industrial era, and its connotation is "highlighting producer services, structuring the integration of production and services, breaking through the traditional production and circulation methods of past products, supported by market development demand, with producer services as the main body, and using research and development design and virtual factories as expressive methods, thereby linking the entire industrial value chain." The modern agriculture 2.5 industry is a producer service industry that serves agricultural modernization in an all-round way. Its characteristics are the virtualization and networking of service methods, the rise of specialized service industries, and their penetration into the production process. There are mainly three models for the development of the modern agriculture 2.5 industry: the public service model led by the government, the service model led by agricultural cooperatives, and the service model led by leading enterprises. To promote the development of the modern agriculture 2.5 industry, it is necessary to pursue both market and government approaches and give full play to the role of the market mechanism and the government as "dual engines."
How to promote the accelerated transformation of China's traditional agriculture into modern agriculture quickly and well is a transformation challenge that bears on the overall cause of the nation. The book "A New Model for China's Agricultural Transformation and Upgrading: Theoretical Research and Exploration of the Modern Agriculture 2.5 Industry" was conceived and born against this background. The book is a summary of the author's many years of economic research and professional practice, and it received careful guidance from Academician Yuan Longping. The most difficult part of the book is how to sort out the future development model of agriculture from the vast course of domestic and international agricultural economic development. In this regard, Dr. Huang Qi focuses on the logical framework, first proposing a research framework, then enriching and perfecting it with historical experience in agricultural development, and further distilling the author's unique academic understanding. The overall framework is complete, the logic is rigorous, and the wording is concise; it is a rare work in agricultural economics.
Of course, no gold is completely pure. From an economics perspective, the book also has some room for improvement. For example, the proportion of empirical research on the modern agriculture 2.5 industry should be increased. However, this is less a shortcoming than a higher expectation for the author.
"Without deeply reading about the 'three rural issues,' one cannot understand China." The publication of "A New Model for China's Agricultural Transformation and Upgrading: Theoretical Research and Exploration of the Modern Agriculture 2.5 Industry" is built on the author's many years of academic research and his unique thinking and examination of the development trends of China's three rural issues. This is a theoretical exploration with profound thought, highly integrating academic value with breadth of knowledge. It is extremely suitable for party and government cadres at all levels and scholars involved in exploring China's "three rural issues," and general readers interested in the "three rural issues" will also gain much from it.