How to accelerate the modernization of agriculture? An analysis of paths and measures
The just-concluded Central Rural Work Conference made important arrangements for further deepening rural reform and accelerating agricultural modernization against the backdrop of the new normal of economic development. This is a strategic requirement put forward by the Party Central Committee after comprehensively grasping the laws of modernization development and profoundly analyzing the “three rural issues” of new opportunities, new challenges, new situations and new tasks.
Agricultural modernization is the fundamental direction of agricultural development. From the general laws of modernization, without agricultural modernization there would be no modernization of society as a whole; from the perspective of stabilizing economic growth, stability in agriculture brings stability to the world, and with the sustained increase in production and efficiency of modern agriculture, there is the foundation for social stability and the foundation for reform and innovation; from the perspective of sustainable agricultural development, under conditions in which the internal and external environment for agricultural development has undergone profound changes, agricultural modernization is the only way to respond to various challenges and uphold innovative development.
To accelerate the development of agricultural modernization, the most urgent task at present is to vigorously promote the transformation of the agricultural development model and the adjustment of the agricultural industrial structure. This is determined by the difficulties and challenges, foundations and opportunities facing China's agricultural development.
In recent years, the achievements in China's “three rural issues” field have been obvious to all, but various risks and structural contradictions have also been accumulating. On the one hand, the tightening of agricultural land and water resources and the environmental degradation caused by soil degradation and non-point source pollution have become more prominent, while changes in the rural labor force structure and imbalances in the agricultural industrial structure have also become more prominent; the practical problem of “who will farm the land” and the resource and industrial distribution problems of transporting grain from the north to the south and diverting water from the south to the north have together been placed before both cities and villages; on the other hand, the “floor” effect of continuously rising agricultural production costs and the “ceiling” phenomenon in which the prices of major agricultural products are higher than those of comparable international products are squeezing from both sides, while agricultural infrastructure and scientific and technological support still need to be strengthened and improved.
Foundations and opportunities are equally rare. This year, China's grain and other major agricultural products continued to increase production, and farmers continued to increase incomes relatively quickly, which provides a stable guarantee for the transformation of the agricultural development model and structural adjustment; the full implementation of the national food security strategy of ensuring basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple foods has made the orientation of agricultural production toward protecting key areas and staple foods clearer, and the policy environment and resource space for structural adjustment are greater; the continued growth of urban and rural residents' incomes and their ever-higher quality requirements and ever-greater variety of food consumption have objectively brought enormous impetus to transforming the development model and adjusting the structure; at the same time, the current relatively ample supply of bulk agricultural products on the international market has also provided conditions for us to use both markets and both resources to accelerate transformation and upgrading.
Comprehensively understanding and accurately grasping this kind of opportunity and challenge is crucial to transforming the agricultural development model and adjusting the structure. Starting from China's national conditions and agricultural conditions, the current transformation of the agricultural development model means shifting from giving priority to quantity growth to placing equal emphasis on quantity, quality and efficiency, and from relying mainly on exhausting resources and material inputs to relying on scientific and technological support and improving the quality of laborers; adjusting the structure means continuously optimizing the planting and breeding structure, product structure and regional structure according to changes in market demand and resource conditions.
The fundamental driving force for transforming the agricultural development model and adjusting the structure lies in reform and innovation. The reason China's agricultural development has been able to achieve its current accomplishments is reform and innovation; at present, facing the new normal and new challenges of economic development, rural reform must have new actions and new intensity, and modern agricultural development must have a new realm and new atmosphere.