Rural Work Conference Sets the Path for Agricultural Modernization: Food Security Comes First
Central Rural Work Conference Concludes: Path for Agricultural Modernization Set
Our reporter Sun Chunfang reports from Beijing
According to Xinhua News Agency, the annual Central Rural Work Conference was held in Beijing from December 22 to 23. The conference discussed the "Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Further Deepening Rural Reform and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization (Discussion Draft)." Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council attended the conference and delivered an important speech, and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of the State Council attended the conference.
The conference emphasized that in advancing agricultural modernization, we must persist in taking the safeguarding of national food security as the primary task. First, vigorously develop agricultural industrialization. Promote the integrated interaction of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Second, actively develop moderate-scale operations in various forms. Guide and regulate the orderly transfer of land management rights, develop various new types of agricultural operating entities, and avoid "non-grain" and "non-agricultural" trends. Third, build a resource-conserving and environment-friendly agriculture. Fourth, increase agricultural policy and funding input. Coordinate and integrate agriculture-related funds, innovate agricultural investment and financing mechanisms, and improve the financial support system for agriculture. Fifth, make good use of both markets and both types of resources.
The conference pointed out that tapping the consumption potential of farmers, the largest group, can better bring into play the fundamental role of consumption; rural agricultural infrastructure and public services are backward and have enormous demand for new investment, and making good use of this space can better bring into play the key role of investment; making the agricultural industry bigger and stronger can form many new industries, new business forms and new models, and cultivate new growth points for the economy.
Based on Food Security
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the theme of the 2015 Central "No. 1 Document" will revolve around "further deepening rural reform and accelerating agricultural modernization," and its ultimate purpose is to safeguard China's food security. The five specific measures proposed by the Central Rural Work Conference all ultimately revolve around the theme of food security.
This Central Rural Work Conference emphasized that, as changes in domestic and international environmental conditions and the deep-seated contradictions accumulated through long-term extensive operation gradually emerge, the challenges facing sustained and stable agricultural development are unprecedented.
In recent years, domestic prices of major agricultural products have exceeded import prices, while production costs have continued to rise; the agricultural ecological environment has been damaged, and resources such as cultivated land and fresh water are strained.
Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, said at a recent forum that China currently imports more than 84 million tons of grain each year, and in addition to more than 60 million tons of soybeans, grain imports have also reached nearly 15 million tons. In addition, China imports 4.5 million tons of cotton, 4.54 million tons of sugar and 8.09 million tons of vegetable oil each year.
Li Guoxiang said that this conference once again proposed making good use of both domestic and foreign resources, and in fact China can increase its use of foreign resources a bit more. For example, although agricultural product imports have increased year by year, the proportion of staple grain imports in total domestic output remains within the safety red line, so there is still some room. At the same time, this year the central government stepped up the deployment of agricultural reclamation reform, pushing some giant agricultural reclamation enterprises to go abroad to develop resources. "Of course, for a large country like China, the agricultural issue must ultimately be based on its own country," Li Guoxiang said.
Guide the Orderly Transfer of Land Management Rights
The Central Rural Work Conference required giving full play to the radiating and driving role of new urbanization in agricultural modernization. Efforts should be made to solve the existing "three 100 million people" issue, guide the flow of modern urban production factors to agriculture and rural areas, and promote farmers' income growth through multiple channels. Actively and steadily advance the building of a new socialist countryside and accelerate the pace of poverty alleviation and prosperity in poor areas.
In this regard, Zheng Fengtian, vice dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, said that from the relevant statements on rural work in this year's government work report, it can be seen that the central government will continue to increase investment in rural areas, including rural water conservancy facilities, drinking water safety, and other infrastructure and public services. On the one hand, this can consolidate the foundation of agriculture and ensure increased agricultural production and farmers' income; on the other hand, this is also a focus of government stimulus policy under the sluggish macroeconomic situation, and agricultural development and increased farmers' income will also help cultivate the rural market and expand domestic demand. "Therefore, future investment in rural areas will still maintain a strong momentum," Zheng Fengtian said.
This national rural work conference proposed that next year's work tasks include: guiding the orderly transfer of land management rights and developing moderate-scale agricultural operations; expanding pilot programs for the confirmation, registration and certification of land contractual management rights, and consolidating the foundation for innovation in the agricultural operating system.
The development of moderate-scale operations had in fact been in the making for several years. On November 21 this year, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council officially issued the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations."
A person from the Rural Economy Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council told a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald that the prerequisite for moderate-scale operations is to do a good job in the confirmation, registration and certification of rural property rights, and then carry out the orderly transfer of land. "Of course, land that should be used for farming cannot be used to grow other things. That is to say, we must prevent 'non-agriculturalization' and 'non-grainization' phenomena," the person said.
The person from the Rural Economy Department of the Development Research Center said that rural land transfer, moderate operations, and cultivating new operating entities should be one of the themes of rural work next year and even for years to come.
The person said that another theme of this year's Central Rural Work Conference is deepening rural reform, including advancing reform of the rural collective property rights system.
On September 29, 2014, the fifth meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform deliberated the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Contractual Management Rights and Developing Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations" and the "Pilot Plan for Actively Developing Farmers' Shareholding Cooperatives and Empowering Collective Asset Shares." On December 2, the seventh meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform deliberated the "Opinions on Pilot Work for Reform of Rural Land Expropriation, Market Entry of Collective Operating Construction Land, and the Homestead System."