In 2014, agricultural and rural economic development achieved remarkable results.
On December 22, a reporter learned from the Ministry of Agriculture that in the outgoing 2014, the agricultural and rural economy achieved steady progress, steady quality improvement and steady efficiency gains from a high starting point: grain production achieved an "eleventh consecutive increase," with total output reaching 1,214.2 billion jin, an increase of 10.32 billion jin over the previous year, exceeding the 1.2 trillion jin threshold for 2 consecutive years; farmers' income growth achieved an "eleventh consecutive rapid increase," and the growth rate of farmers' income will exceed the growth rates of GDP and urban residents' income for the 5th consecutive year, and the urban-rural income ratio is expected to narrow to within 3:1.
Against the backdrop of increasing downward pressure on the economy, the sound situation of the agricultural and rural economy provided strong support for "stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, promoting reform and improving people's livelihood" under the new normal, and played the role of the "stabilizing anchor" for the overall stability of economic and social development.
Facing the complex and severe domestic and international economic situation, agricultural departments at all levels persisted in pressing the high-point offensive without slackening, exploring and innovating without fearing difficulties, focusing on key points to ensure implementation, and integrating and optimizing to gather synergy, achieving the simultaneous pursuit of stable grain output and increased income, the simultaneous consideration of development and reform, the simultaneous promotion of professional work and work style, and the linkage between the central and local levels, forming a powerful synergy for advancing the development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers," and achieving remarkable results. Supplies of cotton, oil and sugar, fruits, vegetables and tea, meat, eggs and milk, and aquatic products were abundant, market operations were generally stable, and no major agricultural product quality and safety incidents or regional major animal epidemics occurred throughout the year. Agricultural machinery, agricultural reclamation and the agricultural product processing industry developed steadily, rural reform advanced solidly, the annual reform tasks led or participated in by agricultural departments were fully completed, and breakthrough progress was made in some areas. New steps were taken in the confirmation, registration and certification of land contractual management rights, innovation of the agricultural management system, and reform of target prices for agricultural products; reforms in the seed industry, agricultural reclamation and rural finance advanced steadily; and new progress was made in the construction of rural reform pilot areas and national modern agriculture demonstration areas.
⟦NL> It is understood that over the past year, the national agricultural system focused on the following key tasks:
——Promoting the creation and implementation of policies. Consolidating the fundamentals, initially forming a policy support system covering all areas and links of agricultural production. Opening up new avenues, promoting the introduction of subsidies for confirmation, registration and certification work, and launching pilot subsidy programs for the treatment and restoration of heavy metal-contaminated farmland, resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure, and expansion of beef cattle and mutton sheep breeding herds. Cultivating growth points, achieving new breakthroughs in financial and insurance support for agriculture, with various financial support-agriculture pilot experiments gradually unfolding. Promoting income growth, striving to increase support for farmers' income, and taking multiple measures to promote farmers' employment and income.
——Stabilizing and developing grain production. Persisting in strengthening infrastructure construction, launching the construction of a number of high-standard farmland fields with guaranteed yields despite drought or excessive rain, and implementing farmland protection and quality improvement projects. Persisting in focusing on major grain-producing counties, key areas and major varieties, holding 492 on-site training sessions in national major grain-producing counties, and deploying supervision and guidance by region and guidance services by crop. Persisting in scientifically responding to severe natural disasters, making every effort to tackle yield-increasing model research, and further raising the level of high-yield creation.
——Ensuring the production and supply of "shopping basket" products. Promoting large-scale and standardized production of horticultural crops, doing a good job in pilot projects for winter facility vegetable development in northern cities, and achieving "double increases" in the area and output of vegetables and fruits. Promoting the transformation and upgrading of the livestock industry, guiding the development of large-scale and standardized breeding, and deeply implementing the national beef and mutton production development plan. Strengthening ecological protection of fishery waters, carrying out actions to clean up and rectify "root-and-branch nets," and advancing modern fishery construction.
——Strengthening support from science and technology, equipment and talent. It is estimated that this year the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress will reach 56%, and the comprehensive mechanization level of crop cultivation, planting and harvesting will exceed 61%. Strengthening the guidance of scientific and technological innovation, accelerating the construction of a new mechanism for modern seed industry development, and creating a new mechanism for joint research on improved varieties by industry, academia and research. Accelerating the development of agricultural mechanization, and vigorously tackling mechanization in weak links such as rapeseed, cotton and sugarcane. Accelerating the advancement of information into villages and households, implementing the national Internet of Things application demonstration project, and building a number of comprehensive information service platforms for "agriculture, rural areas and farmers." Launching the new-type professional farmer cultivation project, cultivating more than 1 million new-type professional farmers throughout the year; promoting the construction of the rural practical talent team, and recruiting more than 10,000 special-post agricultural technicians in 13 provinces.
——Strengthening supervision of agricultural product quality and safety and prevention and control of animal epidemics. Throughout the year, the monitoring pass rates of vegetables, livestock and poultry products, and aquatic products reached 96.3%, 99.2% and 93.6% respectively, generally maintaining a relatively high level, and the animal epidemic situation was generally stable. Vigorously grasping supervision of agricultural product quality and safety, governing the agricultural ecological environment, and strengthening prevention and control of animal epidemics,.
——Doing a good job in implementing rural reform tasks. Steadily advancing the pilot work on confirmation, registration and certification of land contractual management rights, which currently covers an area of 330 million mu. Cultivating new-type agricultural management entities; as of the end of November, there were 877,000 family farms, 1.267 million farmers' cooperatives and more than 120,000 leading enterprises nationwide. Actively participating in the pilot work on target price reform for soybeans in Northeast China and cotton in Xinjiang, promoting rural financial reform experiments, and cooperating in carrying out pilot mortgage loans on rural land contractual management rights. Holding training sessions for national modern agriculture demonstration areas, and launching the second batch of reform pilot areas and pilot tasks. Studying and advancing agricultural reclamation reform, innovating systems and mechanisms, and building large modern agricultural enterprise groups.