Research on the Problems and Countermeasures of Increasing Farmers' Income in Ecological Conservation Areas
Miyun County is located in the mountainous area of northern Beijing. It is an important drinking water source and ecological conservation development area for Beijing, with abundant natural resources and a beautiful ecological environment. It has long been known as the capital's back garden and is a key region for ensuring the sustainable economic and social development of Beijing. However, influenced by traditional development concepts, the local phenomenon of economic development and ecological environment being “inversely related” is very prominent. The gap between the county and the plains areas in economic and social development and infrastructure construction is obvious, and increasing farmers' income remains an arduous task. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the income of rural residents in Miyun County was only about 1/3 of the income of urban residents in Beijing. How can the development dilemma of ecological conservation areas be overcome and farmers' income be promoted to grow steadily while protecting the ecology?
Gaoling Town is located in the northern part of Miyun County, and mountainous areas account for 80% of the town's total area. Because it is located in a mountainous area, agriculture there does not have the conditions for large-scale development. The crops are mainly wheat and corn, and the town's specialties include Chinese chestnuts, honey and red apricots. Recently, the author conducted a survey in Gaoling Town, Miyun County. Based on its own resource endowments and centering on ecological protection and increasing farmers' income, the town followed the approach of adjusting structure, expanding scale, strengthening science and technology, emphasizing infrastructure, expanding markets and optimizing mechanisms. Focusing on green and organic agriculture development, appropriately scaled operations, scientific and technological innovation and farmer training, infrastructure construction, market informatization, and institutional and mechanism innovation, it has embarked on a win-win path of agricultural economic development that “promotes income growth and protects the ecology,” providing a typical model for agricultural development and increasing farmers' income in ecological conservation areas.
Adjust the structure and develop green and organic agriculture. For increasing farmers' income in ecological conservation development areas, in addition to relying on the government's ecological compensation policies and increased public financial investment, the adjustment and upgrading of the industrial structure remains the fundamental path. With the improvement of people's living standards and the upgrading of the consumption structure, the requirements for agricultural product quality and safety are becoming higher and higher, and the demand for green and organic agricultural products is growing. Gaoling Town fully leverages its ecological environment advantages, accelerates agricultural structural adjustment, focuses on the green brand, seeks products from the ecology and seeks value from the ecology. To meet the demand of local consumers and consumers in Beijing's urban areas for green and organic vegetables, it vigorously develops facility agriculture. At present, the town has built 970 facility agriculture greenhouses, covering an area of more than 1,600 mu, with a utilization rate of more than 95%. Production bases for edible fungi, tomatoes, pumpkins, eggplants and other products have begun to take shape, forming a distinctive micro-industrial belt. In the development of facility agriculture, green food and organic food certification is widely carried out to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products. The ecological environment is both a social resource and an economic resource. Miyun County is not only the ecological barrier of the capital Beijing, but also a natural treasure for citizens to relax, take vacations, return to nature and engage in cultural and recreational activities. Gaoling Town actively uses the ecological environment to develop the leisure industry, expand the multiple functions of agriculture, broaden the channels for increasing farmers' income, develop green breeding, specialty forest fruits, leisure fisheries, rural tourism and other industries, accelerate the transformation of traditional agriculture into ecological leisure tourism, extend the agricultural industry chain, increase the added value of agricultural products, and effectively transform ecological advantages into farmers' income, realizing “letting the people become rich because of the ecology.”
Expand scale and promote appropriately scaled operations. Gaoling Town has on average less than 3 mu of cultivated land per household, with many people and little land. The contradiction between people and land is prominent, and the efficiency of traditional agricultural production is low. To improve agricultural production efficiency, the town actively promotes appropriately scaled operations on the premise of respecting farmers' interests. Through policy guidance and incentive measures, the town government supports some scaled agricultural operation projects. Scaled operations reduce farmers' production and operation costs and have become an effective way to promote local farmers' income growth and advance modern agricultural development. To improve farmers' degree of organization and create conditions for scaled operations, Gaoling Town actively promotes the development of farmers' cooperatives. At present, there are already 71 specialized agricultural cooperative economic organizations, basically covering all villages in the town area.
Strengthen science and technology and attach importance to technology extension, innovation and farmer training. Science and technology are the driving force for agricultural development and increasing farmers' income. Gaoling Town adheres to “relying on itself while borrowing external expertise” and always pays attention to building the local scientific and technological support system and service platform. It makes full use of Beijing's advantage of dense scientific and technological talent resources, strengthens cooperation with relevant research institutes and science and technology extension departments, and from time to time hires experts and agricultural professional technicians to hold training courses on Chinese chestnuts, waxy corn, beekeeping and so on. At the same time, it pays attention to strengthening agricultural science and technology extension training, takes new-type farmer training as a starting point, continuously improves the extension mechanism, and actively seeks relevant scientific and technological, talent and information support. At present, the town's agricultural science and technology extension team is stable and efficient, with 3 agricultural technology extension service institutions, 19 agricultural technology extension service personnel and 13 agricultural technical support personnel. More than 500 people participate in employment skills training throughout the year. Practice has proved that various forms of science and technology extension and skills training have effectively improved the scientific, cultural and production and operation capabilities of the town's farmers, and have played an important role in cultivating new-type farmers and rural practical talents who are educated, understand technology and know how to manage.
Emphasize infrastructure and improve infrastructure construction. Agriculture is a weak industry, and the situation of relying on the weather for food must be changed by improving infrastructure. Ten water conservancy projects for enriching the people were implemented, and construction was carried out in areas such as drinking water relief, water-saving irrigation, river channel cleanup, comprehensive control of soil erosion and first-class surface water protection zones. While “conserving water” and “protecting water,” this provided important support for agricultural development. A 5,000-mu comprehensive agricultural development project was implemented, farmland infrastructure construction was actively promoted, field roads were repaired, and villagers' agricultural production conditions were continuously improved. The town is located in a remote area. To solve the travel problem of large transport vehicles and promote agricultural product sales and market development, the town adopted the method of jointly funding with other neighboring towns and unified planning to achieve interconnection of major transport trunk roads and optimization of the road network, thoroughly improving road conditions and facilitating local residents' lives. More importantly, it connected the town with the markets of Beijing and Hebei into a whole, accelerating resource flow and commodity exchange.
⟦NL> Expand markets and give play to the role of new online media platforms. Gaoling Town is located in a mountainous area and is at a disadvantage compared with information-developed urban areas in obtaining information. In response to this situation, the town government established an internet system covering the entire town, fully leveraging the role of the internet to help farmers obtain necessary information on policies, science and technology, markets, employment and other aspects. This helps farmers arrange production and operations according to market demand, reducing the blindness of agricultural production and lowering the sales cost of agricultural products. It resolves the contradiction between dispersed smallholder production and the unified large market and improves farmers' production and operation efficiency. To strengthen market construction and promote the development of the town's commodity economy, Gaoling Town built its largest farmers' market, which strongly promoted the development of local commercial trade and became an important driving force for local industrial structural adjustment.
Optimize mechanisms and inject new vitality into increasing farmers' income. To make up for the shortage of funds, the town established a diversified investment mechanism guided by the government, promoted by the market and participated in by the public. On the one hand, it actively gave play to the guiding role of state investment. On the other hand, it fully used market mechanisms to guide various types of social funds into local agricultural development and participate in the construction of the ecological conservation development area in various forms. In project selection, with the goals of rational layout, industry friendliness, prominent leading sectors, and conservation and efficiency, it unswervingly adhered to “introducing strong enterprises to strengthen the county.” According to the principle of “do not let polluting enterprises in, and do not let enterprises that come in pollute,” it vigorously developed a circular economy, introduced and developed eco-friendly industry with high scientific and technological content, more labor employment, large fiscal contributions and no pollution, and focused on building an ecological industrial development base, promoting farmers' income growth by invigorating the economy and realizing green development. After projects settled in, the local government, by continuously improving service mechanisms and optimizing the service environment, promptly accepted and handled various difficulties and problems encountered by outside enterprises in production and operation, realized continuous improvement of the soft investment environment, and helped enterprises entering the zone become stronger and larger.
By developing environment-friendly industries, Gaoling Town in Miyun County transformed ecological advantages into development advantages and realized the unity of the ecological environment function and the industrial economic function of the ecological conservation area, playing a positive role in promoting local agricultural development, rural prosperity and farmers' income growth. Farmers' planting and breeding capabilities have been greatly enhanced, and planting and breeding benefits have improved markedly. As of 2013, 949 households with 2,636 people in the town's 7 low-income villages had been lifted out of poverty, cumulatively eliminating 58% of low-income households, with a poverty alleviation rate of 70%; per capita income increased by 13%, with the growth rate higher than the county average for 5 consecutive years, and the trend of narrowing the income gap with Beijing's urban residents has become increasingly obvious. Gaoling Town's agricultural development practice has provided a typical model for increasing farmers' income in other ecological conservation areas across the country.