How can food security be guaranteed? Deepening institutional reform is the key
"Our country's agriculture faces many complex problems, but we must proceed from reality and rely on our own strength to seriously study and resolve them." On November 22, while attending the "China Economic Security Forum" and the 60th anniversary celebration of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, Chen Xiwen, an alumnus of Renmin University and deputy head and director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Rural Work, said that our country's grain output has increased for consecutive years, but at the same time it faces many complex and profound problems, and it is necessary to prudently study the new problems and new challenges that arise along with economic development.
The 60th anniversary celebration of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China was held in the form of co-hosting the fifth "China Economic Security Forum" together with the Social Sciences Development Research Center of the Ministry of Education's Higher Education Institutions. The forum took "the current situation, challenges and countermeasures of our country's food security under the new circumstances" as its theme. Chen Xiwen pointed out at the forum that the "ceiling effect" of international grain prices and the "floor effect" of persistently high domestic grain production costs will cause the space for using agricultural subsidy policy measures to guarantee food security to be continuously compressed, and the pressure will grow greater and greater. In addition, the deterioration of the environment and ecology, the continuous reduction of the agricultural labor force, and the uncertain impact of the new normal of the economy on agricultural production all constitute challenges to food security.
In order to respond to these challenges, Chen Xiwen believes it is necessary to deepen institutional reform and give full play to the market-regulating role of the price mechanism, while at the same time, in the methods of subsidies, fully considering the influence of the land transfer factor and carrying out clearer definitions and detailed regulations, so as to protect the enthusiasm of grain producers. In addition, it is also necessary to speed up the innovation of the agricultural operation system and the reform of the incentive mechanism for agricultural scientific research.
The topics of this forum included the current situation and challenges of our country's food security, the formation and regulation mechanism of grain prices, and strategic choices for food security under the background of major issues such as comprehensively deepening reform, accelerating agricultural modernization, new urbanization, land transfer and international agricultural trade. In addition to Chen Xiwen, Cai Fang, a 1978-level alumnus of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Renmin University, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the Academic Divisions, and Gu Yikang, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government and head of the "Three Rural Issues" Development Group, also delivered main reports at the conference, and experts from the Central Policy Research Office, the Research Office of the State Council, the Academy of Macroeconomic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, China Agricultural University and other institutions held lively discussions around the above topics.
During the forum, the first "China Agricultural Industry and Economy 30-Person Forum" and the China Agricultural Industry Sustainable Development Forum, as well as the second Beijing Young Agricultural Economics Scholars Forum, were also held.
Since the establishment of the original Department of Agricultural Economics in 1954, the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China has always been the most influential academic department for research on "Three Rural Issues" among comprehensive universities nationwide, cultivating a large number of "Three Rural Issues" talents and offering suggestions and strategies for the country's "Three Rural Issues" development.