Agricultural reclamation reform to launch at the end of the month, 75 billion yuan in assets awaiting separation from social functions
Jiang Yunzhang. An agricultural reclamation reform aimed at building an international grain giant is unfolding. Economic Observer has learned exclusively that at the end of October, the Ministry of Agriculture will lead the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Center of the State Council and others in jointly convening a large
Jiang Yunzhang
An agricultural reclamation reform aimed at “building an international grain giant” is unfolding.
Economic Observer has learned exclusively that at the end of October, the Ministry of Agriculture will lead the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Center of the State Council and others in jointly convening a large conference on the theme of agricultural reclamation reform. While accepting reform opinions and suggestions from other ministries and commissions, the Ministry of Agriculture will deploy an in-depth reform within the national agricultural reclamation system.
At present, the national agricultural reclamation system has more than 3,200 state-owned and state-holding enterprises, and the total value of state-owned assets, not including land, is as high as more than 750 billion yuan. Compared with the overall agricultural reform and state-owned enterprise reform, agricultural reclamation reform is clearly lagging behind. The farms under agricultural reclamation not only have agricultural reclamation workers engaged in production, but also have schools, hospitals, and even institutions such as police stations.
An informed expert from the Ministry of Agriculture said that the next step in advancing agricultural reclamation reform is to separate the social functions of farms such as medical health, culture and education, and community management, and transfer them to the government departments of the localities where the farms are located, so that agricultural reclamation can focus on agricultural production and safeguard national food security.
At present, the Ministry of Agriculture has already formulated an agricultural reclamation reform plan. The specific development path is to focus on three major agricultural strategic industries, namely grain, natural rubber, and the dairy industry, and to explore a plan for cultivating an international grain giant. The development goal is that by 2020, the annual commercial grain produced on agricultural reclamation land should reach 100 billion jin, meeting about 35% of the ration needs of the domestic urban population, and at the same time, cultivating 2 to 3 agricultural enterprise groups to enter the Fortune Global 500.
Deploying reform
Data shows that at present the national agricultural reclamation system has a total of 34 reclamation areas, more than 2,000 state-owned farms, and 91.86 million mu of cultivated land. Agricultural reclamation cultivated land accounts for about 4.5% of the country's total cultivated land area. Last year, the total grain output of national agricultural reclamation was 68.8 billion jin, which, calculated out, accounted for 5.7% of the country's total grain output that year.
Xu Xiaoqing, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, told Economic Observer that although agricultural reclamation's share appears small in terms of both cultivated land area and grain output, 90% of the grain produced by agricultural reclamation is commercial grain, and the vast majority is ration grain, specifically japonica rice of relatively good quality, which plays a certain role in stabilizing the domestic rice market price.
The agricultural reclamation system is a product of a specific historical period. Since the founding of New China in 1949, the Chinese government began establishing state-owned farms in border areas and in various provinces, thus forming an agricultural reclamation management system that combined operational functions with social functions. After “collective ownership of land and household contract management” were universally implemented in rural areas across the country, the agricultural reclamation system formed another independent and quite enormous state-owned farm system.
According to the above-mentioned expert from the Ministry of Agriculture, the national agricultural reclamation system now has more than 3,200 state-owned and state-holding enterprises. Not including resource-based assets such as land, the assets of these state-owned enterprises are also as high as more than 750 billion yuan. At present, while the State Council is vigorously advancing mixed-ownership reform of state-owned enterprises, it is also extremely concerned about agricultural reclamation reform.
In May of this year, accompanied by Chen Xiwen, deputy head and director of the office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, Bi Jingquan, deputy secretary-general of the State Council, Lin Nianxiu, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, and Yu Xinrong, vice minister of agriculture, Vice Premier Wang Yang of the State Council conducted a survey in Guangxi on the issue of agricultural reclamation reform and development, emphasizing the need to improve the agricultural reclamation management system, operating system, and operating mechanisms, and to cultivate large agricultural reclamation enterprise groups.
Following the instructions of the State Council leadership, since July, led by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Central Rural Work Leading Group Office, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Land and Resources and other ministries and commissions have jointly formed 8 agricultural reclamation reform working groups and launched research on major issues in agricultural reclamation and the drafting of documents. At present, the Ministry of Agriculture has already formulated an agricultural reclamation reform plan. The basic goal is to gradually separate social functions, let agricultural reclamation focus on production, build an international grain giant, and strive for 2 to 3 agricultural enterprise groups in national agricultural reclamation to enter the Fortune Global 500 by 2020, with 5 to 10 agricultural enterprise groups having annual total operating revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan.
At the agricultural reclamation reform conference to be held at the end of this month, the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Center of the State Council and other departments, while deploying reform in the national agricultural reclamation system, will promote the introduction of a series of policy documents on agricultural reclamation reform.
The “going global” strategy
In recent years, the pace of Chinese agriculture “going global” has been accelerating, and among this, the overall scale of agricultural reclamation agriculture “going global” is clearly in the position of a “pathbreaker.” In this deployment of agricultural reclamation reform by the Ministry of Agriculture, agriculture “going global” is also an important part.
According to Wang Shoucong, director of the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, as of 2013, the national agricultural reclamation overseas planting area had grown to 4 million mu, with crop varieties covering major domestic agricultural products such as grain, oilseeds, sugar crops, natural rubber, and livestock and poultry, and the business scope of enterprises involving all industrial links such as agricultural production, agricultural product processing, and trade. Last year alone, overseas agricultural reclamation enterprises achieved an output value of 19.4 billion yuan and profits of 1.87 billion yuan.
The Heilongjiang Agricultural Reclamation General Bureau is the country's largest commercial grain production base directly under the central government. In terms of agriculture “going global,” Heilongjiang has grain cultivation in Russia, Brazil, the Philippines and other countries and regions. At present, its planted land area in Russia is 1.5 million mu, with total investment exceeding 23.59 million US dollars. According to analysis by Qu Wei, former president and researcher of the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, Heilongjiang is expected to have the potential to lease and contract 30 million to 50 million mu of idle cultivated land in the Russian Far East, which could build a world grain strategic reserve base with an annual output of about 30 billion jin.
Regarding the plan for agriculture “going global,” the short-term goal of the Heilongjiang Agricultural Reclamation General Bureau is that by 2015, it will build “extraterritorial reclamation areas” for grain cultivation, livestock breeding, timber harvesting and the like in Russia, Brazil, the Philippines and other countries and regions exceeding 40 million mu. Going forward, the pace of Heilongjiang agricultural reclamation “going global” will be even faster.
Among several major agricultural reclamation systems in China, Hainan agricultural reclamation is also relatively fast in “going global.” As early as 2009, Hainan agricultural reclamation separately established trading companies in Singapore and established trade cooperation relationships with rubber production enterprises in major Southeast Asian rubber-producing countries, thereby enhancing its ability to control rubber resources outside the island through trade. Hainan Agricultural Reclamation's subordinate China Hainan Rubber Industry Group, China's largest natural rubber manufacturing enterprise, also has plans for recent development abroad. By 2015, the group will have overseas production and processing capacity reaching more than 600,000 tons.
According to Wang Shoucong's forecast, given the current momentum of development, in the coming years China's agricultural reclamation will gradually form globally an integrated industrial pattern linking inside and outside, connecting production and sales, complementing advantages, and mutually promoting one another.
An agricultural reclamation reform aimed at “building an international grain giant” is unfolding.
Economic Observer has learned exclusively that at the end of October, the Ministry of Agriculture will lead the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Center of the State Council and others in jointly convening a large conference on the theme of agricultural reclamation reform. While accepting reform opinions and suggestions from other ministries and commissions, the Ministry of Agriculture will deploy an in-depth reform within the national agricultural reclamation system.
At present, the national agricultural reclamation system has more than 3,200 state-owned and state-holding enterprises, and the total value of state-owned assets, not including land, is as high as more than 750 billion yuan. Compared with the overall agricultural reform and state-owned enterprise reform, agricultural reclamation reform is clearly lagging behind. The farms under agricultural reclamation not only have agricultural reclamation workers engaged in production, but also have schools, hospitals, and even institutions such as police stations.
An informed expert from the Ministry of Agriculture said that the next step in advancing agricultural reclamation reform is to separate the social functions of farms such as medical health, culture and education, and community management, and transfer them to the government departments of the localities where the farms are located, so that agricultural reclamation can focus on agricultural production and safeguard national food security.
At present, the Ministry of Agriculture has already formulated an agricultural reclamation reform plan. The specific development path is to focus on three major agricultural strategic industries, namely grain, natural rubber, and the dairy industry, and to explore a plan for cultivating an international grain giant. The development goal is that by 2020, the annual commercial grain produced on agricultural reclamation land should reach 100 billion jin, meeting about 35% of the ration needs of the domestic urban population, and at the same time, cultivating 2 to 3 agricultural enterprise groups to enter the Fortune Global 500.
Deploying reform
Data shows that at present the national agricultural reclamation system has a total of 34 reclamation areas, more than 2,000 state-owned farms, and 91.86 million mu of cultivated land. Agricultural reclamation cultivated land accounts for about 4.5% of the country's total cultivated land area. Last year, the total grain output of national agricultural reclamation was 68.8 billion jin, which, calculated out, accounted for 5.7% of the country's total grain output that year.
Xu Xiaoqing, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, told Economic Observer that although agricultural reclamation's share appears small in terms of both cultivated land area and grain output, 90% of the grain produced by agricultural reclamation is commercial grain, and the vast majority is ration grain, specifically japonica rice of relatively good quality, which plays a certain role in stabilizing the domestic rice market price.
The agricultural reclamation system is a product of a specific historical period. Since the founding of New China in 1949, the Chinese government began establishing state-owned farms in border areas and in various provinces, thus forming an agricultural reclamation management system that combined operational functions with social functions. After “collective ownership of land and household contract management” were universally implemented in rural areas across the country, the agricultural reclamation system formed another independent and quite enormous state-owned farm system.
According to the above-mentioned expert from the Ministry of Agriculture, the national agricultural reclamation system now has more than 3,200 state-owned and state-holding enterprises. Not including resource-based assets such as land, the assets of these state-owned enterprises are also as high as more than 750 billion yuan. At present, while the State Council is vigorously advancing mixed-ownership reform of state-owned enterprises, it is also extremely concerned about agricultural reclamation reform.
In May of this year, accompanied by Chen Xiwen, deputy head and director of the office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, Bi Jingquan, deputy secretary-general of the State Council, Lin Nianxiu, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, and Yu Xinrong, vice minister of agriculture, Vice Premier Wang Yang of the State Council conducted a survey in Guangxi on the issue of agricultural reclamation reform and development, emphasizing the need to improve the agricultural reclamation management system, operating system, and operating mechanisms, and to cultivate large agricultural reclamation enterprise groups.
Following the instructions of the State Council leadership, since July, led by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Central Rural Work Leading Group Office, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Land and Resources and other ministries and commissions have jointly formed 8 agricultural reclamation reform working groups and launched research on major issues in agricultural reclamation and the drafting of documents. At present, the Ministry of Agriculture has already formulated an agricultural reclamation reform plan. The basic goal is to gradually separate social functions, let agricultural reclamation focus on production, build an international grain giant, and strive for 2 to 3 agricultural enterprise groups in national agricultural reclamation to enter the Fortune Global 500 by 2020, with 5 to 10 agricultural enterprise groups having annual total operating revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan.
At the agricultural reclamation reform conference to be held at the end of this month, the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Center of the State Council and other departments, while deploying reform in the national agricultural reclamation system, will promote the introduction of a series of policy documents on agricultural reclamation reform.
The “going global” strategy
In recent years, the pace of Chinese agriculture “going global” has been accelerating, and among this, the overall scale of agricultural reclamation agriculture “going global” is clearly in the position of a “pathbreaker.” In this deployment of agricultural reclamation reform by the Ministry of Agriculture, agriculture “going global” is also an important part.
According to Wang Shoucong, director of the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, as of 2013, the national agricultural reclamation overseas planting area had grown to 4 million mu, with crop varieties covering major domestic agricultural products such as grain, oilseeds, sugar crops, natural rubber, and livestock and poultry, and the business scope of enterprises involving all industrial links such as agricultural production, agricultural product processing, and trade. Last year alone, overseas agricultural reclamation enterprises achieved an output value of 19.4 billion yuan and profits of 1.87 billion yuan.
The Heilongjiang Agricultural Reclamation General Bureau is the country's largest commercial grain production base directly under the central government. In terms of agriculture “going global,” Heilongjiang has grain cultivation in Russia, Brazil, the Philippines and other countries and regions. At present, its planted land area in Russia is 1.5 million mu, with total investment exceeding 23.59 million US dollars. According to analysis by Qu Wei, former president and researcher of the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, Heilongjiang is expected to have the potential to lease and contract 30 million to 50 million mu of idle cultivated land in the Russian Far East, which could build a world grain strategic reserve base with an annual output of about 30 billion jin.
Regarding the plan for agriculture “going global,” the short-term goal of the Heilongjiang Agricultural Reclamation General Bureau is that by 2015, it will build “extraterritorial reclamation areas” for grain cultivation, livestock breeding, timber harvesting and the like in Russia, Brazil, the Philippines and other countries and regions exceeding 40 million mu. Going forward, the pace of Heilongjiang agricultural reclamation “going global” will be even faster.
Among several major agricultural reclamation systems in China, Hainan agricultural reclamation is also relatively fast in “going global.” As early as 2009, Hainan agricultural reclamation separately established trading companies in Singapore and established trade cooperation relationships with rubber production enterprises in major Southeast Asian rubber-producing countries, thereby enhancing its ability to control rubber resources outside the island through trade. Hainan Agricultural Reclamation's subordinate China Hainan Rubber Industry Group, China's largest natural rubber manufacturing enterprise, also has plans for recent development abroad. By 2015, the group will have overseas production and processing capacity reaching more than 600,000 tons.
According to Wang Shoucong's forecast, given the current momentum of development, in the coming years China's agricultural reclamation will gradually form globally an integrated industrial pattern linking inside and outside, connecting production and sales, complementing advantages, and mutually promoting one another.