New Thinking Needed for Supporting New-Type Agricultural Operating Entities

In recent years, China's distinctive new-type agricultural operating entities have grown vigorously, becoming one of the most striking phenomena in the transformation of agricultural development modes. However, with economic development, in the field of agricultural production, the development of new-type agricultural operating entities faces a series of new difficulties, and there is an urgent need for innovative thinking to better support the development of new-type agricultural operating entities through strengthening policy support, innovating subsidy methods, and other measures.

Developing New-Type Agricultural Operating Entities Faces New Difficulties

⟦NL> With the continuous development of large-scale land management, new-type agricultural operating entities represented by specialized large households, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives have emerged vigorously in various places, laying a solid foundation for innovating the new-type agricultural operating system. However, in actual investigations, we have found that these agricultural operating entities currently face many problems in their development process, including significantly increased agricultural production and operation risks, relatively low management technology and levels, and the rapidly emerging inadaptability of the existing agricultural productive service system.

First, agricultural production and operation risks have significantly increased. In recent years, extreme weather disasters in agriculture and major animal and plant epidemics have occurred frequently, and most of them have characteristics of strong suddenness, rapid spread, wide scope of impact, deep degree of harm, and even multiple disasters occurring concurrently. With the expansion of international trade in agricultural products(12.75, 0.60, 4.94%), the increasing attention of domestic and international consumers to food safety, and the continuous strengthening of green barriers in international trade, the impact of international trade frictions and food safety incidents on agricultural product markets has deepened significantly. Therefore, the natural risks and market risks faced by agricultural operating entities have generally expanded. Compared with ordinary farmers, new-type agricultural operating entities, due to their larger scale of agricultural production and operation and their relatively higher levels of specialization, scale, and intensification, face significantly increased natural and market risks in their agricultural operations, and may even find it difficult to effectively disperse agricultural production and operation risks through the diversification of agricultural production and operation as ordinary farmers do. On the other hand, in recent years, much industrial and commercial capital has invested in agricultural production, often investing large amounts of funds from the initial stage in agricultural infrastructure, seedlings, labor, land transfer, and other aspects. However, in recent years, the prices of many agricultural products in China have experienced increased fluctuations or frequency, and coupled with the relatively rapid rise in the costs of land transfer, labor, and agricultural machinery, some new-type agricultural operating entities, after their investments reached production, encountered sharp declines in agricultural product prices, suffered heavy losses, and faced a sudden increase in the difficulty of investment recovery. Compared with farmers' cooperatives, large farming and breeding households, and family farms, such corporate farms formed by industrial and commercial capital investing in agricultural production mostly have larger agricultural operating scales and lack agricultural technology and production management experience, further intensifying their agricultural production and operation risks.

Second, the inadaptability of the existing agricultural productive service system has rapidly become prominent. Compared with ordinary farmers, the development of specialization, scale, and intensification has, on the one hand, raised new and higher-level requirements for the scientific and technological innovation and achievement transformation capabilities of new-type agricultural operating entities; on the other hand, it has also led to a significant increase in the inadaptability of the traditional county, township, and village agricultural technology extension system to improving the scientific and technological innovation and achievement transformation capabilities of new-type agricultural operating entities. With the expansion of their operating fields, the demand of new-type agricultural operating entities for agricultural productive services has increasingly shifted from simple agricultural technology services to comprehensive services such as agricultural technology, agricultural machinery, information, marketing, management, agricultural input procurement, financial insurance, and agricultural product preservation and storage-transport services, requiring the diversification, specialization, and marketization of the agricultural productive service industry to adapt accordingly. But on the whole, the insufficient supply of diversified, specialized, and marketized agricultural productive services remains a prominent problem facing the current development of the agricultural productive service industry. For example, for new-type agricultural operating entities, merely relying on traditional demonstration-driven approaches is far from enough when providing technical services; they are more willing to become the “leaders” and “experimental fields” of scientific and technological innovation and achievement transformation. For new-type agricultural operating entities, a more effective training method may be personalized “presenting facts and reasoning things out.” For some new-type agricultural operating entities in the initial stage, nanny-style personalized services may be more welcome. For another example, many new-type agricultural operating entities want to expand and upgrade markets through methods such as building their own brands. But in reality, this “each fighting its own battle” approach to brand building is, to a large extent, a process of “attrition warfare” among new-type agricultural operating entities, with limited results. How to effectively integrate the process of each new-type agricultural operating entity building its own brand into a process of jointly building brands among new-type agricultural operating entities through effective services, the supply of related services in this regard remains severely lagging on the whole. How to better provide related services deserves our in-depth consideration.

Supporting the Development of New-Type Agricultural Operating Entities through Multiple Measures

At present and for some time to come, supporting the development of new-type agricultural operating entities requires new thinking and new breakthroughs.

First, strengthen and innovate policy support for new-type agricultural operating entities to enhance their risk resistance and sustainable development capabilities. New-type agricultural operating entities are the fresh force for building a new-type agricultural operating system and are also the pacemakers for ordinary farmers in transforming agricultural development modes. From the strategic height of building a new-type agricultural operating system and advancing the transformation of agricultural development modes, we should strengthen and innovate policy support for the development of new-type agricultural operating entities, and combine it with guiding new-type agricultural operating entities to enhance their risk resistance and sustainable development capabilities. In particular, we should combine support for regional advantageous and characteristic industries, focus on supporting new-type agricultural operating entities in playing a demonstration and driving role, and strengthen support in multiple aspects. For example, strengthen support for agricultural infrastructure construction to help new-type agricultural operating entities enhance their ability to resist natural risks and strengthen food safety; strengthen training by agricultural public service institutions for the leaders of new-type agricultural operating entities; guide new-type agricultural operating entities to strengthen alliances and cooperation, carry out brand creation, base or product certification, jointly build and share agricultural industry alliances or agricultural product marketing and promotion centers and joint procurement platforms for agricultural production materials, and explore paths for improving quality, increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and upgrading modern agriculture; guide relatively mature new-type agricultural operating entities to integrate into experimental and demonstration activities for the development of regional advantageous and characteristic agriculture, strengthen industry-university-research-application cooperation, and effectively connect with finance, insurance, agricultural machinery, agricultural technology, and other aspects, and so on.

Second, innovate subsidy methods for new-type agricultural operating entities and strengthen subsidies for agricultural productive services and insurance. The specialization, scale, and intensification of agricultural productive services are conducive to promoting the specialization, scale, and intensification of agricultural production and operation entities, helping new-type agricultural operating entities resolve “growing pains,” and creating conditions for new-type agricultural operating entities and new-type agricultural service entities to better obtain the “dividends” of division of labor and specialization. To support the innovative development of the agricultural productive service industry, it is recommended to implement a subsidy system for agricultural productive services. For example, by issuing agricultural productive service consumption vouchers to new-type agricultural operating entities and other methods, support market-oriented agricultural service organizations in cultivating markets and guide farmers or new-type agricultural operating entities to use market-oriented and socialized agricultural productive services. Agricultural insurance subsidies are fundamentally also a kind of agricultural productive service subsidy, an effective way to support the development of agricultural insurance and guide farmers to use agricultural insurance services, and can help new-type agricultural operating entities partially resolve agricultural production and operation risks. The intensity of agricultural insurance subsidies, especially catastrophe insurance subsidies, should be strengthened. It is worth noting that, as far as the needs of new-type agricultural operating entities are concerned, the focus and main growth point of future demand for agricultural productive services should be market-oriented agricultural productive services. Therefore, in the future, while continuing to implement the current agricultural productive service subsidy policies, support for the initial stage of market-oriented agricultural productive services should be increased, guiding them to enhance their self-development and sustainable development capabilities. It is recommended that in the future the implementation of agricultural productive service subsidy policies be further strengthened, and while increasing investment, combined with carrying out related service consumption demonstration activities, increase the tilt of agricultural productive service subsidies toward new-type agricultural operating entities. By giving play to the demonstration and driving role of new-type agricultural operating entities in the consumption of agricultural productive services, enhance the radiating and driving function of new-type agricultural operating entities for ordinary farmers in transforming agricultural development modes.

At the same time, conforming to the trend of rural land transfer, the separation of farmers' land contract rights and land operating rights has become the general trend. Strengthening the protection of land operating rights is an objective requirement for promoting the sustainable development of new-type agricultural operating entities. In this process, legislation on the protection of agricultural operating rights should be strengthened, and the support priorities for new-type agricultural operating entities should be clarified, so as to better guide them in effectively protecting their own rights and interests.