Notable progress achieved in transforming the growth model and raising the quality of agricultural mechanization
This website reports Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture has fully implemented the spirit of the Central Rural Work Conference and the National Agricultural Work Conference, taking the transformation of the agricultural mechanization development model and the improvement of development quality as the main thrust, and striving to promote the “comprehensive, whole-process, high-quality and high-efficiency” development of agricultural mechanization.
The agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy was implemented efficiently and in a standardized manner.
First, the “full-price machine purchase” was fully implemented. This year, except for Beijing, Tibet and some bureau administration areas of the Heilongjiang reclamation region, all other provinces have implemented “full-price machine purchase, fixed-quota subsidy, county-level settlement, and direct subsidy to card.”
Second, highlight key points and advance the universal benefit system of the policy. A total of 21 provinces nationwide selected some urgently needed machinery for open subsidies.
Third, implement streamlined administration and delegated power, and advance market-oriented reform. It was further clarified that agricultural machinery manufacturers independently set the qualification conditions for dealers and determine dealers, farmers independently choose agricultural machinery sellers and independently negotiate prices, and cross-county machine purchases are allowed.
Fourth, simplify procedures to facilitate farmers. In some provinces, pilot programs were carried out for farmers to purchase machines first and apply for subsidies afterward, and one-stop services such as machine purchase applications and subsidy applications at large agricultural machinery markets were promoted.
Fifth, strengthen supervision and seriously handle violations of regulations and discipline. Specific requirements were clarified for the disclosure of subsidy policy information at the ministry, provincial, county, township and village levels. Through special inspections and the acceptance of complaints and reports, investigation and handling efforts were intensified. As of June 30, a total of 5.96 billion yuan in central government agricultural machinery purchase subsidy funds had been paid nationwide, subsidizing 1.105 million units (sets) of agricultural machinery and benefiting 970,000 farming households.
Agricultural mechanization production during important farming seasons was vigorous and orderly. During spring plowing, a total of 24.34 million units (sets) of agricultural machinery were put into spring mechanized production operations such as mechanized plowing, wheat watering, mechanized sowing and mechanized rice transplanting nationwide, completing a mechanized plowing area of 680 million mu, an increase of 10 million mu over the previous year, and completing a mechanized sowing area of 576 million mu. During the “three summer” period, a total of 550,000 harvesting machines were put into use nationwide, completing a mechanized wheat harvest area of 287 million mu, with the mechanized harvest level reaching 92%, an increase of 1 percentage point year-on-year; the “mechanized wheat harvest—straw return—no-till corn sowing” one-stop operation model was vigorously promoted; in the Huang-Huai-Hai summer corn region, 1.1 million seeders were put into use, completing 142 million mu of mechanized summer corn sowing. Agricultural machinery professional cooperatives became the main force in the wheat harvest; the overall peak of the national wheat harvest shifted earlier, and the time when the wheat harvest basically ended was 4-5 days earlier than the same period last year.
New progress was made in the whole-process mechanization of grain production and the mechanization of weak links in the production of major cash crops. Giving play to the guiding role of central government funds, 19 pilot counties for whole-process mechanization of rice and 8 for corn were established nationwide. Jointly with relevant scientific research and extension institutions, demonstrations of whole-process mechanized high-yield and high-efficiency production models for major cash crops were carried out, and whole-process mechanized production demonstration plots focusing on mechanized harvesting of rapeseed, cotton, sugarcane and peanuts were established nationwide, carrying out related experimental and demonstration work such as variety breeding, machinery selection and supporting cultivation methods, and focusing on overcoming related technical difficulties. In the first half of the year, more than nearly 20,000 various on-site meetings and training classes on agricultural mechanization technology were held nationwide, and 16 million copies of various technical publicity materials were distributed. A cumulative additional area of 120 million mu was placed under various new agricultural mechanization technologies such as deep loosening and soil preparation and mechanized rice transplanting.