Important changes in the implementation of the agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy

Event: In the "Guiding Opinions on the Implementation of Agricultural Machinery Purchase Subsidies for 2015-2017" issued this year by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance, China's machine purchase subsidy policy has undergone many adjustments and innovations in terms of subsidy recipients, scope, and procedures. For example, subsidy recipients have expanded from “farmers and herdsmen, farm (forestry farm) employees, farmer cooperatives, and agricultural production and operation organizations engaged in agricultural machinery operations” to all individuals and organizations engaged in agricultural production; the scope of machinery eligible for central government financial subsidies has been reduced from 175 categories in 2014 to 137 categories, with subsidy categories concentrated on major crops such as grain, cotton, oil, and sugar; the subsidy procedures are simpler and information is more open, and on the premise of ensuring fund safety, procedures have been further simplified to reduce the number of trips farmers must make to apply. This year, the central government allocated 23.75 billion yuan in machine purchase subsidy funds, unchanged from last year.

Commentary: The 2015 agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy has undergone many important changes compared with before: preconditions such as promotion catalogs have been abolished; open subsidies are implemented for key categories, steadily advancing toward a universal benefit system; agricultural machinery authorities no longer compile and publish lists of subsidized product dealers and instead allow manufacturing enterprises to choose independently, among other changes. All of these have created conditions for better meeting the machine purchase needs of farmers and agricultural production and operation organizations, and have also enabled them to enjoy the policy dividends more fairly. In addition, unlike the past practice of adjusting the machine purchase subsidy policy every year, this year's machine purchase subsidy policy clearly defines a time period, namely remaining stable for three years. Undoubtedly, machine purchase subsidies remain the most important driving factor behind China's agricultural machinery industry's more than ten years of golden development, and remain the primary force keeping the agricultural machinery market active.