How can the difficult problem of agricultural structural adjustment be solved through supply-side reform?

Last year, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference made the major decision to advance supply-side structural reform. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "The characteristics of the new normal of our country's economic development have become more obvious. We must firm up confidence, strengthen our resolve, and unswervingly advance supply-side structural reform." Premier Li Keqiang clearly pointed out in this year's Government Work Report at the Two Sessions, "We must focus on resolving prominent contradictions and problems in key areas, accelerate the removal of institutional obstacles, and use supply-side structural reform to improve the quality and efficiency of the supply system." Advancing supply-side structural reform bears on our country's ability to maintain medium-to-high-speed growth and move toward the medium-to-high-end level, and bears on whether the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects can be smoothly realized. Modern agricultural development is the foundation for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and for national modernization, and is an important part of supply-side structural reform. Advancing agricultural supply-side structural reform is of great significance for optimizing the economic structure, stimulating development potential, promoting farmers' income growth, and enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of agriculture.

Take agricultural structural adjustment as the breakthrough point for agricultural supply-side reform

Advancing agricultural supply-side structural reform is a major measure for building modern agriculture and enhancing our country's agricultural competitiveness. Since the reform and opening up, and especially in recent years, our country's agricultural supply-side development has achieved notable successes and made important contributions to modern agricultural development and economic growth. However, judging from survey and research conditions, in some places, due to various reasons such as long-term historical accumulation, scarcity of agricultural resources, prominent contradictions in the supply-demand structure, and changes in domestic and international market environments, there are some problems in the agricultural supply side that urgently need to be solved. Although supply-side problems differ from region to region, the main ones are increasingly obvious constraints from the price ceiling and cost floor, weak capacity to adapt to medium-to-high-end consumption, declining comparative efficiency of agriculture, a not-high level of agricultural industrialization, relatively low agricultural competitiveness, and serious overdraft of resources and the environment.

Agricultural structural adjustment is an important task of agricultural supply-side structural reform. Comprehensive measures should be taken to solve the problems existing in the current agricultural structure, with efforts made to improve agricultural production efficiency, benefits, and quality, and to optimize the structure of agricultural products, the regional structure, the structure of the operating system, and the industrial structure. Some new types of agricultural business entities report that recent agricultural structural adjustment has, to varying degrees, brought burdens and impacts on supporting agricultural machinery, applied technology, facility investment, and income levels. Therefore, it is recommended to formulate policies and measures to promote and support agricultural structural adjustment, and to guide and support all localities in achieving breakthroughs in adjusting and optimizing agricultural layout and structure.

Vigorously advance the transformation and upgrading of the agricultural structure

Judging from conditions in some places, this round of agricultural structural adjustment is very different from the two previous rounds in the mid-1980s and the late 1990s. Those two rounds of structural adjustment mainly addressed shortages of some agricultural products and the problem of farmers' income hovering at a low point, while agricultural resource and ecological environment problems were not prominent. The problems to be solved by this round of agricultural structural adjustment are clearly different from those of the previous two rounds, and it is necessary to solve the problem of agricultural structural transformation and upgrading from an overall perspective and across the entire industrial chain.

Agricultural layout and structure are a large production and ecological system and network combining artificial and natural elements that covers most of our country's cultivated land. The new round of agricultural structural adjustment should use the five development concepts to clearly define positioning and goals, focus on transformation and upgrading, and solve prominent major problems. Measures such as formulating policies, optimizing layout, adjusting variety structure, improving farming systems, using resources intensively and economically, reducing chemical fertilizer and pesticide inputs, and restoring the ecological environment should be adopted to build the agricultural structure into an effective supply network for high-quality agricultural products, a guarantee network for employment and income growth, a network for urban-rural industrial integration, and a network for ecological and environmental development. The new round of agricultural structural adjustment must prevent homogeneity and convergence. It is necessary not only to consolidate the production function of agricultural products and expand the employment and income-growth function, but also to build the ecological protection and restoration function and cultivate new functions; it is necessary not only to extend the agricultural industrial chain, benefit chain, and value chain, but also to strengthen the agricultural ecological chain and environmental chain, so as to make the production function of the agricultural structure stronger, the quality function better, the income-growth function broader, and the ecological function more robust.

Proceed from reality and adapt measures to local conditions

To advance agricultural supply-side structural reform, we should proceed from regional characteristics, fully consider factors such as agricultural resources, climatic conditions, functional positioning, and business habits, and advance measures adapted to local conditions. On the premise of stabilizing grain production capacity, ensuring basic self-sufficiency in grains, absolute security of staple food rations, and promoting farmers' income growth, we should intensify agricultural structural adjustment, especially the adjustment of planting structure in major grain-producing areas, thereby improving benefits, increasing income, restoring ecology, protecting resources, improving supply, and satisfying consumption.

First, appropriately reduce corn planting area. In areas of Northeast China suitable for planting corn, corn planting should be appropriately reduced. The corn area in our country's "sickle bend" region, including the fourth, fifth, and sixth accumulated temperature zones of Heilongjiang, should be significantly reduced. Relevant experts believe that Heilongjiang is a superior production area for strong-gluten wheat in our country, and in the past it could not be developed because there were no fine strong-gluten wheat varieties and no leading processing enterprises. Now there are improved strong-gluten wheat varieties and the conditions for planting and development are in place. However, in the long run, our country's demand for corn will remain rigid. The recent backlog of inventories is mainly a price and quality problem, so a considerable scale of corn should still be maintained, and corn quality should be vigorously improved.

Second, implement a reasonable crop rotation system. The failure of some places to adhere to a reasonable crop rotation system is one of the prominent problems on the current agricultural supply side. The comprehensive effects of crop rotation in adjusting structure, reducing backlogs, increasing benefits, protecting cultivated land, preventing diseases, improving quality, and restoring ecology should be fully brought into play. For major crops in dryland agriculture, the rotation system should be restored and established. Relevant experts suggest that in Northeast China, corresponding rotation systems should be established according to different accumulated temperature zones, that the "high-protein food soybean - strong-gluten wheat - potato" rotation system of the mid-1990s should be restored in the "sickle bend" region, and that "corn - soybean - wheat" rotation or "corn - soybean" rotation should be implemented in corresponding agricultural areas. Corresponding policies and measures should be formulated to guide and support the implementation of the rotation system.

Third, increase the intensity of the "two transformations" of grain and other agricultural products. The "two transformations" refer to transformation through industrial processing and transformation through livestock digestion. At present, there is a source of grain but a lack of leading transformation enterprises. To adjust the agricultural structure, reduce backlogs, improve benefits, and promote income growth, it is urgent to accelerate the cultivation and construction of the "two transformations" system and improve the transformation capacity for grain and other agricultural products. In particular, the development of the agricultural product processing industry should be accelerated. To advance modern agricultural development, not only must the agricultural production stage be modernized, but the processing stage must also be modernized in step. If the modernization of the processing stage lags behind, it will inevitably lead to prominent problems such as backlogged inventories of agricultural products, rising costs, declining comparative benefits, and reduced adaptability to consumption. We should gradually transform raw material agriculture into processing agriculture, transform agricultural production into an agricultural industry, rely on the processing industry to connect agriculture, industry, and commerce, and realize the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. The transformation function of the livestock industry should be vigorously brought into play to transform grain and other agricultural products into meat, milk, and eggs.

Fourth, vigorously develop circular agriculture. Promote the circular and intensive use of agricultural resources and input factors within the planting industry, between planting and breeding, and between planting, breeding, and processing. In some paddy field areas in the south, the integrated application of three-party technologies - paddy field planting, aquaculture, and field engineering - has produced very good results. It is recommended that suitable areas vigorously develop an ecological planting and breeding model of "combining planting and breeding, dual production from one land parcel, dual use of one water body, and green circulation."

Fifth, increase the scientific and technological content of the agricultural structure. Research, develop, and apply fine varieties, do a good job in farming technology innovation, and develop the production of high-quality agricultural products. Integrate modern information technologies such as the Internet and big data into the agricultural supply side, and establish an effective scientific and technological support system.

Sixth, establish and improve the quality standard system for agricultural products. Agricultural structure and agricultural product production should further strengthen standard constraints and norms. Standard formulation and revision should be strengthened, and standards should be used to promote and upgrade the agricultural structure and layout.