How to Advance the Transformation and Upgrading of Agricultural Industrialization
Activating the endogenous momentum of agricultural industrialization, promoting the optimization of the rural economic structure, industrial transformation and upgrading, and sustained increases in farmers' incomes are the "key lever" of rural work under the new normal, and must be placed in an important position to play a leading role.
Agricultural Industrialization Enters the New Normal
China's rural land system grants the vast number of farming households contracted management rights. The transformation of rural management methods has given farming households production autonomy, raised the level of productivity, enhanced the effective supply of agricultural products, and broadened the fields of farmers' employment. The rural labor force has extended from the primary industry to the derived secondary and tertiary industries, connecting the agricultural industry chain from the field to the dining table. As rural reform and opening up continue to deepen, agricultural industrialized operation is full of vitality and has powerfully driven the sustained, healthy and rapid development of the rural economy.
Anhui Province attaches great importance to and vigorously advances agricultural industrialization. By the end of 2015, the province's agricultural product processing value reached 915.15 billion yuan, more than 3 million migrant workers were engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries, 36.9% of farmers' income came from agricultural industrialization, 5,922 provincial-level leading enterprises were cultivated, 10 enterprises were listed, and 36 entered the international market. As a new type of business entity, leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization have promoted increases in farmers' incomes and the development of the agricultural economy, and accelerated the pace of building a moderately prosperous society.
Entering the new normal, agricultural industrialization faces new problems and new challenges. The growth rate of agricultural product processing value declined from consecutive increases to 25.1% in 2013, then fell to 15.6% in 2014, and was only 9.1% in 2015; as the scale of loss-making enterprises expanded, by 2015 loss-making enterprises accounted for nearly 20%; the import and export trade of agricultural products continued to run a deficit, with a trade deficit of 402 million US dollars in 2015.
Entering the new normal and facing new challenges, we must firm up confidence, focus on advancing supply-side structural reform, and stimulate innovative vitality for agricultural industrialization, so as to adapt to the new normal and create an upgraded version of agricultural industrialization transformation and upgrading.
Agricultural Industrialization Must Adapt to the New Normal
In the process of rural economic development, agricultural industrialization has played a huge leading role. Facing the new requirements put forward by rural economic development under the new normal, we need to broaden our horizons, reform and innovate, generate momentum, seek vitality, and drive development, so that agricultural industrialized operation contains vitality, is full of vigor, and fully plays its indispensable role as an organic carrier of rural economic development.
1. Consumption upgrading leads industrial upgrading. The prices of the same product in the market vary greatly; for example, rice can be more than 10 yuan per jin at the high end, 2 to 3 yuan for ordinary rice, and just over 1 yuan at the low end; livestock and poultry products of different varieties and qualities also differ markedly in price; dairy products, from ordinary fresh milk to those with added prebiotics, lactic acid bacteria and other microorganisms, are all more than twice the price of ordinary fresh milk.
2. New consumption gives rise to new business forms. The foods produced by Anhui Yanzhifang from five grains and miscellaneous cereals have adapted to the consumption patterns of many market groups, giving rise to a nationally renowned coarse grain processing enterprise; the tea gardens operated by Anhui Tianfang Tea Company are leased to urban residents at a price of 10,000 yuan per mu, enabling the enterprise to achieve low input and high income.
3. Product consumption extends to service consumption. At present, the service industry derived from the industry is full of vitality. For example, farmhouse leisure, leisure farms, holiday villages, and sightseeing tourism not only provide agricultural product consumption, but also extend services to composite services such as information, communications, transportation, culture, and health, and the level of service is gradually rising. Transforming the advantages of rural natural resources into tangible assets to be shared not only expands agricultural product consumption, but also provides increasingly novel service consumption.
4. Moving from homogeneous consumption for groups toward diversified, regionalized, and personalized services. This requires the supply level of agricultural industrialization to integrate with the upgrading of market demand. For example, with tea, southerners prefer green tea, northerners prefer black tea, high-income groups pursue famous teas and brands and pay attention to leaf shape and color, while middle- and low-income groups pursue aroma and taste.
5. Moving from meeting quantity demand toward improving quality and safety. Under the new normal, the production, processing, and circulation of agricultural products require organic, environmentally friendly, and green practices, placing the guarantee of product quality in a more prominent position and safeguarding consumers' demand for healthy food.
6. Agricultural product supply moves from domestic to international. Anhui Province has great space for expanding international agricultural cooperation, abundant resources, superior location, and strong complementarity in agricultural foreign cooperation. It is necessary to support and boost leading enterprises in going global, selling products abroad, and bringing in technology and talent.
7. Diversified business forms and moderate scale. Due to differences in entrepreneurs' qualities, environmental conditions, and stages of development, enterprise scale and organizational forms are diverse, including sole proprietorship, cooperation, consortiums, enterprise groups, and the introduction of foreign enterprises. This diversified team, with diverse business methods, differing business scales, and active business forms, is the new force in agricultural industrialized operation.
Accelerating the Transformation and Upgrading of Agricultural Industrialization
1. Advancing the reform of the grain industry. We should clearly see that under the new normal, we face a new situation of transition from insufficient grain production capacity supply to overcapacity, from industrial scale expansion to transformation and upgrading, from factor-driven to innovation-driven, and from increasing supply to structural reform. In order to undertake the new business forms of maintaining grain production capacity and improving grain efficiency, and the new requirements of increasing farmers' incomes, it is necessary to accelerate the structural reform of grain industrialization: first, gradually carry out fallow pilot projects, expand pasture area, and protect soil fertility; second, operate on a moderate scale, accelerate the advancement of agricultural modernization, and raise the level of land output; third, promote a new round of the grain science and technology revolution; fourth, introduce factory-style production methods and develop precise and efficient agriculture in greenhouses; fifth, extend the industrial chain, develop deep processing of grain, and accelerate the pace of a major grain province moving toward a province that enriches the people and strengthens the province; sixth, advance reform and innovation in modern agriculture demonstration zones, tap potential and increase efficiency to raise grain production capacity, and play an epoch-making leading role.
2. Accelerating the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Under the new normal, low-level repetitive construction and overcapacity exist in the agricultural industry, and structural overcapacity also exists in traditional industries such as tea, sericulture, fruits, vegetables, livestock and poultry, and aquatic products. It is necessary to accelerate enterprise transformation, product upgrading, and market development. Inject intelligent, personalized, and fashionable new consumption forms, activate the endogenous momentum of the industry, and accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading. Make full use of Anhui Province's advantageous location, abundant resource advantages, and good agricultural product quality to push new rural business organizations to leap from low-level competition to high-level competition, from product market surplus to mastering the market, satisfying supply, and innovating and upgrading demand.
3. Stimulating the multifunctionality of agricultural industrialization. Services can be provided in leisure vacations, tourism and sightseeing, culture and education, physical fitness, and farmhouse dining, allowing new supply to stimulate new consumption, enabling agricultural industrialization to make breakthroughs in understanding, innovate in practice, be reflected in results, and form a consensus in society.
4. Focusing on upgrading the consumption forms of agricultural products. From the practice of Hefei City in Anhui Province, the consumer markets of different groups are full of vitality. Yanzhifang's high-quality five grains and miscellaneous cereals, Zhanji Shishang's premium pastries, and Feixi old hen's rich and convenient fast food stand out among the rest in fierce market competition and are deeply welcomed by the market. Taiwan, China has carried out deep exploration of the tea industry, innovated demand, expanded the tea industry chain, and innovated the effective supply of the tea industry, which can be used for reference.
5. Taking big strides into the international market. International agricultural resources are abundant and the market is broad. At the present stage, Anhui Province has structural overcapacity in agricultural product supply, but the agricultural resources and agricultural product consumer markets of Africa, Russia, and the "Belt and Road" regions are hugely complementary to Anhui and can be mutually beneficial and shared. It is necessary to increase support; enterprises going global should enjoy the same domestic agricultural support policies; establish an exchange rate guarantee mechanism; reduce inspection and quarantine fees for exported agricultural products; arrange special fiscal funds for agriculture going global; strengthen team building, build network platforms, and accelerate the pace of agriculture entering the international market.
6. Establishing and improving modern network platforms. Give full play to the role of network platforms, build an "Internet + agricultural industrialization" platform, carry out matchmaking between leading enterprises and e-commerce, shorten the distance between supply and demand, reduce operating costs, and improve supply efficiency. Change traditional consumption habits, transform consumption patterns, make supply and demand convenient and smooth, give rise to the proximity of fields and dining tables across regions and borders and far from markets, online-offline integration, market dynamic informatization, and integrated connection through networks.
7. Strengthening the building of the team of leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization. Cultivate a team of entrepreneurs with clear corporate legal person property rights, standardized production, integrated technology, scientific management, standardized operations, and internationalized markets, full of vitality, to take on the important task of leading the transformation and upgrading of agricultural industrialization under the new normal.