Farming must not only keep things alive, but keep them well
In terms of structural adjustment, under the government's active guidance and the pressure of market demand, grain planting has played the "quality card"; in terms of industrial models, ecological sustainable development has shifted from concept to reality, providing more guarantees for "safety on the tip of the tongue"; in terms of the composition of business entities, from agriculture, rural areas and farmers makers to the new farmer groups, all have enthusiastically stepped forward, bringing a new atmosphere to the agricultural sector...
More than half of the opening year of the "13th Five-Year Plan" has passed. When reporters conducted surveys in Henan, Fujian, Heilongjiang and other places, they found that against the backdrop of the continuous advancement of supply-side structural reform, a series of positive and profound changes are taking place in the seemingly calm agricultural sector. Experts believe that the related changes will further help Chinese people secure their "rice bowl" and accelerate the upgrading of traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, enabling the agricultural supply to shift from "keeping them alive" to "keeping them well."
Good wheat "speaks for itself"; structural adjustment strives to play the "quality card"
In the parking lot, bags of freshly produced high-quality flour do not need to touch the ground, and are neatly stacked in freight trucks through an automated loading system; in the production workshop, each process, including flour making, milling and packing, is closely linked, and workers operate skillfully and efficiently...
"Good wheat speaks for itself, and farmers do not worry when selling grain." In the courtyard of a flour enterprise in Wen County, Henan, general manager Li Qiang introduced that in recent years the company has produced according to sales, guiding farmers to plant designated high-quality wheat varieties by signing agreements in advance. In this way, the enterprise has solved the problem of grain sources for processing, and farmers have also tasted the "sweetness" of farming.
During surveys at the summer grain purchasing sites, reporters found that through the effective connection of the production, processing and sales interest chain, many farmers in major producing areas are shifting from the single pursuit of high yield to placing equal emphasis on quality and quantity. The focus of local governments in grain production is also quietly undergoing a similar "shift," thus forming a microcosm of the current agricultural supply-side reform.
On May 19, 2016, the China National Grain Industry Association awarded Jiaozuo City, Henan, the title of "China's Capital of High-Quality Wheat." At the high-quality wheat production and sales matching meeting held at the same time, out-of-town buyers signed demand contracts totaling 165,000 tons in one go.
Jiao Shanwei, an analyst at China Grain Network, said that Jiaozuo wheat has relatively high test weight, protein, wet gluten content and flour yield, and has long been favored by domestic grain and oil processing enterprises. This honor will further strengthen the local resource advantage and attract more enterprises to deeply participate in the integration and extension of the wheat industry chain.
"Emphasizing quantity over quality in production is one of the important reasons for the high domestic grain inventory. Compared with the traditional title of 'major grain-producing county,' local governments are now loudly playing the 'quality card.' Behind the change in 'hat' is a change in awareness and concepts, reflecting precisely the latest adjustments of agricultural supply-side reform at the grassroots level."
The same changes are appearing on a larger scale. It is reported that in 2016 the national summer grain output was 139.26 million tons. Although output decreased slightly, it still remained at the second-highest level in history. In this regard, the Ministry of Agriculture analyzed that behind the bumper harvest, the regional layout of summer grain production has become more concentrated, further forming advantageous areas for strong-gluten wheat in northern Huang-Huai, advantageous areas for weak-gluten wheat in Jiangsu's Lixiahe and coastal areas, and advantageous areas for medium-gluten wheat in northern Jiang-Huai and most of Huang-Huai; at the same time, the proportion of specialized varieties has increased, with the area of strong-gluten wheat, for which market demand is large, reaching 23.5%, up 1.5% from the previous year.
In the three northeastern provinces, due to the cancellation of the temporary storage policy for corn and the transmission of expectations of price declines, the trend of reducing local corn area is obvious, and structural adjustment has achieved initial results. According to the Ministry of Agriculture's agricultural situation scheduling and on-site supervision surveys, it is expected that the national corn area will be reduced by more than 30 million mu this year.
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that as grain develops in the direction of higher quality, quantity may decline somewhat. Shifting from the pursuit of "high yield" to emphasis on "high quality," strengthening production capacity building, and promoting scientific planting methods that save costs and increase efficiency will be the focus of future planting structure adjustment.
"Internet Plus" triggers a revolution at the dining table; ecological circulation lights up the new normal of agriculture
Pork belly stewed with potatoes, sweet and sour spare ribs, pork and egg rolls... In recent days, after work, Ms. Jiang of Fuqian Community in Shaxian, Fujian, used ingredients ordered through a mobile app and delivered by cold-chain logistics to make a table of delicious signature dishes. This change on the dining table of an ordinary urban household is exactly a series of chain reactions triggered after the traditional agricultural planting and breeding model was transformed by "Internet Plus."
Xie Ruping, president of Tianzi No.1 Co., Ltd., headquartered in Fuzhou, told reporters that in recent years the popularity of fresh food e-commerce has completely opened up the consumption channel for agricultural products from field to table. After the delivery problem was solved, how to eat more safely and healthily has increasingly become the core concern of everyone. For this reason, the company has successively established 30 own farms in Nanping, Shaxian and other places, and introduced microbial engineering technology from Taiwan to carry out breeding: using five grains and miscellaneous cereals to feed livestock and poultry, while spraying microbial bacteria in the environment to form microbial flora, so as to improve the disease resistance of livestock and poultry and ultimately reduce the use of drugs.
"After achieving source control in the breeding process, the company began promoting one-stop online and offline services in March this year, using WeChat and mobile apps for online ordering, supplemented by offline community delivery. At present, there are more than 30,000 members in the province like Ms. Jiang, and a single community service station has daily sales of more than 7,000 yuan." Xie Ruping said, "Next, the company plans to graft the food safety traceability system onto the app, not only letting consumers eat with confidence, but also 'making confidence visible.'"
In addition to market forces pushing for "safety on the tip of the tongue," greater emphasis on ecological sustainable development has also become a highlight in the field of agricultural production under the new normal.
During an interview in Wugang City, Henan, reporters saw that local Ruixiang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Company, which markets 100,000 hogs annually, looks like an "ecological factory," with almost no odor detectable. Entering the company's breeding farm, two giant biogas digesters collect manure and sewage. Besides supplying biogas free of charge to 330 farmer households in the nearby Ruixiang community, the biogas is also used for power generation; the biogas slurry, after filtration, can be used for irrigation and fish farming; the biogas residue is transported to a fertilizer plant and turned into organic fertilizer.
Company chairman Niu Yanjun introduced that the company has transferred all 2,300 mu of farmland in the community and relies on organic fertilizer converted from livestock and poultry manure to grow vegetables and grain, thereby turning the former "clay land" into "ecological fields." Not only has output increased, but quality and taste are also better. At present, the company has opened more than ten supermarkets to sell green agricultural products directly.
Zhang Guowei, mayor of Pingdingshan City, said that under the traditional breeding model, livestock and poultry manure can simply be called an "environmental killer." Facing the current situation of the rapid development of large-scale breeding, the whole city has taken the integration of agriculture and animal husbandry and ecological circulation as a breakthrough, establishing a modern ecological circular agriculture pilot zone covering 80% of cultivated land and 76% of townships, thereby extending an ecological circulation chain from pig farms to farmland, communities and markets. "The logic from 'addition' to 'subtraction' implied here is highly instructive for the transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture into modern agriculture."
From makers to new farmers, pursuing dreams in the countryside and deeply cultivating the "agricultural blue ocean"
While the industrial structure is continuously adjusted and production methods continue to upgrade, the composition of agricultural production and operation entities is also quietly changing. Professional farmers, agriculture, rural areas and farmers makers, and even new farmer groups, these faces either familiar or unfamiliar, are all deeply cultivating the "agricultural blue ocean" in their own ways, embarking on journeys of pursuing dreams in the countryside.
Entering the courtyard of the old Xinglin power plant in Xiamen, a transformed maker space appears before the eyes. Sculptures and workbenches assembled and welded from discarded equipment and steel mix retro and modern styles, with both fun and creativity. Sitting in the spacious steel-sculpture cafe, Wu Weidong, executive president of Xiamen Kuaizhai Food Co., Ltd., talked freely. If one did not hear his introduction, based only on what was visible, it would be truly difficult to connect this maker space with a building area of more than 7,000 sq m to a food enterprise thousands of miles away and even to potato farmers on the land.
Wu Weidong introduced that the company's main business had long centered on marketing consulting and creative design. Facing the major trend of upgrading food consumption, the team resolutely entered the agriculture, rural areas and farmers industry. After cooperating with a purple sweet potato processing enterprise in Shandong at the beginning of the year, it developed a new type of purple sweet potato pastry through fine processing of coarse grains, which was well received by the market. At present, the enterprise has developed more than 10,000 mu of purple sweet potato bases and driven more than 200,000 mu of surrounding planting area.
"As agriculture, rural areas and farmers makers, 'micro-innovation, big creativity' is our advantage. In the future, we will closely track market demand and strive to create 'three highs' foods with high appearance, high quality and high added value, ultimately allowing consumers to eat safely and healthily, products to find market outlets, and farmers to achieve high yields and increased income."
Different from Wu Weidong and others who use creativity to activate the agricultural product processing industry, as one of the new farmers, Lin Fengshan and others from Quanzhou, Fujian, directly invested tens of millions of yuan and took root at the foot of Wuyi Mountain to develop green organic vegetables. Reporters noted that in addition to paying attention to details of field production, during the interview Lin Fengshan constantly used various fashionable new terms such as "Internet Plus," "O2O" and "user stickiness."
Relevant parties estimate that the number of new farmers in China has now reached 2 million. A questionnaire survey by the Department of Market and Economic Information of the Ministry of Agriculture showed that 74.8% of new farmers have their own brands, 68.4% use internet technology in production, 88.2% sell agricultural products through the internet, and 35.9% obtain stable product sources through cooperation with farmers, family farms and others.
"For Chinese agriculture, who will farm the land in the future has always been a focal question. In the process of traditional agriculture moving toward modern agriculture, various social forces have enthusiastically stepped forward to deeply cultivate the 'agricultural blue ocean,' bringing positive changes to the agriculture, rural areas and farmers landscape." Wei Mengguan, deputy director of the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture, said, "If large grain growers, family farms and other new types of business entities are the base of the pyramid of 'land tillers,' then from makers to new farmers they constitute the top of the pyramid. Everyone is jointly answering the above question through their own practical actions, and thus has also become the main force in advancing agricultural supply-side reform in the new period."