Market demand is the navigation light for agricultural production
In recent years, agriculture and animal husbandry in Inner Mongolia have achieved remarkable results, but there are also many contradictions and difficulties, most prominently in structure, mainly on the supply side. Due to the imbalance in the supply and demand structure, problems of "difficulty selling milk" and "difficulty selling sheep" have appeared in some places, and farmers and herders have increased production without increasing income. Under the new situation, how can we advance supply-side structural reform in agriculture, improve the efficiency of agriculture and animal husbandry, and promote sustained income growth for farmers and herders? Recently, a reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Wang Yuming, Vice Chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
"The most prominent problem on the supply side of agriculture and animal husbandry at present is that production has not yet been able to adapt well to changes in market demand, and 'difficulty buying' and 'difficulty selling' coexist. To solve this problem, structural adjustment must be advanced through reform. Market demand must be taken as the 'navigation light' for increasing efficiency, the production structure and product structure of agriculture and animal husbandry must be adjusted and optimized, product supply must be innovated, and the needs of consumption structure upgrading must be better met," Wang Yuming said. In the past two years, he said, Inner Mongolia has, in accordance with the requirements of the supply-side structural reform tasks in agriculture and animal husbandry, focused on explorations in adjusting the structure of the planting industry, stabilizing sheep and increasing cattle in animal husbandry, and the transformation and upgrading of agricultural and animal husbandry industrialization, achieving remarkable results.
Wang Yuming said that in terms of planting structure adjustment, the main focus was adjusting and optimizing the planting structure of corn, potatoes and soybeans. At present, the structure in which corn "dominates as the single grain" has been adjusted somewhat and is tending toward optimization. According to agricultural season statistics, this year the sown area of grain corn was 52.47 million mu, a year-on-year decrease of 9.33 million mu; the sown area of dual-purpose grain and feed silage corn was 8.27 million mu, a year-on-year increase of 3.2 million mu. The corn structure adjustment task assigned to Inner Mongolia by the Ministry of Agriculture was successfully completed, contributing to the supply-side structural reform of agriculture nationwide. At the same time, both potato and soybean areas achieved recovery growth, with increases of 4.5% and 6.7% respectively.
Wang Yuming said that at present, the development mode of animal husbandry is undergoing transformation, meat sheep breeding in farming areas has developed, and the layout adjustment of shifting incremental growth from pastoral areas to farming areas has been realized, gaining space for stabilizing or reducing the number of livestock in pastoral areas and indirectly playing a role in protecting grassland ecology. At the same time, in view of the fact that beef prices are relatively stable and market space is relatively large, high-quality breeding cattle from abroad have been introduced, the beef cattle breeding industry has been vigorously developed, the structure of breeding breeds has been further optimized, and the situation of "sheep dominating as the single species" has been changed.
Up to now, driven by leading enterprises, more than 2 million farmer and herder households in Inner Mongolia have entered the chain of industrialized operation, and the proportion of closely linked interest connection mechanisms has reached 38%.
The interest connection between farmers and enterprises has already shifted from simply providing production materials such as improved seeds, chemical fertilizers and feed to providing services across the entire industrial chain, all factors and the entire production and operation cycle, including science and technology, information, and financing guarantees. At the same time, a number of key leading enterprises with strong driving capacity and a leading role in the direction of agricultural and animal husbandry industrialization in Inner Mongolia have been cultivated. At present, Inner Mongolia has 38 national-level key leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization and 556 autonomous region-level key leading enterprises, and the number of China Well-Known Trademarks for agricultural and livestock products has reached 66.
"Practice shows that leading enterprises in agricultural and animal husbandry industrialization have played an important role in driving farmers and herders to increase production and income," Wang Yuming said. This is mainly due to solid work in 3 aspects: First, improving interest connection mechanisms. Various forms of farmer-enterprise interest connection mechanisms have been formed, such as order contract type, share cooperation type, price protection type, service cooperation type, and transfer and employment type. Second, implementing the output project for agricultural and livestock products. The focus was on the "three creations", namely, based on the convention and exhibition economy, creating a calling card for green agricultural and livestock products; arranging boutique experience stores, creating a product output platform; and promoting e-commerce into villages and households, creating a network sales pattern. Third, strengthening brand building. The brand agriculture and animal husbandry project was implemented, and brand recognition and support work for agricultural and livestock products was strengthened. At the same time, in accordance with the principle of "supporting the excellent, the large and the strong", advantageous enterprises were supported in carrying out mergers and reorganizations, constantly growing bigger and stronger, developing into industry-leading enterprises, and realizing the survival of the fittest among enterprises.
"Frankly speaking, advancing supply-side structural reform in agriculture and animal husbandry to increase the income of farmers and herders cannot be accomplished overnight, because planting thinking and habits formed over many years need to be changed step by step, and a relatively long period of accumulation is needed before they can ultimately be changed," Wang Yuming said. "Next, we will continue to do a good job in supply-side structural reform work. First, actively expand the planted area of rice, high-quality wheat, miscellaneous grains and miscellaneous beans, and stabilize grain output; second, advance the integration of planting and breeding, accelerate the development of modern animal husbandry, and build regional beef and mutton brands; third, further improve farmer-enterprise interest connection mechanisms, deeply implement the green agricultural and livestock product output project, and enable farmers and herders to obtain more value-added income."