Who should take the lead in the development of modern agriculture?
Along with the comprehensive rollout of a series of reforms, including the pilot program for registering and certifying rural land contractual management rights, new-type entities represented by family farms and farmer cooperatives have continued to emerge. However, in the course of research, reporters found that some places have a tendency to pull up seedlings to help them grow in cultivating new-type business entities. In response to this problem, experts say that, on the one hand, it is necessary to adapt measures to local conditions, comprehensively consider factors in all aspects, and find a development approach suited to local realities; on the other hand, it is necessary to continuously improve relevant policies and the environment and, as quickly as possible, resolve both new and old problems such as difficulty in obtaining land, difficulty in financing, and information asymmetry—
"We cannot only see the aging, part-time farming, and low education levels of the farming population; we must also see that new-type business entities are becoming the backbone of modern agricultural development." During a recent interview, these words from a retired official of an agriculture bureau in Jilin City, Jilin Province, struck a chord with the reporter.
At present, the pilot program for registering and certifying rural land contractual management rights has covered 22 provinces and 74% of villages. Nationwide, more than 560 million mu of land has completed rights confirmation, and the area of land transferred exceeds one-third of the total area of cultivated land under household contractual management. The land foundation for the development of new-type business entities such as specialized large households, family farms, farmer cooperatives, and leading enterprises is already very solid. At present, the total number of family farms, farmer cooperatives, and leading enterprises nationwide is nearly 2.7 million, and there are more than 3.4 million specialized large households operating more than 50 mu of cultivated land. The agricultural products and processed products they provide account for more than one-third of market supply.
The entities engaged in farming are quietly changing
"Family farms win on economies of scale and can earn thin profits through high sales volume." Li Weihe, 46, is a family farm owner in Datan Subdistrict, Huangpi District, Wuhan, Hubei. Ten years ago, he used the village's abandoned land to start growing fruits and vegetables. Five years ago, his Weihe Crop Farming Family Farm was officially established. Through continuous land transfers, its scale has now expanded to more than 200 mu, mainly growing specialty fruits and vegetables such as sweet potato shoots and fresh-eating sweet corn. As summer arrives, in dozens of vegetable greenhouses, workers keep harvesting and, after simple packaging, sending the produce to nearby farmers' markets.
Sweet potato shoots are easy to grow, rarely suffer from insects, and can be picked 30 days after planting, with very good returns. Li Weihe did the accounts for the reporter: planting 30 mu of sweet potato shoots, during the harvest season 2,000 jin can be picked each day, and each jin can sell for an average of 2 yuan. "Hiring workers to harvest sweet potato shoots requires 20 workers per day, and one person costs 100 yuan in labor. After deducting other costs, the break-even price per jin is 1.5 yuan, and 0.5 yuan can be earned net per jin. For an ordinary farming household, the returns from growing sweet potato shoots are certainly not high. But for me, because of economies of scale, the total profit is still considerable," Li Weihe said.
It is not an isolated case. Li Fengyu, a farmer in Keshan County, Heilongjiang, and chairman of the Renfa Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, also loves farming. "Last year the cooperative's total income was 90.55 million yuan, with a surplus of 41.96 million yuan. Farmers who joined the cooperative received 708 yuan per mu in dividends, more than 400 yuan per mu higher than local farmers who did not join." Li Fengyu said that when the cooperative was first established, 350 yuan per mu was used as the guaranteed minimum dividend, and at year-end the surplus was distributed as a second dividend; surpluses generated by state subsidy funds were distributed equally among members; and major decisions were made on a one-person, one-vote basis. Once these commitments were introduced, they quickly attracted farmers' attention, and 15,000 mu of cultivated land in three neighboring villages all joined the cooperative.
Family farms and farmer cooperatives are important forms of new-type agricultural business entities. Statistics show that in recent years farmer cooperatives have developed rapidly, increasing by 30,000 per month, with the total number now exceeding 1.64 million; 877,000 family farms nationwide operate 176 million mu of cultivated land, with an average operating scale of 200 mu. The reporter learned that these new-type entities actively use new concepts and new technologies, carry out diversified operations such as circular planting and breeding, integrated production-processing-sales, and leisure sightseeing, develop emerging business forms such as credit cooperation, e-commerce, and membership-based consumption, reap the dividends of technological progress and industrial integration, and inject vitality into the ancient agricultural industry. As new-type entities continue to emerge, the phenomenon of elderly people farming the land and women doing farm work is beginning to change.
Do not judge heroes by scale alone
For new-type entities, a small area certainly cannot achieve economies of scale, but larger-scale operation is not necessarily better either.
Years of rising rice yields have let Wuhan family farm owner Zhao Zikun taste the benefits of increased income. A 280-mu plot brings more than 150,000 yuan in net income a year, but he does not want to expand the scale on that basis. The main reason is that "when the area is too large, manpower cannot manage it all, and cost-income accounting is not worthwhile either." A relevant person from the Wuhan Rural Economic Management Bureau told the reporter, "For family farms, Wuhan focuses on guidance and does not blindly develop them on a large scale." Local regulations stipulate that a family farm owner must be a farming household with local rural household registration and engaged in agricultural production, and must have more than 5 years of experience in planting and breeding.
In Shanghai, 3,734 grain-type family farms operate 490,000 mu of rice, accounting for more than 40% of the city's rice area. "Shanghai determines the land operation scale of family farms according to local conditions in rural labor transfer and employment and the level of land transfer." Yin Ou, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Agricultural Commission, said that it is necessary to balance fairness and efficiency, use policy tools and certification standards to guide their development, prevent excessive concentration of land, and avoid departing from the development conditions of the current stage. From actual practice, each district and county has formed its own moderate-scale standards for grain family farms. The low end is set at 80 mu to 150 mu, while the high end, such as in Songjiang District where labor transfer is sufficient, is set at 200 mu to 300 mu.
In the course of research, the reporter found that most places are able to guide different business entities, according to the characteristics of different industries and products, to innovate and develop suitable operating methods and organizational forms. In the field of bulk agricultural products such as grain, cotton, oil, and sugar, in order to achieve high yields, most adopt the model of "large-scale operators + socialized services"; in horticultural production fields such as fruits, vegetables, and tea, in order to improve quality, they adopt the model of "large-scale production bases + cooperatives"; and in the breeding industry, in order to ensure safety, they more often adopt the model of "large-scale farms + leading enterprises," greatly enriching the ways of linking interests among different entities.
However, some places emphasize quantity over quality in cultivating new-type business entities, seek large scale and rapid results, pull up seedlings to help them grow, and one-sidedly pursue a single model; some places are happy to bring in large enterprises and large capital while excluding farmers. In some places, enterprises engaged in agricultural production are directly given the title of "family farm"; in others, ordinary farming households are directly labeled "large planting and breeding households"; and some cooperatives are formed merely by gathering people together without achieving unified operation, becoming "shell cooperatives." These practices will cause relatively great harm to agricultural production.
At present, many places have high enthusiasm for developing new-type entities and have successively introduced encouragement measures. Industry experts believe that there is no ready-made model to follow for what path to take in developing new-type business entities, and the suitable operating scale also varies, so each place needs to adapt to local conditions. But no matter what means are adopted or what measures are introduced, it is necessary to adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts and avoid the tendency to rush for success. It is necessary to consider constraints such as resource endowments and development levels, and consider factors such as the agricultural socialized service system, the rural social security system, and the degree of rural labor transfer, in order to determine the speed and scale of the development of new-type business entities.
The growing pains of new farmers
At present, affected by factors such as rising land rents and labor prices and the overall downward trend in prices of bulk agricultural products such as grain, some areas in major grain-producing regions have seen new-type business entities "withdraw from land and terminate leases, waiting and watching." In addition, old problems such as difficulty in obtaining land, difficulty in financing, and difficulty in insurance have not yet been fully solved. The interweaving of new and old problems has, to a certain extent, affected the development of moderate-scale agricultural operations.
Many specialized large households told the reporter that their greatest wish is to have a market information platform so they can grasp the latest and most accurate agricultural product price information and adjust their planting structure in a timely manner. "Since last autumn, the township has convened several meetings, requiring adjustment of the planting structure."
When talking about this year's planting plans, Zhou Guoqiang, a large grain grower in Yongsheng Village, Baicheng City, Jilin Province, seemed somewhat hesitant. "If we don't plant corn, what should we plant? In recent years, sorghum cannot be sold, mung beans have years when prices rise and years when money is lost, and the prices of miscellaneous grains fluctuate sharply."
Compared with ordinary farming households, family farms face greater risks and need timely price information even more. Li Weihe said his family grows 150 mu of sweet corn, two seasons a year, and the labor cost per mu is no less than 1,000 yuan. In recent years, more and more nearby farmers have grown fresh-eating sweet corn, and sweet corn prices have experienced a sharp decline. He suggested that relevant departments could release seed sales information in a timely manner so that growers can understand the planting area for the year and make timely adjustments.
At present, new-type agricultural business entities have strong demand for funds, but the overall supply of rural finance is insufficient. Apart from a few capital-intensive family farms, the vast majority have relatively weak financial strength. Different farm owners mostly have similar concerns, namely difficulty in obtaining loans. A survey by the Land Transfer Center of Luan County, Hebei, shows that each 1.5-mu solar greenhouse there requires 80,000 yuan in one-time fixed investment alone. Although there is a funding gap, few family farm owners go to banks for loans. One reason is the lack of collateral. Wang Jianping, director of the center, said, "The main reason is that the land has been transferred in, and banks do not recognize it."
Compared with previous years, when subsidies were mainly increased at the stages of land outflow and inflow, in recent years more places have begun to focus on solving production and operation problems for new-type entities. Difficulty in drying grain is the most urgent and realistic difficulty after traditional small farming households transform into new-type business entities. Starting this year, Shanghai began comprehensively building grain drying facilities, with 50% subsidies for facility construction. It plans to basically complete the capacity to dry 30,000 tons of grain per day by 2020, so that grain can be harvested without touching the ground.
"As new-type agricultural business entities flourish, the demand for socialized services is growing. In the future, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a new-type agricultural socialized service system that combines public welfare services with commercial services." Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture, said that at present all kinds of new-type agricultural business entities are still in the initial stage, their own strength is not yet strong, and they still face quite a few problems. It is necessary, according to the characteristics of different entities, to adapt to local conditions, provide classified guidance, and implement differentiated support policies. At present, the focus is on resolving the bottleneck problems facing the development of new-type agricultural business entities by strengthening support in areas such as agricultural subsidies, financial rewards and subsidies, project construction, financial services, agricultural insurance, and tax registration, and continuously improving their own strength and development vitality.