Chengde, Hebei adjusts its planting structure: reduction matters more, but development matters even more

As of now, Chengde City in Hebei Province has implemented adjustments to its planting structure on 565,000 mu of land. Of this, 116,000 mu is vegetables, 36,000 mu is edible fungi, 81,000 mu is dried and fresh fruit, 68,000 mu is Chinese medicinal herbs, 61,000 mu is potatoes, and 203,000 mu is high-quality miscellaneous grains and high-efficiency cash crops. The plan for 2016 was to reduce corn by 550,000 mu, and this target has been exceeded, laying the foundation for reducing the corn planting area by 2.25 million mu by 2020. While reducing corn, Chengde City places even greater emphasis on developing the industries for the crops that replace it.

According to reports, through policy instruments such as funding, projects, and credit, Chengde encourages and guides new types of operating entities such as family farms, agricultural cooperatives, and large-scale growers to continuously expand production scale, transfer scattered land from farmers' hands, develop scaled operations, and provide a vehicle for farmers to collect rent, earn wages, and share dividends. By bringing in strategic investors such as the Beijing Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Shanghai Muller Sitong, Shounong, Huadu, and Sanyuan to invest and start businesses, or by entering into equity cooperation with local agriculture-related enterprises, it achieves balanced development across the "front, middle, and back" ends of the industrial chain, breaks through the difficulties of connecting with and opening up markets, forms a new interest linkage mechanism, and stimulates the vitality of integrated development. By strengthening information-based services close to the market, implementing various preferential policies, guiding traditional corn growers to abandon "old corn" cultivation and switch to agricultural varieties that "sell well in the market," and while doing a good job on the supply-side reform of the market, also doing a good job on the demand-side connection, it builds smooth "production, supply, and sales" channels, establishes safeguard mechanisms such as protective-price purchasing, and fundamentally relieves people's worries.

Based on regional characteristics, Chengde proactively adapts to the trend of upgrading consumption structure and diversifying demand, and has systematically drawn up a "road map" for agricultural structural adjustment during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. It has clarified the regional functional positioning. Following the approach of "serving Beijing and Tianjin, integrating into Beijing and Tianjin, and drawing on the strength of Beijing and Tianjin," and facing the mid- to high-end markets of Beijing and Tianjin, it vigorously develops ecological, quality, beautiful, high-value, and functional agriculture, and strives to build a "green, organic" high-end agricultural product supply base for Beijing and Tianjin featuring specialty fruits, green vegetables, safe livestock products, high-quality agricultural product processing, and ecological leisure tourism. It has clarified the spatial layout positioning. Based on the environment and resource endowments of each county and district, it has defined a spatial development pattern with the edible fungi industry ring and six major industrial belts for fruit, broiler chickens and beef cattle, Chinese medicinal herbs, vegetables, potatoes, and dairy cows as the framework. It has clarified the industrial development positioning. Based on regional characteristics such as more mountains and less land, abundant sunshine, rich water sources, and large temperature differences between day and night, it vigorously develops specialty industries such as authentic medicinal materials and organic vegetables. In particular, with the construction of the "Chengde Functional Agriculture Poverty Alleviation Comprehensive Demonstration Zone" as the guide, and in connection with the construction of industrial demonstration bases such as "one million mu of economic forest, one million tons of edible fungi, one million mu of Chinese medicinal herb flower fields, one million head of high-quality beef cattle, and one million head of high-quality mutton sheep," it strives to create 8 to 15 regional or national selenium-enriched agriculture "single-product champions" such as selenium-enriched potatoes, carrots, rice, beef cattle, and mutton sheep, driving the upgrading of the entire industrial chain. It has clarified the structural adjustment positioning. In response to the main contradictions in the planting structure, it has defined the adjustment path of "one reduction, six increases, and one improvement": by reducing the corn planting area, increasing the scale of vegetables, edible fungi, dried and fresh fruit, Chinese medicinal herbs, potatoes, and high-quality miscellaneous grains and high-efficiency cash crops, and improving the level of leisure agriculture development, it comprehensively adjusts and optimizes the planting and breeding structure.

Chengde has actively explored the "five models." The enterprise-driven model. By attracting local agriculture-related enterprises to participate in structural adjustment, it achieves linked development of "enterprise + cooperative + farmers." The project-driven model. It vigorously develops cross-sector economies such as agrivoltaics, estate economy, specialty towns, and cold-chain logistics, achieving coordinated development of "projects + poverty alleviation + beautiful countryside." The park-driven model. Relying on the creation of national, provincial, and municipal modern agricultural parks in our city, it achieves tiered development of "park + base + farmers." The resource-driven model. Relying on location and transportation advantages, resource and environmental advantages, folk culture advantages, and early-stage development advantages, it achieves integrated development of "culture + tourism + industry." The brand-driven model. By building the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei water source area" agricultural brand, it achieves synchronous development of "quality agriculture + beautiful agriculture + functional agriculture."

Jicheng Nong