Interpretation of the Central Economic Work Conference: New-type farmers and large grain growers receive attention

Beijing, December 27 (CNR News, reporter Man Chaoxu) According to a report by China National Radio's "News Horizon," in planning the overall strategy, the first priority is to assess the situation. The just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference profoundly analyzed the domestic and international economic development situation and made overall arrangements for next year's economic work.

Jing Maoxiang has transferred over 2,040 mu of land in Tangshan Town and has been farming it for the fourth year. This year grain prices were too low and he did not make money, earning over 300 yuan less per mu than in previous years, close to 400 yuan less, with total income down by more than 400,000 yuan. He now does not know what the future price trend for grain will be and is very worried that if this continues and he cannot make money, he will lose confidence in farming. When large-scale grain growers invest in equipment, their working capital chain breaks, and now when looking for someone to guarantee a loan, no one is willing to provide a guarantee. Loans are a big problem.

Jing Maoxiang farms a truly large amount of land. Although he sounds very confused, there is no need to worry too much. Against the broader backdrop of developing agriculture at an appropriate scale, large grain growers like him will absolutely be treasured assets in the future. Of course, his confusion is also something the country's agricultural work must focus on solving next. Jing Maoxiang's confusion can be roughly summarized into three questions: First, what should be planted in the future to make money? Second, how should farmers work in the future? Third, what should be done about the difficulty of getting loans? At the Central Economic Work Conference, a very valuable statement on the agricultural economy was: focus funds and policies on protecting and improving the comprehensive agricultural production capacity as well as the quality and efficiency of agricultural products. How can comprehensive agricultural production capacity be improved? First, we must proceed from reality and study the situation. This year, China's grain production achieved a new breakthrough, realizing a historically rare twelve consecutive increases. At the same time, a number of famous, special, excellent, and new products with obvious regional characteristics and strong market demand, such as fruits, vegetables, and tea, also emerged. However, information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture shows that although grain output has increased year after year in recent years and the total supply and demand are basically balanced, wheat production and demand are basically balanced, rice is balanced with a surplus, corn has seen a period of supply exceeding demand, and the soybean gap is widening year by year. Therefore, adjusting the planting structure is extremely urgent. How should it be adjusted? The principle is simple: plant what is in short supply, and plant less of what is in oversupply. At present, the Ministry of Agriculture is formulating the "National Planting Industry Structural Adjustment Plan."

Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong said that a ternary structure of grain crops, cash crops, and feed crops should be established. For grain crops, advantageous areas should be consolidated and improved, while non-advantageous areas should be appropriately reduced. The focus is on reducing corn area in the "sickle bend" regions, including the cold and cool areas of Northeast China, the farming-pastoral transition zone of northern China, the windy, sandy, and arid areas of the northwest, and the rocky desertification areas of the southwest. By 2020, corn area will be reduced by 50 million mu, and grain area will remain stable at more than 1.65 billion mu. Cash crops include both industrial raw material crops and products such as fruits, vegetables, and tea on people's dining tables, and efforts should be made to stabilize their area. Feed crops should actively develop high-quality forage crops in accordance with the requirements of determining planting by breeding and combining planting with breeding.

Therefore, large grain growers like Jing Maoxiang should pay attention to this plan, and then they will have a clear idea of how to plant in the future. Of course, farmers growing cash crops and other crops should pay even more attention to this plan, because we must sow seeds according to market demand. However, no matter what is planted, there are costs and investment is needed. The investment problem Jing Maoxiang worries about has also been considered by management departments, and relevant policy measures are being studied. Han Jun, deputy director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, introduced that there is a very large space for policy operation in this area. The government can use methods such as "rewarding instead of subsidizing," "subsidizing after construction," fiscal interest subsidies, and support for establishing guarantee systems. Through government and social capital cooperation and various methods, it can leverage more financial capital and social funds to participate in infrastructure construction that has returns and is quasi-public-interest in nature, and to participate in the development of modern agriculture. Han Jun said that many areas of "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" are still investment depressions. How to make good use of fiscal funds in the future and improve their efficiency in being directed toward "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" is a major article.

Jing Maoxiang said he has lost confidence in farming. The question of how to be a farmer is a very major focus. At meetings large and small even tangentially related to agriculture, a term always comes up: "new-type professional farmer." In fact, Jing Maoxiang already counts as half a professional farmer. With more than 2,000 mu of land, this scale is no ordinary farmer. On this issue, Han Jun believes that making farming truly an attractive occupation and enabling people engaged in agricultural production to live a decent life is a major difficult problem that "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" policy must solve, and an appropriate scale must be formed. "Develop various forms of appropriately scaled agricultural operations, give play to their leading role in modern agricultural construction, and build a policy system for cultivating new-type agricultural operating entities." If farming, reaching one or two hundred mu may only bring income comparable to working outside the home in the Central Plains region. Han Jun pointed out that our agricultural vocational education is relatively backward and lacks attractiveness. To cultivate professional farmers, agricultural vocational education must keep up, give play to the role of agricultural colleges and vocational colleges, and adopt targeted methods to cultivate more and more new-type farmers who meet the needs of modern agricultural development.