The Ministry of Finance supports agricultural industrialization and strives to form a hundred characteristic industrial sets in three years.

Agricultural industrialization will be supported by finance in the future.

On November 17, the Ministry of Finance issued the "guiding opinions on Comprehensive Agricultural Development, supporting Agricultural characteristic Industries and promoting the Development of Agricultural industrialization" (hereinafter referred to as "opinions"). The "opinion" proposes that within three years, 100 regional agricultural industrial clusters with large comparative advantages in resources, long industrial chain extension, integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and strong demonstration and driving role will be initially formed throughout the country.

Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Daily Economic News that agricultural industrialization can solve the problems of excessive supply of low-quality agricultural products in the agricultural market, improper utilization and allocation of agricultural resources, and high cost of agricultural production.

Encourage the development of "Internet + Agriculture"

2015 is another bumper harvest year, but the prices of corn and wheat in the main grain producing areas have fallen to varying degrees. Corn prices fell significantly, with household prices falling by more than 20% on average, with the highest drop of 30% compared with last year, while wheat also experienced a round of decline before the National Day.

It is estimated that the sharp drop in grain prices in 2015 may lead to negative income growth of hundreds of billions of dollars, reflecting the current situation of increasing agricultural production without increasing income in our country.

Li Guoxiang said: the production cost of agricultural products in China remains high, and the comparative efficiency of agriculture is on the low side. In the agricultural product market, there is too much supply of low-quality agricultural products, improper utilization of agricultural resources and improper allocation of factors, and the cost of agricultural production is too high, resulting in increasing agricultural production without increasing income.

In this context, agricultural industrialization is a necessary way out. The "opinion" holds that under the current new situation of rising agricultural production costs and intensified hard constraints on resources and environment, there is an urgent need to strengthen the role of comprehensive agricultural development in supporting industrialization development, so as to improve agricultural quality and efficiency, and continuously increase farmers' income.

The content of support mainly focuses on improving the characteristic industrial chain of agricultural advantages, including seedling breeding, standardized planting base, storage and preservation of agricultural products, processing and utilization of waste, etc.; breeding industry involved in livestock and poultry (including aquatic products) breeding, standardized breeding bases, livestock and poultry (including aquatic products) trading places, forage planting, feed processing, harmless treatment of manure, organic fertilizer processing and so on.

In addition to the traditional agricultural field, a reporter from the Daily Economic News noted that the processing bases involved in the processing and circulation industry, raw material warehousing, storage and preservation of finished products, cold chain logistics, and wholesale markets of producing areas are also the focus of support. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance will also encourage the development of "Internet + Agriculture" and actively support the construction of e-commerce platform for advantageous and characteristic agricultural products.

Li Guoxiang said: the key to realizing agricultural industrialization lies in the active participation of many agricultural market entities, such as enterprises, farmers, and their organizations, with leading organizations as the leading force, extending the supply chain, and by building a mechanism for benefit-sharing and risk-sharing, different agricultural industries are organically linked into a whole to gain value-added and high added value.

In terms of the way of supporting financial funds, the "opinion" emphasizes that we should give full play to the leading and leveraging role of financial funds to financial capital and social capital, adjust and improve the ways of financial funds to support industries with agricultural advantages and characteristics, and gradually form a diversified support system in which loans are mainly discounted interest, financial subsidies are supplemented, and financial equity investment funds coexist.

Li Wenhai, a financial commentator, told the Daily Economic News that in the past, financial support was mainly based on tax concessions, financial subsidies, and project support, which made the pre-evaluation, supervision, and accountability of supported enterprises extremely complicated, and gave rise to a lot of rent-seeking space, while loan discount-based can effectively avoid this problem, and the support area will also become larger.

Focus on supporting industries with advantages and characteristics

According to the "opinion", the key industries supported by finance will mainly be included in the "National Plan for Comprehensive Agricultural Development and supporting Agricultural characteristic Industries". All provincial-level agricultural development institutions are encouraged to identify about 10 key agricultural industries with advantageous characteristics in the region. In principle, the county-level agricultural development institutions choose the best options within the scope of the agricultural advantage and characteristic industries in the region.

The Ministry of Finance requires that, in view of the agricultural advantage and characteristic industries within the scope of the region, identify the key links and weak links in the industrial chain for key support and continuous support, build a complete industrial chain, and expand and strengthen regional agricultural advantage and characteristic industries.

According to the "opinion," it is necessary to concentrate the limited financial funds for comprehensive agricultural development into supporting regional agricultural industries with advantageous characteristics, solve the problems of small but scattered projects and low efficiency, give full play to the effects of industrial agglomeration in saving costs, promoting innovation, and stimulating economic growth, and improve the efficiency of the use of financial funds for comprehensive agricultural development.

The advantage of industrial clusters is to obtain more value-added and high added value. For example, the sales income of 10 agricultural industrial clusters in Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province in the first half of the year was 4.536 billion yuan, an increase of 12.31% over the same period last year; 84000 peasant households were driven, with an average household income of 3600 yuan. The growth of agricultural industrial clusters has promoted the vigorous rise of new agricultural operators. In the first half of the year, the number of farmers' cooperatives in the city reached 6255, with an increase of 421.

In terms of timetable, since 2016, comprehensive agricultural development and industrialization projects have focused on supporting regional agricultural industries with advantageous characteristics. Priority and continuous support will be given to industries with advantageous characteristics that are included in the scope of priority support for comprehensive agricultural development.

The "opinion" also said that in three years, we will strive to initially form 1 or 2 advantageous characteristic industries in various agricultural comprehensive development counties, and take the province as a unit to form about 10 regional agricultural characteristic industrial clusters with large comparative advantages in resources, long extension of industrial chain, integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and strong demonstration and driving role in the country.

"the development plan of agricultural industrialization should also avoid overcapacity." Li Wenhai said: just like iron and steel and cement, if apples are developed in all the northern provinces, the result will inevitably be a drop in product prices, diluted profits of enterprises, and a large backlog of agricultural products, especially that industrialization still needs a time process to nurture. It is not so good to "turn around", and attention should be paid to the problem of differentiation in various places in advance.

The Ministry of Finance also mentioned that it will establish a dynamic management mechanism for the industries with advantages and characteristics to be supported according to the market changes and development trends, so as to improve the accuracy of industrial support.

In terms of the restraint mechanism, the State Agricultural Development Office will bring the work of provinces to support agricultural industries with advantages and characteristics into the comprehensive assessment scope of the management work of provincial-level agricultural development institutions. Provinces with high enthusiasm for work and obvious achievements in the development of industries with advantageous characteristics will be tilted in the allocation of funds in the next planning cycle.