Strengthening Agriculture-related legislation to ensure the work of "Agriculture, Countryside and Farmers"

On November 2, Zhang Baowen, vice chairman of the standing Committee of the National people's Congress, delivered a report on the inspection of the implementation of the Agricultural Law of the people's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "report") on behalf of the Law Enforcement Inspection Group of the standing Committee of the 12th National people's Congress at the 17th meeting of the standing Committee of the 12th National people's Congress. According to the supervision work plan of the standing Committee of the National people's Congress this year. The inspection team of the standing Committee inspected the implementation of the Agricultural Law from April to September this year and formed a report on the relevant situation.

Zhang Baowen pointed out: at present, China's economic development has entered a new normal, and agricultural modernization is still a deficiency in the process of coordinating the promotion of new industrialization, informationization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization.

Face up to the difficulties and problems in the implementation of the law

The current agricultural law has been implemented after the latest revision since January 1, 2013. whether it can be seriously implemented as the basic law of agriculture-related laws, the existing rural principles and policies, especially the land contracting policy, should be accelerated to promote agricultural modernization. strengthen the basic position of agriculture, change the mode of agricultural development, improve the comprehensive production capacity of agriculture, ensure national food security, and increase farmers' income. It is of great significance to strengthen agro-ecological governance and improve the quality and safety of agricultural products.

The report holds that in recent years, the implementation of the Agricultural Law has been generally good, showing the continuous improvement of the comprehensive production capacity of agriculture, the gradual increase of investment in agriculture, rural areas and farmers, the further enhancement of the guarantee capacity of agricultural science and technology, the control of agricultural non-point source pollution, the strengthening of rural reform, the sustained growth of farmers' income, and phased achievements in poverty alleviation and development.

In this regard, Zhang Baowen pointed out that although the agricultural and rural economic situation has continued to improve in recent years, providing strong support for "steady growth, structural adjustment, promoting reform, and benefiting the people's livelihood," the work of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" still faces many difficulties and problems.

First, agricultural infrastructure is still weak. Due to the widening price gap between domestic and foreign agricultural products, China has changed from a net grain exporter to a net grain importer since 2008. The degraded area of cultivated land accounts for more than 40% of the total cultivated land. The irrigation and water conservancy facilities in some places are in disrepair, the ability to resist drought and drainage is not strong, the problem of the "last kilometer" of irrigation and water conservancy is still prominent, and the situation of agriculture relying on nature for a living in many places has not fundamentally changed.

Second, the total amount of funds for supporting agriculture is relatively small. In recent years, although the amount of financial investment in supporting agriculture at all levels has been increasing, there is still a large gap compared with the needs of agricultural development, and the input mechanism of supporting agriculture needs to be improved.

Third, agricultural non-point source pollution is serious. In the aspect of agricultural ecological environment protection, the situation of "attaching importance to development, neglecting protection, attaching importance to cities, neglecting rural areas, heavy industry, light agriculture, key sources, light non-point sources" is more common. The amount of chemical fertilizer used in China is on the high side, and the utilization rate is low, and the fertilizer consumption of wheat and rice is much higher than the world average.

Fourth, it is difficult for farmers to continue to increase their income, and the task of poverty alleviation and development is arduous. The household operating income of farmers is squeezed by both the cost "floor" and the price "ceiling", and the income of ordinary farmers growing grain is limited. Problems such as imperfect coordination mechanism, insufficient funds, scattered channels and lagging supervision are still prominent in the work of poverty alleviation and development.

Fifth, the grain collection and storage mechanism needs to be improved. At present, China has established a reserve system at the central, provincial, prefectural (municipal) and county levels. The finance at all levels, especially the central finance, bears the expenses of the purchase and sale, transportation, rotation and other links of the grain reserves, and the burden is relatively heavy.

Promote reform in accordance with the law and make up for the shortcomings in rural areas

With regard to how to ensure that rural areas do not drag their feet in the process of realizing a well-off society in an all-round way, Zhang Baowen stressed that it is necessary to constantly consolidate and improve the basic economic system of socialist rural areas with Chinese characteristics in accordance with the arrangements of the central authorities and the requirements of the Agricultural Law. We will speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural production, strive to enhance the comprehensive production capacity of agriculture, and improve the institutional mechanism for ensuring national food security, sustainable agricultural development, and sustained increase in farmers' income.

In this regard, the report clearly puts forward six recommendations:

First, increase investment and improve the comprehensive production capacity of agriculture. It includes optimizing the structure of financial investment, increasing the total amount of financial investment, speeding up the pace of irrigation and water conservancy construction, increasing investment in agricultural infrastructure construction in key links, further promoting the integration of agriculture-related funds, and striving to improve the level of rural financial services.

The second is to actively promote rural reform. These include deepening the reform of the rural land system, doing a good job in rural land expropriation, the entry of collective construction land into the market, and the pilot reform of the homestead system; improving the agricultural input mechanism and establishing a stable growth mechanism for "agriculture, rural areas and farmers". Regard agriculture and rural areas as the priority guarantee areas of financial expenditure, and so on.

Third, give full play to the role of seed industry science and technology and agricultural socialization service. It is proposed to vigorously support public welfare breeding research, support the breeding innovation system with the combination of industry, university and research, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, and encourage original innovation. We will solidly promote the construction of a socialized agricultural service system and comprehensively improve the level of agricultural socialized services.

Fourth, strengthen the protection of agricultural resources and environment. Including the continued implementation of agricultural eco-environmental protection policies, strict supervision of agricultural inputs, strengthening the prevention and control of non-point source pollution, promoting the resource utilization of agricultural wastes, and so on.

Fifth, strengthen the construction of a new countryside and step up efforts to help the poor. Guide the extension of urban municipal facilities and services to rural areas, do a good job in the overall planning of the supply of rural public services, rural infrastructure construction, public education services, public medical and health services should be laid out together with cities and towns for common development. In arranging poverty alleviation inputs, it should be tilted to the central and western regions, especially the poverty-stricken areas and the key counties in the national poverty alleviation and development work.

The sixth is to strengthen agriculture-related legislation. In the coming period, we should actively promote the formulation of the Grain Law and the Rural Finance Law, and amend the seed Law, the Rural Land contract Law, the Farmers' specialized Cooperative Law, and the Forestry Law, so as to provide legal guarantee for the work of agriculture, rural areas and farmers.