Agricultural subsidies will be adjusted when the reform of agricultural input mechanism starts during the 13th five-year Plan.

The reform of agricultural input mechanism during the 13th five-year Plan was launched.

Expand the scale and scope of the "green box" policy, clean up and integrate some transfer payments

A reporter from the Economic Information Daily recently learned that in view of the obvious internal and external prices of some major agricultural products, the huge inventory of agricultural products, and the low income of farmers from farming, the state will carry out a series of reforms in the subsidy system and the mode of financial investment related to agriculture during the 13th five-year Plan period.

With regard to China's measures to reform agricultural subsidies in the coming period of time, several experts have revealed that they will adjust government subsidies that distort production and trade (one of the "yellow box" policies) and gradually expand the scale and scope of the implementation of the "green box" policy. The pilot agricultural subsidy reform launched recently is an important practice. Specifically, the three subsidy policies of the main body of agricultural subsidies in China, namely, the subsidies for improved varieties of crops, the direct subsidies for grain farmers and the comprehensive subsidies for agricultural materials, are merged into "agricultural support and protection subsidies." the policy objective is adjusted to support the protection of cultivated land and the appropriate scale operation of grain.

In terms of the mode of financial investment related to agriculture, the reporter learned that the key point is to establish a stable growth mechanism of agricultural and rural investment, but to sort out the agriculture-related transfer payment funds that are "small, scattered, chaotic" and have no obvious effect, and integrate agriculture-related special funds with similar objectives and similar investment directions, while local expenditures with management information advantages are divided into general transfer payment blocks.

Tu Xinquan, executive dean of the WTO Research Institute of the University of International Business and Economics, told reporters that due to financial pressure, the proportion of agricultural subsidies among WTO members is relatively low, and developed countries think that China's agricultural subsidy level is too high. When China joined the WTO, it promised that agricultural subsidies should not exceed 8.5% of agricultural output value, but some of China's product subsidies had already exceeded the limit.

This situation is mainly caused by the squeezing effect of rising domestic grain production costs. at the same time, due to the serious internal and external prices of agricultural products, imported agricultural products are pouring into the Chinese market, resulting in a large backlog of major agricultural products. Take corn as an example, according to estimates, up to now, the surplus of corn stored in China is at the level of 150 million tons. Due to the transfer of soybeans, cotton, miscellaneous grains and other planting areas to corn, according to the forecast of the National Grain and Oil Information Center, the surplus of corn in China is expected to reach more than 200 million tons for the first time this year.

The pilot agricultural subsidy reform has merged three major agricultural subsidy policies that have been implemented for 11 years into one. In response to this, some experts told reporters that at present, in many places, some farmers can get subsidies even if they do not grow grain. However, new types of operators, such as large grain growers, family farms and farmers' cooperatives, who are really engaged in grain production, are difficult to get subsidies in addition to their own contracted farmland. After the integration of the three subsidy policies, 20% of the stock of comprehensive agricultural subsidies is used to support the moderate scale operation of grain, and another 80%, plus direct subsidies for farmers and subsidies for improved varieties of crops, are used for the protection of cultivated land fertility. The subsidy targets are all land farmers who have the right to contract cultivated land, which can really achieve "whoever grows grain will benefit."

With regard to the reform of the mode of financial investment related to agriculture, Wang Dehua, an associate researcher at the Institute of Financial Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Economic Information Daily: "cleaning up and integrating and standardizing agriculture-related transfer payments is closely related to the reform of China's overall financial transfer payment system. The excessive and excessive special transfer payment in China has been criticized by all walks of life for a long time. " Wang Dehua said that cleaning up and integrating special transfer payments is a focus of China's fiscal and tax reform. In fact, many problems of special transfer payment focus on agricultural financial subsidies, while the main problem of agricultural capital investment is long investment. "for the grassroots, to do one thing, the funding often comes from multiple ministries and commissions. The phenomenon of small, scattered, chaotic and fragmented is serious. "

Because of the frequent problems of agriculture-related financial funds, the audit department also takes the audit of agriculture-related financial funds as one of the key tasks. Taking the audit report issued by the Nantong City Audit Bureau in mid-May this year as an example, seven Nantong city-level high-efficiency facility agricultural projects in Rudong County of Nantong City had illegal fraudulent compensation acts such as replacing the old with the new, merging declaration, and dismantling them in advance, involving nearly 4 million yuan in financial subsidies at the county and city levels.

In addition, a worker of the Agricultural Bureau of a county in the western region told the reporter that the use of the special transfer payment funds allocated by the higher government to the grass-roots level was too detailed, while the higher government did not fully understand the specific local conditions. Often, there is no money in places where money is needed, and the phenomenon of dislocation is obvious. "and special transfer payments also need local matching funds, for places with financial difficulties, to allow them to provide matching funds is tantamount to increasing the burden." Experts believe that the local expenditure with the advantage of management information should be divided into general transfer payment blocks to give the local government more control over the use of funds, which will help to improve the performance of the use of funds.

Wang Dehua also said that from the perspective of farmers, the vast majority of current subsidies focus on encouraging them to increase production rapidly, which may lead to farmers abusing pesticides and reducing soil fertility. "it is true that the heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers can ensure the growth of grain production within a year or two, but it is detrimental to food security in the long run." Wang Dehua said that the direction of agricultural subsidies plays a guiding role and can not be ignored.