How to understand "grain and wealth upside down"

According to a recent research report by the China well-off Construction Research Association, among the 800 major grain-producing counties in China, there are 105 state-level poor counties, with a poverty-stricken population of 36 million, China Voice of China's CCTV News reported. The phenomenon of "grain and wealth upside down" between grain output and county-level financial resources is very obvious.

It should be said that "grain and wealth upside down" is indeed a common phenomenon, and "major grain-producing counties and financially poor counties" have long attracted the attention of governments at all levels, including the central government. One of the important characteristics of large grain-producing counties is that farmers have more arable land per capita and good agricultural production conditions, which is of course a good thing in terms of grain production, especially in commercial grain production. However, where there is a lot of arable land per capita, the location does not necessarily have an advantage. In places with geographical advantages, such as the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, although the agricultural production conditions are good and the grain yield per mu is high, these areas have historically been densely populated areas with few cultivated land resources per capita. Only those areas with relatively good agricultural production conditions but relatively remote and relatively recent development will have a large number of high-yield arable land and a relatively small agricultural population, resulting in more arable land per capita and more commercial grain output, thus becoming a major grain-producing county. Without geographical advantages, the development of industry and commerce will be slow, and there will be less tax revenue from industry and commerce. After the abolition of agricultural tax, the state no longer collects agricultural taxes and fees from farmers. Major grain-producing counties lack both industrial and commercial taxes as well as agricultural taxes, so their finances are of course poor.

Large grain-producing counties and financially poor counties do not mean that farmers' income is low. As far as the whole country is concerned, peasant families have generally formed a family planning model of "part-time work and part-time farming" based on the intergenerational division of labor. The income of peasant families mainly depends on the income of young children working in cities and the agricultural income of middle-aged and elderly parents staying in the village to work. In recent years, the income of farmers working has increased rapidly and has become the main source of income growth for farmers' families. As far as the major grain-producing counties are concerned, because the per capita arable land of farmers is relatively large, the income of peasant families from agriculture is relatively high, and because the agricultural income is relatively high, the pressure on ordinary peasant families to go out to work is not so great. The proportion of migrant income in household income is lower than the national level. Agricultural income accounts for a high proportion of farmers' household income, which means that peasant families are more complete.

To change the situation of major grain-producing counties and financially poor counties, a common suggestion is to promote industrialization and urbanization. The problem is that industrialization and urbanization have their inherent laws, and artificial promotion is often counterproductive. Not only has the financial capacity not been enhanced, but because of troubles, it has affected the basic stability of the local economy. In other words, industrialization and urbanization are currently being promoted in all regions of China, and this promotion and development has its own law, which has a weak relationship with whether it is a major grain production county, but has a strong relationship with location.

Major grain-producing counties are not only the basis of China's food security, but also the focus of agricultural modernization. All along, the central government has attached great importance to the construction of grain production capacity in major grain-producing counties. Various agricultural modernization projects are also focused on major grain-producing counties. In recent years, major grain-producing counties are also actively promoting the pace of agricultural modernization. The problem is that the current local understanding of agricultural modernization is often a large-scale operation based on company operation, and the state funds for supporting agriculture are mainly invested in agricultural companies that go to the countryside to compete with farmers for land and profits. We must make it clear that agricultural modernization is not the modernization that excludes the peasants, but the modernization of the peasants.

There are more than 2000 county-level administrative regions in the country, which can be roughly divided into three categories: first, counties with good geographical advantages, good industrial foundation, and strong financial strength; second, counties with relatively large resources and general economic development; and third, counties in border and poor areas of old and young. Most of the major grain-producing counties belong to the second category, of which the biggest resources are cultivated land resources. However, compared with coal, water conservancy and other resources, there is more arable land per capita, because of the abolition of agricultural tax, local finance can not benefit from agricultural development. But farmers get the benefits of these resources. According to the survey conducted by the China well-off Construction Research Association, among the 800 major grain-producing counties in China, 105 are state-level poverty-stricken counties. Compared with more than 2000 counties in the country, there are nearly 600 poverty-stricken counties, and the proportion of poor counties in major grain-producing counties is far lower than the national average. Most of the poverty-stricken counties in China are concentrated in the border and poverty-stricken areas mentioned above.

An important reason for the large grain-producing counties and financially poor counties is that the state has abolished the agricultural tax. If the state cancels the agricultural tax, it should increase the financial transfer payment to the major grain-producing counties. It should be said that in recent years, the state has made more transfer payments to major grain-producing counties, and it is right that these transfer payments are mainly used to increase grain production capacity. The problem is that, in addition, the state should also transfer to major grain-producing counties to make up for the gap in its general financial expenditure. Local governments should also pay attention to the fact that the transfer payment for the state to improve grain production capacity should not only be used to develop large-scale operation based on industrial and commercial capital, but should be mainly used to improve the production conditions of ordinary peasant households. Provide better social services for ordinary farmers, so that farmers can more easily carry out agricultural production and continue to benefit from agriculture.