How to break the curse of Agricultural Development

Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "opinions on speeding up the Transformation of the Mode of Agricultural Development," which is the first important document on the systematic deployment of the transformation of the mode of agricultural development at the national level. How to change the mode of agricultural development? What is the current focus? How to achieve the goal? The reporter interviewed Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture.

Under the new situation, there is an urgent need to speed up the transformation of agricultural development mode.

"We often say that China feeds 20% of the world's population with 10% of the world's arable land and about 6% of the world's freshwater resources. But behind this great achievement, a great price has been paid. " Han Changfu said: on the one hand, due to the long-term overdraft and overdevelopment of agricultural resources, the strings of resource utilization are getting tighter and tighter; on the other hand, agricultural non-point source pollution is increasing, agro-ecosystem is degraded, and the carrying capacity of the ecological environment is getting closer and closer to the limit. Agricultural development is facing the two "hoops" of resource conditions and ecological environment, so it is urgent and urgent to speed up the transformation of the mode of development and achieve sustainable development.

Han Changfu said: at present and for a period of time in the future, speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development should focus on the development of various forms of moderate scale operation, with the construction of modern agricultural management system, production system and industrial system as the focal point. we will strive to change the mode of agricultural operation, production, resource utilization and management, and promote agricultural development from quantity growth to equal emphasis on quantity and quality benefits. From relying mainly on the input of material elements to relying on scientific and technological innovation and improving the quality of workers, and from extensive management dependent on resource consumption to sustainable development, take the road of modern agricultural development with high output efficiency, product safety, resource saving and environment-friendly.

Changing the mode does not mean relaxing grain production.

With the economic development entering the new normal, some new changes have taken place in the situation of grain supply and demand. Does the transformation of agriculture have any impact on food security?

"changing the mode of agricultural development in no way means relaxing grain production and never weakening the comprehensive production capacity of agriculture." Han Changfu said: the "opinion" proposes to persist in taking the enhancement of grain production capacity as the primary prerequisite. Ensure that the rice bowl is firmly in one's own hands at all times and lay a solid foundation for changing the mode of agricultural development. At the same time, the "opinions" have made corresponding adjustments in the idea of ensuring national food security, mainly to promote the transformation of grain production from paying attention to annual output to steadily increasing grain production capacity, so as to achieve "stable output", "storing grain in the ground" and "storing grain in technology".

Han Changfu explained: "stable output" means to concentrate efforts and do everything possible to preserve the most basic and important grains and food rations, and on this basis, give overall consideration to the production of important agricultural products such as cotton oil and sugar and "vegetable baskets." To "hide grain on the ground" is to speed up the construction of high-standard farmland. Take the construction of high-standard farmland as the platform, integrate the paid fees for the use of new construction land, funds for comprehensive agricultural development, and funds for the development of modern agricultural production, make overall use and concentrate efforts on construction, and build 800 million mu of high-standard farmland by 2020. "storing grain in technology" is to take the connotative development road of relying on scientific and technological progress and improving the level of per unit yield.

The core of the transformation mode is to develop appropriate scale operation of various forms of agriculture.

The "opinion" points out that to speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development, we should take the development of appropriate scale operation of various forms of agriculture as the core. How does the scale operation of land meet the new requirements of changing the mode of agricultural development?

Han Changfu said: this is clearly expounded in the "opinion," that is, on the basis of steadily carrying out the registration and certification work of confirming the right of contracted management of rural land, various localities should take measures such as financial awards to support the development of appropriate scale operations in various forms of agriculture, and guide farmers to transfer contracted land by means of subcontracting, leasing, exchange, transfer, and shareholding in accordance with the law. Where there are conditions, on the premise of adhering to the use of agricultural land and resolutely preventing "non-agriculturalization", we can uniformly reorganize cultivated land according to the wishes of farmers, reduce the ridge of farmland as far as possible, expand the area of cultivated land, and improve the level of mechanized operation.

Specifically, efforts are made in three aspects: first, to encourage innovative forms of land transfer. We will speed up the development of various forms of land management rights transfer market, and encourage contracted farmers to transfer contracted land by means of subcontracting, leasing, exchange, transfer and shareholding in accordance with the law. Encourage qualified places to formulate support policies, guide farmers to transfer contracted land for a long time and promote their transfer of employment.

The second is to reasonably determine the scale of land management. The scale of land management is not the bigger the better. There should be an appropriate scope, which should be reasonably determined in accordance with local conditions. It is estimated that at the present stage, key support should be given to those whose income from farming on the scale of land management is equivalent to the income of workers in the local secondary and tertiary industries, and if the scale of land management is equivalent to 10 times the area of land contracted by local households.

Third, improve the socialized service system of agriculture. We will improve the level of scale by establishing and improving the socialized service system of agriculture. We will encourage the development of a trusteeship service model that does not change the contracted relationship between farmers and ensure that there are people in the land, and encourage large grain growers, agricultural machinery farmers and agricultural machinery cooperatives to carry out full-process trusteeship or major production links, so as to achieve unified farming and large-scale production.

Change the mode and resolutely control agricultural non-point source pollution

In response to the problem of agricultural non-point source pollution concerned by the society, Han Changfu said that the situation of agricultural non-point source pollution in some parts of China is showing a trend of improvement, but the overall problem is still quite prominent, and it has even intensified in some places. The "opinion" proposes to do a good job in the battle to control agricultural non-point source pollution and strive to achieve "one control, two reductions and three basics."

"one control" means to strictly control the total amount of agricultural water consumption and vigorously develop water-saving agriculture. The "two reductions" is to gradually reduce the total amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides through the implementation of zero growth in chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By 2020, we will strive to achieve zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and increase the utilization rate to more than 40%. The "three fundamentals" is to realize the basic resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure, crop straw and agricultural film.

"with regard to agricultural non-point source pollution, I would also like to make two points: first, the 'emission' of agricultural non-point source pollution is not equal to the actual 'pollution quantity'. Take chemical fertilizer as an example, 35% of the nitrogen in China's farmland chemical fertilizer is absorbed by crops in the current season, and most of the rest is gradually absorbed and utilized by later crops, farmland ditches, buffer zones, wetlands or subordinate farmland, and finally only about 7% enters the water body. the amount that really causes environmental pollution is very limited. Second, a lot of agricultural non-point source pollution is reversible. Industrial pollution is basically irreversible and can only be diluted and landfill, while most agricultural non-point source pollution can be absorbed and digested by agronomic measures, such as planting Reed to purify eutrophic water. " Han Changfu said.

Han Changfu also said: from the perspective of world agricultural development, the problem of food security cannot be solved without the extensive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and other means of production, and developed countries such as the United States, the European Union, and Japan have also experienced serious agricultural non-point source pollution. As for the problem of agricultural non-point source pollution, we should not only attach great importance to it and make up our minds to solve it, but also look at it comprehensively, historically and dialectically.

Better protect the "safety on the tip of the tongue"

With the improvement of living standards, people pay more and more attention to "safety on the tip of the tongue". Han Changfu said that in accordance with the requirements of the "opinion," the Ministry of Agriculture will adhere to the simultaneous development of production and management, and strive to grasp and hard both "production" and "management".

At the source of production, we should speed up the formulation of standards, promote standardized production, and strive to basically achieve standard-based production in the main production bases of the country's "vegetable basket" within five years; strengthen the control of inputs and promote green production; implement producer responsibility, promote large-scale production, establish a traceability system, and promote brand production. Carry out traceability pilot projects focusing on live pigs and other "vegetable basket" products, and strive to achieve traceability in most cooperatives and leading enterprises within five years.

At the level of supervision, we should not only strengthen law enforcement supervision, implement special rectification, but also innovate the supervision mode and promote social co-governance. We will carry out activities to establish national agricultural products quality and safety counties, strengthen territorial management responsibilities, and actively explore effective supervision models.