The price reform of agricultural products is conducive to eliminating "subsidy dependence"

The overall idea of agricultural product price reform is to promote the gradual transformation of policies such as temporary collection and storage to the target price system of agricultural products. The state no longer directly enters the market to buy, let the price form a supply and demand relationship that truly reflects the market, while the government protects the interests of farmers through out-of-price subsidies and other means. Price reform should not only properly handle the relationship between the protection of farmers' interests and the market allocation of resources, but also comprehensively consider the systematic support of various policies.

It is reported that the price policy of agricultural products in China is ushering in a historic adjustment. Following cotton and soybeans, corn and rapeseed will also join the camp of price marketization reform.

The price formation mechanism of agricultural products is directly related to the development of agricultural and rural economy and farmers' income. In 2004, China opened up the grain purchase and sale market, but instead of laissez-faire, the state established a price control system for agricultural products and successively implemented a minimum purchase price system for rice and wheat. implement the temporary purchase and storage system for corn, soybean, rapeseed, cotton and so on. These policies regulate market fluctuations by means of state pricing and designated purchasing parties, which can not only send price signals to stimulate the production of bulk agricultural products, but also help to increase farmers' planting income, directly promoting the eleventh consecutive increase of grain production.

With the change of agricultural situation at home and abroad, the original policy is faced with new problems. The outstanding performance is that some agricultural products suffer from "subsidy dependence" to a certain extent. The original intention of implementing the temporary purchase and deposit policy is that when the price is too low, the state takes acquisition measures that are higher than the market price to avoid excessive losses for farmers. In a normal year, the acquisition of supporting the market should be planned but not started. This is originally a means of regulation and control, but it has gradually evolved into a normal means, the number of deposits in the market is getting larger and larger, and the purchase price is getting higher and higher. Some products have formed a de facto state monopoly, resulting in excessive financial burden, which is not conducive to processing and trading enterprises to enter the market.

If we do not promote the reform of the price formation mechanism of agricultural products, it will be difficult to break the dilemma that has plagued some agricultural products. The original price control policy was established under the background that the domestic price is lower than the international price. Due to the rigid increase in agricultural costs, the domestic market price of major agricultural products has comprehensively exceeded the FOB price in the international market. This makes the regulation and control of the domestic market face a dilemma: starting the purchase of supporting the market will bring burden to enterprises and finance; if it does not support the market, it may affect the income and production enthusiasm of farmers.

At present, the state is experimenting with the target price reform of cotton and soybeans in some areas, which is an innovation in the price reform of agricultural products. The overall idea of price reform is to promote the gradual transformation of policies such as temporary collection and storage to the target price system of agricultural products. The state no longer directly enters the market to buy, let the price form a supply and demand relationship that truly reflects the market, while the government protects the interests of farmers through out-of-price subsidies and other means. At present, the price reform of soybeans and cotton is successful, greatly reducing the price gap at home and abroad, but also alleviating the inventory pressure.

This year's agricultural product price reform reflects the change from the "yellow box" policy to the "green box" policy. It is a common practice for all countries to subsidize agriculture, but price subsidies are restricted by WTO rules. According to the rules, the upper limit of China's "yellow box" subsidy is 8.5% of agricultural output value, while the "green box" policy has no upper limit. In the future, the support for agriculture should be increased naturally, but the way of subsidy needs to be changed and optimized. This year, the state has implemented the "three-in-one" reform, merging the subsidies for improved varieties in the current "yellow box" policy, the comprehensive subsidies for agricultural materials, and the direct subsidy for growing grain in the "green box" policy into a "subsidy for the protection of the production capacity of cultivated land", all of which have been converted to the "green box" policy.

To promote the price reform of agricultural products, we should properly handle the relationship between the protection of farmers' interests and the market allocation of resources. No matter how the price formation mechanism and the means of regulation and control are changed, farmers must not be allowed to suffer losses. This is the bottom line of reform. Due to the particularity of agricultural production and agricultural product market, the government should bear part of the market risk to ensure the basic income of farmers. At the same time, it is also necessary to appropriately improve the tolerance for agricultural product price fluctuations, which was too sensitive to price fluctuations in the past. A plan should be made to deal with excessive market fluctuations, and a fluctuation range should be established, within which fluctuations should be regarded as reasonable.

The price reform of agricultural products should also comprehensively consider the systematic support of various policies. It is necessary to consider the differences between staple agricultural products such as grain and cotton oil sugar and fresh agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits, and choose regulation and control methods according to the particularity of the production, circulation and consumption of different agricultural products. regulation and control targets are set according to the comparative advantages, supply and demand, and trade conditions of different agricultural products. At the same time, we should pay attention to the convergence of various measures, and simultaneously implement policies such as productive subsidies, agricultural insurance, marketing loans, and interest compensation in the main producing areas.