The price of agricultural materials is steadily falling. Why do farmers care about farming?

Editor's Note: In order to timely understand the spring ploughing production of grain, cotton, oil and sugar and other major crops, the supply and price of agricultural materials market, and the outstanding problems existing, the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, in conjunction with the Information Center of the Agricultural Departments (Committees) of Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Guangxi, Sichuan and Xinjiang, carried out investigations through field visits and questionnaires. This edition extracts the survey report and compiles the expectations of farmers from grass-roots survey points to reflect the actual production at grass-roots level and provide reference for government decision-making.

Farmers still have "seven hopes" for farming

Policy, technology and information must not be less

The investigation found that farmers encountered some problems in spring ploughing production and put forward seven expectations, which need to be attached great importance to and solved as soon as possible by relevant departments.

1

Hope that the information service channel is unblocked

Timely, accurate and forward-looking information is an important basis for farmers to make decisions on production and management. The urgent and concentrated information needs reflected in this survey mainly include the following aspects:

First of all, information services such as markets and meteorology should be further entered into villages and households. Some farmers in main producing areas have limited access to information, have "fear" psychology for uncertain factors such as market and weather, have no grasp of "what to plant" and "how to plant", and blindly follow the trend in planting decisions. Farmers in Laizhou City, Shandong Province want to know the market situation of agricultural products and the price of agricultural materials very much, while farmers in Jianping County, Liaoning Province want to get meteorological services most.

At present, agricultural production and management are highly marketized, farmers, large growers and cooperatives are eager for market demand, price forecast, structural adjustment and product sales information from formal and authoritative channels.

It is suggested to continue to strengthen the government's agricultural public welfare information service, accelerate the promotion of information to households through informatization means, and improve farmers 'ability to cope with market risks and natural risks. Secondly, strengthen the propaganda and interpretation of soybean target price policy, let farmers really understand the purpose of target price policy, so that they can make reasonable decisions.

2

Expect policy support to be highlighted

With the continuous expansion of land circulation scale in various places (in the investigated counties and cities, the area of circulating land in Changyuan County of Henan Province accounts for 34% of the cultivated area of the whole county, and the area of circulating land in Changtu County of Liaoning Province accounts for 30.7%), the main body of new agricultural production and management plays an increasingly important role in the development of modern agriculture, but the GSP grain subsidy policy has not really benefited this new force. In the investigation, the main body of new agricultural management hopes to get greater support.

Henan, Heilongjiang and other major grain producing areas professional large households, family farms, professional cooperatives and so on hope to gradually expand the scope of subsidies for large grain farmers pilot, subsidies can be distributed to households before spring ploughing. Jilin, Hebei and other provinces suggest that the funds for improved seed subsidies, direct subsidies for grain planting and comprehensive subsidies for agricultural materials should be integrated together and distributed uniformly to reduce the cost of fund distribution and farmers 'receiving costs; preferential subsidies such as subsidies for rice seedling greenhouses and subsidies for early maturity promotion should be used centrally, integrated into specific project construction subsidies, and inclined to family farms and professional cooperatives to give play to the overall beneficial effect of funds.

3

Looking forward to real improvement of agricultural infrastructure

At present, there are a lot of arrears in farmland water conservancy infrastructure at the grass-roots level, but it is not something that a farmer can solve or solve well.

Farmers in Changyuan County, Henan Province reflect that agricultural irrigation is not timely due to river water, and the cost of using well water to irrigate land in recent years is high. Farmers in Jianhu County of Jiangsu Province are worried about the problem of spring irrigation water source and urgently hope that relevant departments at all levels will take active action to solve the problem of spring irrigation water source. At present, most of the western part of Jilin Province is seriously deficient in soil moisture. With the increase of temperature, the possibility of drought in spring sowing is greater, while the soil in some eastern plots is too wet, and farmers generally express concern. There is also the possibility of spring drought in the northwest of Liaoning Province. It is suggested that relevant departments should prepare for drought and drainage as soon as possible, ensure the smooth progress of spring ploughing, speed up the construction of farmland water conservancy facilities, and effectively improve the comprehensive agricultural production capacity.

4

Expect agricultural materials market to be standardized and orderly

Farmers in Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Jiangsu and other places reported that illegal activities such as production and sales of fake and inferior agricultural materials still exist in the agricultural materials market: poor quality, false content and quantity of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and vague composition; seed packaging, inferior quality and cross-district sales of varieties have not been eradicated. Farmers are "afraid to buy fake fertilizers and fake seeds", and if they buy them,"it is difficult to complain and protect their rights". Farmers in Yizheng City, Jiangsu Province reported that the price of hybrid rice sold in the local market, regardless of hybrid indica and hybrid japonica, ranged from 40 yuan to 60 yuan/catty, and the pricing standard of hybrid rice seeds was unclear. Grass-roots agricultural departments reflect that in recent years, there are many varieties approved by the state and provinces, and the market has a serious phenomenon of many varieties being sold in disorder, which brings difficulties to the popularization of high-yield cultivation techniques and affects the stable yield of grain production.

Suggestions: firstly, the state should standardize the seed pricing standard of hybrid rice varieties to ensure that the price of hybrid rice varieties fluctuates within a reasonable range in the market; secondly, implement the centralized procurement subsidy mode of improved varieties bidding, that is, the relevant technical departments of the government should select the main varieties most suitable for planting in the region, and distribute the subsidies to the farmers who purchase the main varieties through centralized bidding pricing. It is suggested that agriculture, industry and commerce and other functional departments should jointly take effective measures to strengthen supervision and standardize agricultural materials market, so that farmers can buy agricultural materials and engage in production at ease.