Where are the five practical problems of agricultural enterprises?

First, where is the money? -- the financial difficulties of agricultural enterprises

Before dawn, this is the most sorrowful scene of many agricultural investments. The original enterprises of Qingdao Blueberry and Sichuan Kiwi, which were acquired by Lenovo, are also suffering from "pre-dawn darkness" to some extent. Although Lenovo is not a "pretty girl marrying a rich family," at least it avoids the tragic outcome caused by the poor capital chain. Why are so many agricultural enterprises suffering from serious funding bottlenecks? In general, there are the following situations:

The first is to get the investment estimate wrong. Copying the industrial model of "emphasizing assets over liquidity", in order to focus the initial investment on land expropriation, construction and equipment, a small amount of liquidity can operate, and the result is far from the case. If the ratio of fixed investment to liquidity in industry is 8:2, agriculture needs to be reversed, at 2:8. Unfortunately, investors from the secondary and tertiary industries to the primary industry often do not expect the huge demand for liquidity from agricultural enterprises. Very simply, the seasonality and periodicity of agriculture is very strong, the occupation of raw materials and storage costs are also very high, and the turnover speed of liquidity is obviously slower than that of industry, which is bound to lead to the occupation of a large amount of liquidity. Pigs, for example, have a relatively short cycle in the modern agricultural industry, but it still takes six months to turn around. And it must be noted that in this cycle, pigs do not grow up, absolutely can not be sent to the slaughterhouse, that is, there is no refund in this cycle, only blindly additional liquidity, hard to carry. While industrial products can at least be sold while producing, or dealing with some products at a low price, there is no way for agriculture. What is more fatal is that agriculture is the production of living life. In the worst case of industry, the production line can be temporarily suspended because of the shortage of flow, while agriculture can not even be stopped in this worst case. Pigs cannot be fed four times a day. There is absolutely no shortage of water and fertilizer in the critical period of vegetables. Dairy cattle must continue to supply dozens of jin of forage and water every day, and animals and plants all grow according to their own biological laws. I can't stop.

In the second case, the investment cycle is shortened. Although the payback period of investment is clear in theory, the shadow of various factors in reality often leads to serious deviation from investment expectations, and the income period is too late to wait. For example, it is planned to complete the transfer of farmers' land in winter and start infrastructure construction or sowing in spring, but if the transfer of land in the hands of several farmers is not smooth, so that the overall transfer of land cannot be completed in spring, then the whole plan is out of the question. Or delay the completion of land transfer until the summer, although infrastructure construction can be done, but the sowing season has been missed and can only wait for next year. In the process of production and operation, it is also possible to encounter serious natural risks at any time, resulting in the destruction of seedlings and fields, and the only thing to do is to start all over again, not only heavy losses, but also a serious extension of the cycle. For example, severe cold in winter may cause newly planted seedlings to freeze to death in autumn and can only be replanted in spring, but the effect is not good; severe cold in late spring can lead to freezing death of flowers and young fruits of fruit trees, resulting in a serious reduction in production or even no harvest in that year. For example, in 2012, 374.43 million mu of agricultural crops were affected, accounting for 15.3% of the total crop sown area of 2.451235 billion mu, of which 172.1235 million mu, accounting for 7.0%, and 27.3945 million mu, accounting for 1.1%. The natural risk of agriculture is not only high, but also actually normalized.

Third, it is easier to think about the difficulty of financing. Industrial land is state-owned land, and once the right to use it is obtained, it can be mortgaged; and industrial factories, products, and machinery can all be mortgaged, so there are still many ways to alleviate the predicament of liquidity. But agriculture is different. first of all, agricultural land is owned by collectives. if enterprises transfer farmers' land, they can only obtain the right to operate rural collective land, which cannot be mortgaged; secondly, livestock, trees and crops operated by agricultural enterprises cannot be mortgaged, which coincides with the saying of rural people, "everything with hair does not count." Third, since the wealth of agricultural enterprises is like this, it is also very difficult to find a guarantee. Of course, the third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee has decided that the contract of agricultural land can be mortgaged, but it still needs a process of amending the relevant laws, and it will take time to formally implement it. Therefore, the financing of agricultural enterprises is very difficult, basically only rural credit cooperatives can lend, but the interest is high; there are policy-oriented agricultural development banks, the conditions are very strict, the scope is relatively small. In the process of agricultural management, once there is a shortage of funds in the critical period of production, such as the shortage of pig feed and the topdressing of fruit trees in the critical season, some agricultural enterprises have to rely on usury to save the emergency, which belongs to the practice of drinking poison to quench thirst. Only heavy interest will overwhelm the enterprise, but there is nothing we can do about it for a long time. Some of the operators of agricultural enterprises I met talked about the shortage of funds during the critical period of production, and they really had the idea of selling their children, which made people deeply sympathize.

In the fourth case, policy expectations have failed. In the past, when we talked about agriculture, we relied on policy, input and technology. Now this formulation is still not out of date. Because of the weakness of agriculture, the importance of state support to agriculture is self-evident. As long as we take a look, we can find that some listed agricultural enterprises mainly rely on policy subsidies to maintain positive profits to prevent delisting. But the problem is that most cities and counties lack a large amount of financial resources to subsidize agriculture, and they mainly rely on projects at the middle and provincial levels, and this variable is quite large, although there may be instructions from the above leaders and local administrative directors have made sureties. But the results are still unreliable. Not to mention, the national policy will be adjusted with the changes of the market, it is obviously impossible to catch up with the change and adjustment of national policy with the long cycle of agriculture. For example, since 2012, due to the surplus of the pig industry, the state has basically stopped the policy support projects related to the pig industry since 2008. during this period, it is obviously impossible for enterprises to invest in the pig industry to get subsidies and projects. coupled with the bad market situation, we can only encounter the plight of adding to the frost. There is also a situation in which local governments invite enterprises to settle in in the name of attracting investment, but it is very likely that preferential policies cannot be put in place after landing, and policy changes caused by changes in the leadership of the county may turn earlier government commitments into smoke and smoke. Although it can not be said to rely on projects for a living, but once the failure of policy expectations, the production and operation of agricultural enterprises is quite large.

(March 30, 2014)

[China Science and Technology Wealth No. 4 in 2014, Agricultural products Market Weekly No. 15 in 2014, etc.]

Second, where are the profits? -- the market difficulties of agricultural enterprises

In addition to a large number of grain, oil and agricultural products, the profit margins measured by most cash crop cultivation and animal husbandry are not low, which is also an important reason why agriculture attracts a lot of capital investment. For example, the annual gross profit margin of greenhouse vegetables can reach more than 40%, and the gross profit margin of characteristic fruits may exceed 100%, but once done, this is not the case. many people who invest in agriculture are in a mess and do not understand how to "die". Where are the profits from agriculture? It is a question worthy of reflection.

First of all, gross margins can be deceptive. The profits calculated on paper may be reliable for the secondary and tertiary industries, but not necessarily for agriculture. For example, the general gross profit margin of the supermarket has to be kept between 20% and 25% to ensure a net profit of around 3% and 5%. So how much gross profit margin does agriculture need to make money? This is a question that is difficult to answer in practice, because this kind of calculation can only serve as a reference, but it is not applicable at all. The agricultural market is volatile and difficult to predict. To some extent, it is no less than a stroke of luck. "garlic is tough" and "Jiang your army" is like this. Take pig farming as an example, basically everyone in the industry knows the three-year pig cycle of "one year earning, one year average, one year losing", and the first year must earn back the money from the last two years. But how do you measure the profits of the pig industry when investing? It is calculated according to the income of 100 yuan per pig, which is not consistent in practice! It is even more deadly now, because since the end of last year, the "pig cycle" has also been mercilessly broken. In the second half of last year, heavy investment went into all the traps to get to the bottom, and the Spring Festival in 2014 went against the market as never before, breaking the rule that festivals are bound to rise. In this case, calculated profits are basically ironic.

Secondly, agricultural products are not fully priced in the market. Agricultural products, especially major agricultural products such as grain and live pigs, are related to the fundamental stability of food for the people, so every country will not be fully market-oriented, but will vigorously carry out macro-control to ensure that the quantity of supply is guaranteed, and the price is relatively stable. Some economists joke that CPI is kidnapped by a pig, and the reality is similar. As pork is the main meat variety in the diet of Chinese residents, and the price fluctuates violently in recent years, it does have a great impact on the overall price index. Therefore, as long as the price of pigs has to be suppressed as soon as it emerges, it is not only a subsidy in the production field, but also a reserve of meat and an import supplement, so it is necessary to bring the price down. Once production has come down, subsidies will be abolished and pork stocks will be frozen, but it is difficult to expand exports. It is understandable to stock frozen pork to prop up the market, but the elimination of subsidies makes producers even worse. Therefore, the profits of agricultural products will inevitably be affected by the national macro-control, which is an important factor that can not be ignored.

Third, labor is a big cost. What farmers can do, enterprises may not be able to do, because farmers do not ask themselves for wages, they earn more and earn less is their own. Profit margins in many industries look beautiful before labor costs are removed. Typical is the beef cattle industry, the market beef price is so high and very tight, think of it must be a good profit, but few enterprises pay attention, the fundamental reason is not to make money. Because the cycle of raising cattle is too long, it usually takes more than two years, and the cost of raising enterprises is too high. Only farmers in mountainous areas can raise cattle, and the site does not need to be built. The forage is mainly solved by grass on the mountain. The labor cost is also very low, and the final profit is not bad. If the enterprise raises, then the site, forage, labor, capital and other costs are high, in terms of the current market situation, it is also difficult to make money. If we look at the rising prices of agricultural products on the market, there is basically a rule that those that can be industrialized or mechanized will rise slowly or even cheaper; those that cannot be industrialized or mechanized will certainly be more expensive, and every year is as expensive as a year. In the past, it was ridiculed that water is more expensive than milk and food is more expensive than meat in developed countries, but now it is almost done in China. The price of meat is so cheap that even consumers can't stand it this year, but the price of vegetables is still rising on the whole. Where are there any dishes in the vegetable market today? Like Zanthoxylum bungeanum, people complain that more than 20 yuan per jin of pepper is too expensive. in fact, the labor cost of picking only in a jin of pepper is two or three yuan, not to mention the usual expenses of field management, production investment, and so on. On average, they earn a thousand yuan per mu, and the price seems good, but farmers still give up a lot. For example, the rising price of apples is also related to labor costs. nowadays, in the links of flower thinning, fruit thinning, bagging, bagging, picking, and so on, labor costs hundreds of yuan a day. There is also the usual fertilization and spraying, which does not rely on manual labor. Nowadays in fruit areas, it is not unusual to drive a private car to send farm workers to the orchard. Without such conditions, even farm workers cannot be recruited. Labor-intensive industries such as vegetables and fruits are not good labor costs, and their profits must be greatly reduced.

Fourth, it depends on how much rotten it is. The biggest characteristic that distinguishes agricultural products from industrial products is their freshness. Preservation and storage are not only technically difficult, but also the cost remains high. The loss of the final storage link is not a small number. Even for storage-resistant agricultural products such as grain, the loss in storage is 8%, not to mention fresh agricultural products. How much will the same vegetables be lost from the fields to long-distance trafficking, to the vegetable market and then to the hands of consumers? For example, how many layers of common Chinese cabbage will be peeled off in the process from the ground to the hands of consumers? There is also water loss, the water content of vegetables and fruits is generally more than 90%, water loss in the process of transportation is common, not only the weight decreases, but also the quality deteriorates. What is mentioned above is still normal wear and tear, which is usually about 30%. Now you can see why all the fresh e-commerce companies in the early days have fallen out. Because they naively compete with the vegetable market, thinking that the Taobao model can be copied to agricultural products, they do not know that the wholesale and retail model of the vegetable market is precisely the most efficient and the lowest cost of agricultural products. No matter how stupid the vegetable seller knows, you must not let the fresh vegetables of the day spend the night, and the fresh agricultural products sold online take several days to reach consumers. Can there be good results? As for the worst-case scenario, it cannot be sold. For industrial products, the market is not good, so they can only reduce prices, but once there is a surplus of agricultural products, they can only compete to see it rot in the storehouse and in the ground, because long-distance transportation is more expensive than vegetables. Moreover, as soon as the season is over, we have to plant the next crop of crops, so we can only mechanically plough into the soil and make green manure. The painstaking efforts of the whole season are wasted, and the expenses of fertilizers, pesticides, labor, machinery and so on are included. In such a situation, why talk about profits?

Fifth, if you can afford it, you cannot afford to pay for it. It is not easy to make money in agriculture, but it is much easier to lose money. Good profits simply cannot withstand the impact of risk. The risk of agriculture is really difficult to control. Natural disasters account for about 1 percent of the crops in the country every year, mainly including droughts, floods, hail, frost, diseases and insect pests, and so on. For example, a late spring cold in spring may cause the flower buds of economic trees such as walnut, apple and pepper to freeze to death, directly affecting the yield of the year, and serious may lead to no harvest. For example, a hailstorm can scar an apple that could have been sold for three yuan a jin overnight, but it can only be disposed of to the juice factory at a price of a few cents. The rumors of bird flu around the Spring Festival in 2014 (note that it was later corrected that it was not bird flu, but other influenza) caused the national poultry industry to be hit hard, prices fell, sales were not smooth, and the vast number of poultry farmers suffered heavy losses, but who will pay for this loss? At present, the coverage of agricultural insurance is still very limited. In most cases of disaster, there is no insurance to pay for it. This risk can only be borne by ourselves. There is no profit in the face of risk!

Sixth, it is competing with interest. The financing cost of agriculture is very high, and if it can have as much money as Lenovo, it will settle down and be prepared not to make money for ten years. However, most operators who invest in agriculture do not have this strength and can only struggle with the issue of funds. Under the circumstances that farmland cannot be mortgaged and it is difficult to guarantee, the key farming season can only rely on private financing, and the high interest costs alone can gobble up a lot of profits, once the market situation does not meet expectations. There is only a modern version of the story of "overcharging three or five dou". And the investment cycle is so long that falling before dawn has become an important phenomenon of agricultural investment.

At the same time, there are some inexplicable things. This thing can also be counted as the so-called "unforeseen" expense in general investment. In agriculture, there is a lot of contact with all aspects of related aspects, especially in rural areas, such as fees, sponsorship, and similar things that are not only common, but also spend a lot of money. It is also a rigid cost, but many underestimates also affect profits.

(April 6, 2014)

[agricultural products Market Weekly No. 15 in 2014, Organic slow Life No. 7 in 2014, etc.]

Third, where are the talents? -- difficulties in the development of agricultural enterprises

The owner of a farm confided to me his entanglement: the college student in charge of the technology on the farm already earns 6,000 yuan a month, but he also asks for a salary increase of 8,000, and if it doesn't go up, he has to leave, and the current market situation is not good enough to increase the burden of expenses. it may also cause a chain reaction of salary increases for other employees. I asked him, how are the college students' skills, and whether they have found other substitutes? He said that the technology is very good, and there is no replacement for the time being. So I replied, it is normal that there are no replacements, and professionals cannot be found in all farms. You are very lucky to have college students. Please raise your salary happily. As for other employees who do auxiliary work, how can their wages be compared with technical work? You can go to the city with you.

In fact, among the bosses of many agricultural enterprises that I have come into contact with, they are basically faced with such practical difficulties that they cannot find talents; they are not easy to find one, but they still cannot keep them. Recently, I read an article saying that the biggest problems for small and medium-sized enterprises are the shortage of talents and the difficulty of financing, especially for agricultural enterprises. As the saying goes, it is easy to get a thousand troops, it will be difficult to find, without good talents, the management of the enterprise will not keep up, the technology will not keep up, and the efficiency will certainly be affected, which is the fundamental plan for the development of the enterprise. But why is it so hard to find talents in agricultural enterprises?

First of all, there is a shortage of agricultural talents. Under the influence of traditional ideas, when it comes to agricultural majors, the first thing that comes to mind is to work in rural areas. due to the huge gap between urban and rural conditions, who wants to go to rural areas? And those students who finally come out of the rural areas will not easily give up the opportunity to jump out of the agricultural door and learn some majors back to the countryside. Also, can't you see that many traditional agricultural universities conform to the trend of market economy, some have set up colleges of humanities, some have even opened business schools, and have been transformed into comprehensive universities one after another. Under such circumstances, there will certainly not be many students studying farmers. As far as I know, the animal husbandry major in agricultural colleges and universities is one of the most sought-after majors. Without even having to hold a job fair, graduates are snapped up. But even so, it is still difficult to recruit students professionally, so what can be done? You can criticize that your ideas are not liberated and there are problems with social values, but can you change them easily?

Secondly, fewer people learn from farmers and are willing to engage in agriculture. I majored in agriculture. at that time, someone shouted that learning agriculture, forestry and water was tantamount to giving birth to the wrong fetus, and the end result after graduation must be to change careers, the main reason is the poor production and living conditions of the agricultural industry. Large aquaculture enterprises must be built in lonely mountains and mountains far from urban and rural areas and villages, not only sparsely populated, but also very inconvenient. There will be no ktv bar, no wifi, or even "spring" and "home without 24-hour hot water" at night. The epidemic prevention of large-scale farms is also very strict, that is, they have to meet a girlfriend, have to work shifts in advance, and have to be disinfected and isolated when they come back, which may even affect their marriage. Under such circumstances, how can young people stay? A boss asked me, "you work as a youth. What's wrong with young people now?" With a monthly salary of 1500 for typists, a bunch of graduate students came; 3500 for production managers, no one came. I replied with a smile that this is precisely the choice of "rational people" in economics. Not to mention that agricultural enterprises generally have difficulties in making profits, and the salary standards offered are not high, and they are at a disadvantage compared with urban enterprises.

Third, the channel for the rise of talents is narrow. Even with a high salary and emotional warmth, it is difficult to retain talent for a long time. Because agricultural enterprises are generally small, and generally do not have modern enterprise system and mechanism, the bosses of enterprises generally lack the concept of modern enterprise management, and the management methods are traditional and simple. No matter how well talents do in agricultural enterprises, they are still part-time workers. It may be difficult to accept the management methods and methods, not to mention the influence of realistic factors such as going to the city to return home, inconvenient life and so on. Among the agricultural enterprises I have come into contact with, many of their management are family-based, which is very difficult to give outsiders the opportunity to integrate, and there is no socialization of property rights, and there is no personalization, which can only be expressed as our family. How father and son, husband and wife, and brothers are distributed is not clear, forming a hidden danger of internal disputes. In recent years, the separation of private enterprises has staged a number of father-son enmity, husband and wife. As an external employee of an enterprise, it is difficult to have much room for development. once there is a dispute among the industry department of the enterprise, it is more likely to "catch fire in the city and bring calamity to the pond fish". It is not surprising that he chose to leave.

Fourth, it is difficult to match the supply of talents with the development of enterprises. There are generally two types of talents needed by agricultural enterprises, one is to manage technology, how to standardize production, how to reduce the risk of epidemic disease, how to improve quality, and so on, very professional, non-professionals can not serve; one is engaged in operation and management, how to go to the manager, how to open up the market, how to run capital projects, and so on. However, it is a pity that these two types of talents are in charge of each side of the enterprise, and it is difficult to integrate. There must be a generalist who knows both (not necessarily specialized) at the helm. It is already very difficult to find the classification professionals in front, and the latter generalist is even more difficult to find. When Liu Chuanzhi chose Chen Shaopeng to take the helm of Lenovo Agriculture, he said, "Why should we choose a PC person to do agriculture? later we studied it. Do you think it is appropriate to choose aquaculture or experts who grow rice and fruits to do agriculture?. Large groups like Lenovo are naturally full of talents, and some are selective, but what about ordinary agricultural enterprises?

Fifth, it is closely related to the boss's view on the use of personnel. I have observed the employment concept of agricultural enterprises, and there are generally the following: one is cronyism, lest the real power of the enterprise fall into the hands of others, not only do not give up the real power, but also keep a close eye on it, and there are a lot of requirements, and it is uncomfortable for people to stay. Must have changed jobs early. The second is to have a different plan, hiring retired leaders or middle-level cadres, although they also have management experience, they mainly want to make use of other people's contacts to compete for funds to run projects, while enterprise management and technology are second. The three types are the display vase type, the enterprise is not large, and the people invited are not small. What sea turtles, what business management talents, and what fund investment bank managers are 108000 miles away from agriculture, they often aim too high, disobey soil and water, waste money in vain, and even "invite a son-in-law to be angry to death", forcing away the practical talents who are really useful. Four are the type of scholar in white, the enterprise is not big, but the style is not small, there is a talent, superficial respect, real fear, lest they appear to have no ability, just like Wang Lun, the white scholar who first went to Liangshan, there is no room for people. In this day and age, who wants to be Lin Chong? You'd better leave early and throw yourself at the top of the mountain. Wait. Under these views on the use of personnel, even if there are talents, it is difficult to really recruit.

In short, talents are always the heart of agricultural enterprises. There are environmental problems as well as individual problems. My suggestion is to start with self-improvement and create mechanisms that talents are willing to come, such as share incentives, performance awards, warm care, and so on. Efforts should be made to weaken the disadvantage of agricultural enterprises in talent competition.

(April 8, 2014)

[agricultural products Market Weekly No. 16 in 2014, the inaugural issue of Talent Research, etc.]

4. Where is the management? -- difficulties in the operation of agricultural enterprises

Is an agricultural enterprise an enterprise? You can say yes or no. Because to some extent, agricultural enterprises are also affected by the difference between agriculture and industry, it is very difficult to establish a modern enterprise system. For example, for listed agricultural enterprises, a very typical problem is finance, dealing with farmers, cash exchanges without invoices, which is common in rural areas, but it is not allowed according to the listed company system, and once it is standardized, it is necessary to increase management costs and operational difficulties; there is also the problem of inventory, industrial enterprises are counted according to the value of goods in stock, while agricultural enterprises are planted in the fields and raised in circles. However, since agricultural enterprises want to go to the market and become bigger and stronger, they must establish a modern enterprise system, standardize management, and develop in the process of strengthening management. In reality, many people complain that agricultural enterprises are not big, and one of the important reasons is that enterprise management is not good enough.

It depends on ability when you are small, and on management when you are big.

I remember that around 2000, there were two village-run dairy enterprises in Shaanxi with an output value of more than 100 million yuan at the same time, which was talked about by people at that time, although private enterprises in Shaanxi were underdeveloped as a whole, however, the development of agricultural products processing enterprises represented by dairy products is full of vitality. Another decade later, one of the two enterprises is still at the level of 100 million yuan, while the other has entered the echelon of state-level dairy enterprises, with an output value of more than 2 billion yuan. Why is that? The enterprise management system is an important reason. This company, which has become a state-level enterprise, has rapidly established a modern enterprise management system and mechanism, transformed from a village-run enterprise into a modern large-scale dairy processing enterprise and settled in the industrial park in time, and later listed overseas for financing, and the development of the enterprise industry has been qualitatively improved. On the other hand, the other company continues to maintain the village-run enterprise system, and the main leaders of the enterprise are shoulder to shoulder with the leaders of the village "two committees." the triennial election of the "two committees" of the village often brings about the replacement of personnel, which directly affects the development of the enterprise. it is lucky that the business thinking may be greedy for merit and rash forward, or conservative retrogression and repeated twists and turns.

Looking back at many agricultural enterprises, when they started, they often relied on the individual ability of the leaders, who not only endured hardships and worked hard, but also had a keen management mind, and quickly opened up the world, but to a certain extent, they gradually fell short of their ambitions. They were both bosses and buddies, not to mention hard work. The ceiling of management is hard to break. According to the general management theory, the number of teams is more than 50, the existence of management is inevitable. Those agricultural enterprise bosses who do well do not have a high degree of self-confidence and do it themselves, but know that they are lack of ability, invite talents in time, set up a core management team, and constantly improve their management level.

It is easier to share adversity than prosperity-- be on guard against the risks of family business.

In addition to those agricultural enterprises that have come from the countryside with capital, many native-born agricultural enterprises are family-owned. As the saying goes, "fighting tiger brothers, fighting father and son soldiers", agricultural enterprises that can go through several growing risks are often the main force in the process of starting a business. There are family businesses both at home and abroad, but the general operations abroad are relatively stable, while domestic family businesses are prone to the phenomenon of antagonism between husband and wife and feud between father and son. the fundamental reason is that although foreign family enterprises are family-oriented, but the property rights are socialized, the equity of famous family enterprises, such as Bao Kuomong Matsushita and Rockefeller, are decentralized and do not affect the normal operation of the enterprise because of the internal problems of the family. On the other hand, Chinese family enterprises often have strong patriarchal characteristics, the equity is closed, and the operation of the enterprise can only be maintained by the ability level of the family members. More importantly, China's family enterprises are not only not socialized in terms of property rights, but also not personalized, which can only be expressed as belonging to our family, and the distribution of father and son, husband and wife, and brothers is not clear, laying hidden dangers for later internal disputes. How many family feuds have been staged by private enterprises in recent years! Therefore, clarifying the property right is an institutional issue that must be paid attention to in the development of agricultural enterprises and general private enterprises.

This also puts forward an important issue that Chinese family businesses need to think about: what is the sustainable development of family businesses, which is by no means always in the hands of their own family members or in the hands of future generations, but to learn from the West to make enterprises a part of society, just like making water a part of the ocean, so that it will never dry up.

Harvard Management may not work either-the core of management is people, not things.

There is a seemingly interesting story about the fundamental problems of agribusiness management. A group of management teams with famous school doctors and returnees were at a loss to manage a farm, when the rural mother of the enterprise leader came to relax and took a stroll around the farm, but unexpectedly and accurately pointed out the crux of the management. she saw that the company hired farmers to commute to and from work like factories in the city, and the plot of its labor was suspected to be a people's commune. Where did the enthusiasm and efficiency of labor come from? Since then, the management has adopted a method similar to the contract based on output, and the production efficiency and the quality of agricultural products have been improved rapidly. This story shows that the core of agricultural enterprise management is to manage people, and it is not superficial systems and norms, but basically in line with economic and social laws, so that employees have the motivation to work. In fact, it is not only agricultural enterprises, but also people are the core of the whole enterprise management. In the best-selling financial management book the Seven habits of highly effective people, the management concepts of the East and the West are integrated at the "human" level, that is, the core of management lies in people rather than things, although the purpose is a thing, but it fundamentally lies in people's mental problems rather than material problems, which mainly solve people's moral problems rather than ability problems, and the ideal realm of management is the coordination of people rather than individual fighting alone.

Since we are in charge of people, we must put people first. Now everyone says that customers come first, but in the book "the greatest Company in Japan: the shining Soul of Sustainable Operation," it is clearly stated that the purpose of running a company is to fulfill the mission and responsibility of "five people." employees are ranked first, followed by employees and their families, downstream outsourcing manufacturers, customers, local communities, and shareholders. Why put employees first? Because the employees of the enterprise do not just pursue interests, they seek happiness and dignity at work; when the enterprise respects the needs of employees, they will spontaneously work hard and work faithfully for the company. In the case of employees as the first, it is bound to make employees and their families have a strong emotion and work motivation, and then it will be transformed into the quality of products and excellent service, and ultimately reflected in a high degree of customer satisfaction.

From the perspective of practice, agricultural enterprises should focus on managing three types of people. One is the core management team, which is related to the development of the enterprise, which often makes people feel that "a thousand troops are easy to get, but one will be difficult to find". To find a good management team, we need to rely on a good vision for the development of enterprises, enterprises with no future can not retain people; to rely on the personality charm of enterprise leaders, to do things always rely on feelings, rely on like-minded; also rely on an effective incentive mechanism, the man can not be a lifetime, Shanxi businessmen invented the body stock a long time ago, and the equity incentive system of professional managers in modern enterprises is also quite mature and needs to be effectively applied.

The second category is scientific and technological talents. In essence, the development of modern agriculture is promoted by modern science and technology. Professionals determine whether the enterprise development strategy can be successfully implemented and the future development direction, and respect scientific and technological talents emotionally. Preferential treatment, empowerment in production, give loose space to play the ability.

The third category is a large number of employees, including a large number of farmers. in fact, it is almost difficult to standardize the evaluation and effective supervision of the agricultural production process, so the vast majority of agricultural business units in the world are family operations. because only in this way can we mobilize the enthusiasm of labor and realize the transformation from working for others to working for ourselves.

Of course, the word management itself can also be discussed, to some extent, it is not management but reason, reason is the idea, rationality, understanding, service to achieve management. To attract and unite the team with influential brands, to lead the development of the enterprise with the connotation of culture, and to let the team follow with true respect in the heart. Of course, these are no longer the problems of agricultural enterprises, but the problems that ordinary enterprises will encounter, and there is no standard answer to provide, which needs to be constantly explored and summarized in practice.

(II ○ 27 May 2014)

5. Where are the standards? -- the difficulty of quality in agricultural enterprises

One year, a breach of contract agriculture occurred and caused social contradictions. Groups of farmers dumped their agricultural products in front of the purchasing enterprises and poured out their "exploiting farmers" behavior. for a time, the relevant reports full of moral criticism spread rapidly. the spearhead is all directed at the enterprises concerned and the local government. However, with the deepening of the investigation, it was found that the matter was not that simple at all, and it became a question of who breached the contract.

It turns out that enterprises and farmers have signed a contract for the production of green knife beans exported to Japan. In order to keep them fresh, they must be picked about 10 days after flowering. The green knife beans are about 10 centimeters long and the pods are not fibrotic and hard. However, farmers found that green knife beans could grow longer, so most of them were sent to enterprises at about 20 centimeters, which obviously could not meet the export requirements, so enterprises refused to accept them. How can the peasants be willing, and the conflict is inevitable. At the end of the incident, although the local government and enterprises took matters into account, they pointed out an important practical problem: order agriculture is relatively easy to handle in terms of quantity, while it is more difficult to meet in terms of quality. this is an important reason why many "enterprises + farmers" model has come to a dead end or even turned into enemies.

When I was working in the county, I made a special research on this, and found that when the economic cooperation organization or agricultural socialization service organization was underdeveloped, it could only be started temporarily by the agricultural technology department of the government to ensure that the agricultural products produced meet the standards and meet the quality requirements, but these are only temporary measures. How many order agricultural projects can be managed by the strength of the agricultural technology department? Therefore, we must see some particularities of the quality management of agricultural products and standardize the quality management of agricultural products production from the reality.

First of all, it must be noted that agricultural products cannot be as standardized as industrial products. There is a philosophy that "there are no two identical leaves in the world", which is most appropriate for the quality of agricultural products. Agricultural products are the natural growth results of animals and plants. Although human factors can affect the growth of animals and plants, they can not completely change the growth of animals and plants, nor can they obliterate the individual differences between animals and plants. Therefore, it is impossible to make agricultural products exactly the same as industrial products. Because industrial products are lifeless and are made of machine tools and molds, they must be exactly the same. of course, there will be slight differences in different batches of products due to technical operation or machine aging, but at least they look the same on the surface.

Secondly, the current decentralization of small-scale production by farmers makes the standardization of agricultural products more difficult. The management level of different farmers is different, and the result is that there are differences in the level of soil fertility, technical management, the growth and development of animals and plants, and the final agricultural products. Typical like fruit, although Luochuan apple is very famous, the apple quality of different farmers' orchards is different, and there are differences in taste, size, color, shape and so on. The plots that apply organic fertilizer and chemical fertilizer are different, that is, the same organic fertilizer is applied. The plots that use sheep manure and pig manure are also different. Therefore, when purchasing agricultural products, many enterprises often fall into quality panic in the face of scattered farmers, because this means that the quality of agricultural products from the same enterprise and one place of origin cannot be kept the same. maybe the taste of the agricultural products eaten by customers this time is different from that eaten last time.

Thirdly, the frequent natural risks make the quality control of agricultural products very difficult. The biggest difference between agricultural and industrial production is that it is obviously affected by natural risks. although there are facilities to protect and form an artificial small environment, the vast majority of agricultural products still have to be produced in the field. Drought, frost, low temperature, low light, diseases and insect pests will affect the quality of agricultural products, including appearance and internal quality, such as smaller or even deformed shape, skin scars, bad flavor, etc. May cause the quantity of the order to be difficult to meet If it is seriously affected, the order may not be fulfilled at all. This kind of natural risk brings unexpected quality impact, many enterprises are not urgent to deal with, the loss is very heavy.

In addition, the incomplete market order also makes the quality problem complicated and confusing. When something is good, everyone will start to imitate it. In the end, "Li Kui" may not be able to fight "Li Ghost", which is a stubborn disease in the current market. This is true of industrial products, not to mention agricultural products. Take tea as an example, real famous tea must be native to a special region, but because famous tea has its own appearance characteristics, similar imitations appear on the market, such as Xihu Longjing Tea's two leaves with one heart and flat body. the current tea-making process is very easy to imitate, but it is difficult for ordinary consumers to identify. At present, the quality supervision of agricultural products is not in place, under the guidance of interests, farmers, purchasing, processing and selling enterprises, terminal sellers and other links may exist, which also increases the difficulty of quality standard control.

Although standardization is very difficult, the exploration of agricultural product standardization continues to move forward. At present, the following paths have been explored:

First, to ensure quality with a sound standard system. What kind of products to produce and what kind of quality to achieve should be transformed into standardized and detailed technical operation procedures, when to sow seeds, when to fertilize, when to weed and control diseases and insect pests, when to harvest, how to store, etc., all digital and operable, according to this to guide the production operation and achieve standardization.

Second, improve the quality with a scientific management system. Let enterprises to produce, the cost is too high; let farmers disperse production, and it is difficult to unify the quality. As a result, the form of "enterprise + peasant household" has gradually evolved into: enterprises uniformly provide production materials, technical guidance, operation norms, guide farmers to unify sowing, unified fertilization, unified prevention and control, unified harvesting, and so on. Some of the general situation is "six unification". Some are summarized as "eight unification", and farmers become the production cars of enterprises. Or the enterprises transfer the land uniformly, and the farmers become agricultural workers and operate according to the production scheduling orders like the workers, but faced with practical problems such as difficult to supervise the production process and difficult to guarantee the effective efficiency, it is possible to repeat the collective labor scene of the people's commune. Or enterprises and farmers cooperate in the name of shareholding and partnership operation, enterprises and farmers sign contracts similar to contract management, and take benefits and standards as the basic yardstick for assessment.

Third, to protect the quality with a complete monitoring system. The whole process traceability system, represented by Lenovo Agriculture, has provided modern means for the quality control of agricultural products. The latest technologies such as 3G, cloud computing and the Internet of things have made the intelligent agricultural system which integrates perception, transmission, control and operation become a reality. so that the original sold to the market is not clear about agricultural products have identity cards, production management, storage and transportation and other links can be checked. The behavior of mixing beads with fish eyes in the market is prevented. Three days before the fruit harvest, the sampling inspectors picked the fruit according to the established sampling route and secretly affixed the radio frequency bar code to each fruit; after the sample was filled and the box was covered, the password lock built in the bar code was locked, and the lock would be opened only if the GPS signal at the testing place matched. In this way, the sample inspector cannot change the sample halfway; if the lock is forcibly unlocked, the system will enter the automatic alarm system.

Fourth, improve quality standards with advanced technology. For example, in apple production, there is a complete set of fruit selection production line, which can classify apples according to size, chromaticity and so on, and automatically sort and pack them, so that the original non-uniform bulk apples have a relatively standard quality. Another example is the improvement of animal and plant varieties to produce traits that are more in line with the target needs, such as gift watermelons, virgin fruits, mini tomatoes, and so on, with the improvement of modern breeding methods, has become relatively consistent in size, shape, maturity, main quality indicators, and the degree of quality standardization has been greatly improved. But more agricultural products are still on the road to quality improvement.

In short, due to some characteristics of agricultural products, it is difficult to completely standardize production as industrial products, but the direction of standardization can not be changed, and all exploration will continue. In particular, the accelerated infiltration of modern science and technology and information technology will further promote this process.