Changing the Mode of Agricultural Development and speeding up Agricultural Modernization

The report of the 18th CPC National Congress clearly pointed out that we should adhere to the road of new industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics, and promote the simultaneous development of industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. Since 2013, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee for three consecutive years has stressed the need to speed up the development of modern agriculture and promote agricultural modernization. This paper makes a preliminary analysis and discussion on why to accelerate agricultural modernization, how to promote agricultural modernization and what measures to take to promote agricultural modernization.

Accelerating the modernization of agriculture is a realistic and historical task.

Agricultural modernization is the fundamental direction of China's agricultural development. Since the reform and opening up, especially since the beginning of the new century, China's modern agricultural construction has made considerable progress, and the level of agricultural modernization has been significantly improved. At present, China is in a critical period of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and accelerating modernization. It is a realistic and historical task to speed up the development of modern agriculture and promote agricultural modernization.

First, judging from the basic requirements of China's modernization drive, there is an urgent need to accelerate agricultural modernization. Due to the great influence of natural conditions and the introduction of modern elements from the outside, the development of agricultural modernization is restricted by more factors and the process is more complex, which is a "key variable" and, to a certain extent, a "slow variable" in modernization construction. Looking around the world today, we can see that most of the developed countries are countries with a high level of agricultural modernization, and none of the countries with backward agriculture and poor farmers can be regarded as modern countries. Judging from the current situation in China, industrialization has entered the middle and later stage, the rapid development of urbanization, and the accelerated integration of informatization, industrialization and urbanization. comparatively speaking, agricultural modernization has become a prominent "deficiency" of China's modernization construction. The report of the 18th CPC National Congress put forward the development strategy of "synchronization of the four modernizations". The sooner the deficiency of agricultural modernization is made up, the better, otherwise it will be a drag on the whole modernization.

Second, from the perspective of promoting China's stable economic growth, there is an urgent need to accelerate agricultural modernization. At present, China's economic development has entered a new normal, from high-speed growth to medium-to-high-speed growth, the downward pressure of the economy is increasing, and the hidden risks are gradually emerging. Under the background of the slowing down of economic growth, how to continue to strengthen the basic position of agriculture, speed up the pace of building a new countryside, and promote the sustained and rapid increase of farmers' income, so as to provide strong support for the sustained and healthy economic and social development of our country? it is not only a major challenge that we must deal with, but also a major task to accelerate agricultural modernization. In order to promote China's stable economic growth, we must first maintain the stable development of agriculture and ensure the effective supply of agricultural products. As long as agriculture and employment are stable and the economic growth rate is a little lower within a reasonable range, there will be no major problems. It can be seen that in order to adapt to the new normal of China's economic development and achieve stable economic growth, it is necessary to speed up the development of modern agriculture and promote agricultural modernization.

Third, from the perspective of promoting the long-term sustainable development of China's agriculture, there is an urgent need to accelerate the modernization of agriculture. At present, the cost of domestic agricultural production is in a "rising channel", and the "floor" is gradually rising; the prices of major domestic agricultural products have already exceeded the import prices, and the continued price increases have encountered the "ceiling". How to innovate agricultural support and protection policies and improve agricultural market competitiveness under the "double squeeze" of cost and price is a major test that China's modern agricultural development must face. The endowment of agricultural resources in China is congenitally deficient, and the per capita cultivated land and fresh water resources are only 1max 3 and 1max 4 of the world average, respectively; the ecological environment is seriously damaged, the carrying capacity is getting closer and closer to the limit, the intensity of resource development and utilization is too strong, and the strings are getting tighter and tighter. Under the "double constraints" of resources and environment, how to ensure the effective supply of agricultural products and food quality and safety, and how to improve the ability of agricultural sustainable development is an important issue that must be solved in China's agricultural development. In order to solve these contradictions and problems, we must speed up the development of modern agriculture and promote agricultural modernization.

The key to promoting agricultural modernization is to change the mode of agricultural development.

As China's economy enters the new normal, the reform enters the deep water area, and the economic and social development enters a new stage, the environmental conditions and internal motivation of agricultural development are undergoing profound changes, and it is more urgent to promote agricultural modernization by changing the mode of agricultural development.

First, to deal with the many challenges facing China's agricultural development, we must speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. In recent years, the pace of agricultural modernization in China has been accelerated, but various risks and structural contradictions are also accumulating and gathering. First, the constraints of the shortage of agricultural resources and the deterioration of the agricultural environment have become increasingly prominent. On the one hand, the contradiction of large population, land and water shortage has become increasingly prominent, and the resource constraints of agricultural development have been further strengthened; on the other hand, agricultural non-point source pollution, declining quality of cultivated land, groundwater overexploitation and other problems have become increasingly prominent. Especially after the problem of food and clothing is solved, the public's requirements for the ecological environment and the quality and safety of agricultural products are further improved, and there is an urgent need to speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. Second, the challenge of the change in the employment structure of the rural labor force has become increasingly prominent. With the massive transfer and employment of the rural labor force, the quality of the agricultural labor force has declined structurally. the problems of the concurrent industrialization of agriculture, the aging of farmers and the hollowing out of rural areas have become prominent. "who will farm the land" and "how to farm the land" has become an important issue that urgently needs to be solved. Third, the problem of structural imbalance in agricultural production has become increasingly prominent. The regional layout and resource endowment conditions do not match, the transportation of grain from the north to the south and the south-to-north water transfer coexist; the structure of grain economy and feeding is not reasonable; the increase in the inventory of some agricultural products coexists with the increase in the import of some agricultural products; and the combination of farming and aquaculture is not close enough. the decline of soil fertility and the ineffective utilization of manure in aquaculture co-exist. Fourth, the contradiction between the low comparative efficiency of agriculture and the inverted prices of agricultural products at home and abroad has become increasingly prominent. On the one hand, the cost of domestic agricultural production continues to rise, and the prices of agricultural products are low, resulting in a continuous decline in agricultural comparative efficiency; on the other hand, the prices of major agricultural products in the international market are generally lower than those of similar domestic products, leading to a continuous increase in imports. The above contradictions and problems may not be temporary phenomena in a short period of time, but all have obvious stage characteristics. In order to solve the above contradictions and problems, we must speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development.

Second, to improve the quality and efficiency of agricultural development, there is an urgent need to speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. In recent years, although China's agriculture has maintained a good momentum of increasing grain income, the contradictions between quantity and quality, total quantity and structure, input and output, cost and benefit, production and environment, current and long-term have become increasingly prominent. Generally speaking, the way of agricultural development in China is still the coexistence of traditional and modern. First, although the equipment conditions of agricultural technical facilities have been gradually improved, however, the problems of underdeveloped "capillaries" in irrigation and water conservancy canal system, inadequate "last kilometer" of agricultural science and technology extension, and low utilization rate of agricultural inputs have not been fundamentally solved; second, although the new business main body has developed rapidly, small-scale operation still accounts for the majority, which limits the improvement of agricultural labor productivity. Third, although the market system of agricultural products has initially taken shape, farmers in many places are still cultivated according to habits, feelings and imitations, so it is difficult to get out of the cycle of "more and less"; fourth, although China is a large country in the production of farming and aquaculture, but the comparative advantages of agricultural regions have not been brought into full play, agricultural production, processing, circulation, consumption and other industrial chains are out of touch, and the competitiveness of the agricultural market is not strong. Therefore, only by speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development can we improve the industrial quality, development quality and management efficiency of agriculture, and make agriculture a promising and attractive industry.

Third, we are still faced with rare opportunities and favorable conditions to speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. First, at present, there is an adequate supply of major agricultural products in China, which provides a guarantee for speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. After years of bumper harvests in China, the inventory of major agricultural products is abundant, some products have reached the highest point in history, and the economic growth rate has slowed down, which has weakened the growth of demand for the export, consumption and processing of agricultural products. the pressure on ensuring quantity in agricultural production has been alleviated, which has opened a time window to promote agricultural development from mainly pursuing output and quantity to paying equal attention to quantity, quality, efficiency, ecology and safety. Second, the full implementation of the new national food security strategy has left room for speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. Ensuring basic self-sufficiency in grain and absolute safety of food rations is the basic goal of the national food security strategy under the new situation. Agricultural production has changed from protecting all and ownership in the past to protecting key points and food rations, which has provided a more relaxed policy environment and resource space for further promoting agricultural structural adjustment. Third, the transformation and upgrading of residents' consumption structure of agricultural products has added impetus to speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. At present, China has entered the stage of accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the food consumption structure, and people should not only eat well, but also eat safely, nutritionally and healthily, providing a broad market space for the production of high-quality, safe and ecological agricultural products. it provides a strong driving force for improving the quality of agricultural products and the level of food safety. Fourth, there is an adequate supply of international agricultural products, which provides conditions for speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development. At present, the overall supply and demand situation in the global grain market exceeds demand, and the stock-to-consumption ratio of agricultural products is at an all-time high, which provides a realistic possibility and operational space for better overall utilization of domestic and foreign resources and two markets.