The New Policy of Agricultural Machinery subsidy highlights "Market thinking"

The characteristic of "policy city" in China's agricultural machinery market is obvious, which leads to the gradual decrease of the marginal effect of agricultural machinery subsidies and squeezes the vitality of the main body of the market. The guidance for the implementation of subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery from 2015 to 2017 proposes to give full play to the guiding role of subsidy policies on agricultural mechanization through the market mechanism, promote the market-oriented docking of subsidized products, and improve the directivity and accuracy of policies.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance recently jointly issued the guidance on the implementation of subsidies for the purchase of Agricultural Machinery from 2015 to 2017, which has made many innovations and breakthroughs in the principles, scope and standards of subsidies for agricultural machinery. it is the adjustment and improvement of agricultural machinery subsidy policy according to the current development situation of agricultural mechanization.

Since the implementation of agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy in 2004, the development of agricultural mechanization in China has stepped into the fast lane. In the past 11 years, agricultural machinery subsidies increased from 70 million yuan in 2004 to 23.75 billion yuan in 2014, and the level of agricultural mechanization increased from 33% in 2004 to 61% in 2014. At the same time, farmers' dependence on agricultural machinery subsidy policy is obviously increased, and enterprises meet the market demand according to the agricultural machinery subsidy catalogue, and the "policy city" characteristic of agricultural machinery market is very obvious. With the continuous increase of agricultural machinery subsidy funds, the marginal effect of subsidies is gradually decreasing, which also squeezes the vitality of the main body of the market.

"Farmers and enterprises should be guided to the track of market allocation of resources as soon as possible, give full play to the leverage of financial input, maximize the prying role of limited financial funds, and attract more social capital investment." Yang Minli, a professor at China Agricultural University and a famous expert on agricultural mechanization, said in an interview with the Economic Daily.

The "opinion" points out that in the process of implementation, it is necessary to give full play to the guiding role of subsidy policies on agricultural mechanization through the market mechanism, promote the market-oriented docking of both sides of subsidized products, ensure the autonomy of machine buyers in selecting and purchasing machines, and promote the scientific and technological progress of agricultural machinery. Perfecting the subsidy policy of agricultural machinery with market-oriented thinking will promote the transformation of the development of agricultural mechanization from "policy-driven" to "two-wheel drive of policy and innovation".

Ning Xuegui, deputy secretary general of the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association, believes that the lack of effective supply is the main contradiction facing the development of agricultural mechanization in China, and there is a surplus of middle and low-end products in the agricultural machinery industry. on the other hand, there is a lack of high-end agricultural machinery equipment to meet the needs of new agricultural operators such as agricultural machinery subsoiling operations and cooperatives, and a lack of agricultural machinery equipment in weak links such as sugar cane and cotton. In order to change this situation, it is necessary to organically combine policy guidance with farmers' demand in the implementation of agricultural machinery subsidy policy, and guide farmers to purchase agricultural machinery rationally.

The opinions pay attention to the key points, speed up the mechanization of the whole production process of major crops such as grain, cotton, oil and sugar, improve the directivity and accuracy of policies, and require that the range of subsidized machinery for agricultural machinery be reduced from 175 items in 48 categories in 12 categories to 137 items in 43 categories in 11 categories.

The "opinion" also makes appropriate adjustments to the objects of subsidies, that is, from last year's "subsidies for farmers, animal husbandry and fishermen, farm (forest farm) workers, farmers' cooperatives, and agricultural production and management organizations engaged in agricultural machinery operations" to "individuals and agricultural production and management organizations directly engaged in agricultural production." A relevant responsible person of the Ministry of Agriculture said that the adjustment is mainly due to the fact that with the accelerated pace of the transfer of rural labor force, the main body engaged in agricultural production is not only farmers, animal husbandry and fishermen, but also more and more agricultural production tasks are undertaken by new business entities such as cooperatives and agricultural enterprises; in addition, after the reform of the household registration system, farmers are only a division of occupations, and it is difficult to distinguish them from their place of residence and household registration. According to the actual situation, each province can decide whether to extend the subsidy to agricultural production enterprises and so on.