How to break the "hoop spell" of Agricultural Modernization

Agriculture should change from the nirvana of the traditional primary industry to the "sixth industry", and institutional innovations such as land circulation, land trusteeship, land shareholding, land credit mortgage, large-scale land management and so on, it has become a prerequisite for attracting urban industrial and commercial capital and other social capital. A series of exploratory reforms around land are mainly aimed at realizing the standardized transfer of management rights on the basis of respecting the wishes of farmers. "

The just-concluded Central Rural work Conference evaluates and summarizes the performance of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" this year, and makes arrangements for the focus of work on "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" next year. Although the relationship between the rural work conference and ordinary people is not as direct as the Central Economic work Conference, which concluded last week, agriculture is the basis of price stability, rural areas are the vast world of the country, and the well-being of farmers is the premise of social stability. Therefore, to pay attention to the current situation and trend of the country's "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" is to pay attention to our vital interests.

Since 2004, China's grain output has achieved "eleven consecutive increases", and agriculture, animal husbandry, sideline and fishery have had bumper harvests and increased production in an all-round way, so that the whole society has a rich supply of grain and staple and non-staple food and stable prices, and farmers' income has been increased rapidly. Over the past 11 years, the overall situation of agricultural and rural development has not continued to deteriorate, providing support and strength for economic restructuring, industrial upgrading, and stable price control.

The endowment of agricultural resources in China is insufficient, and the per capita cultivated land and water resources account for only 1 / 3 and 1 / 4 of the world average, respectively. In order to harvest the same unit of grain output, the amount of chemical fertilizers used in China is 4 times that of the world average, and the utilization rate of pesticides is less than half of the world average, resulting in a continuous decline in soil fertility and unprecedented pressure on the agricultural ecological environment. At the same time, although major agricultural products have had bumper harvests in successive years, the prices of agricultural products have been hanging upside down at home and abroad for a long time, and the use of the "yellow box" policy (all kinds of agriculture-related government subsidies that lead to distorted prices of agricultural products) is approaching the limit.

In addition, due to the large number of people and little land, the scale of land management is too small, and farming is not attractive to young and middle-aged people in rural areas. At present, 270 million migrant workers account for about half of the total rural labor force, while nearly 60% of the other half of the rural labor force, whose average age is over 45, are not really engaged in agricultural production, and the contradiction between "who will farm the land" continues unabated. Generally speaking, at present, China's agriculture is facing the triple squeeze of ecological "ceiling", subsidized "ceiling" and labor age "ceiling". If we do not take advantage of the current favorable opportunity of overall domestic political, economic and social stability, we should make up for the shortcomings of agricultural modernization as soon as possible to avoid agricultural shrinkage, rural depression and the widening income gap between urban and rural areas. It is not alarmist that this may lead to social unrest, economic stagnation and the hindrance of modernization.

How to break the "hoop spell" hindering agricultural modernization? The only way is to deepen rural reform. If we say that the first ten central rural work conferences since 2004 were mainly devoted to increasing the supply of agricultural products and increasing farmers' income, and initially curbed and gradually improved the deterioration of agriculture, then, taking this rural work conference as a starting point, in the next ten years, while continuing to consolidate and ensure the increase of agricultural production and farmers' income, we should focus on solving the problems of agricultural modernization. This rural work conference is likely to be a watershed for China's agriculture to shift from focusing on increasing production and income to scientific farming and intensive farming.

Among the "five major signals" sent out by this rural work conference, the signal most valued by the urban and rural younger generation and urban industrial and commercial capital is that the "sixth industry" is about to emerge. Contemporary frontier economics calls the integration and interaction of primary, secondary and tertiary industries as "the sixth industry", which mainly introduces market industrial chain, value chain and modern industrial organization into the field of agriculture. to achieve the integration of agricultural production, agricultural products processing and circulation, and leisure services, so as to achieve the triple improvement of the output and quality of agricultural products, farmers' income and agricultural added value. The purpose of the "sixth industry" is to stretch and extend the industrial chain of modern agriculture, forming a "chain chemical reaction" of capital, technology, logistics, services, agricultural research and farming experts in the process. Agriculture has changed from a national "subsidy industry" to an "emerging industry" and become a new growth pole in the 2.0 plate of China's economy.

Agriculture should change from the nirvana of the traditional primary industry to the "sixth industry", and the institutional innovations such as land circulation, land trusteeship, land shareholding, land credit mortgage, land large-scale operation and so on, become a prerequisite for attracting urban industrial and commercial capital and other social capital. This series of exploratory reforms around land are all aimed at standardizing the transfer of management rights on the basis of respecting the wishes of farmers. In short, agricultural modernization and the younger generation in cities are not separated by mountains and rivers, and we are glad to see a group of down-to-earth people with lofty ideals fulfilling their dream of starting and starting a business in the process of agricultural modernization.