Strengthen monitoring and early warning, establish open and transparent market rules

The third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee pointed out that the core of economic restructuring is to properly handle the relationship between the government and the market, so that the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources and gives better play to the role of the government. Building a unified, open, competitive and orderly modern market system is the fundamental direction and goal of agricultural market-oriented reform. How to improve the price formation mechanism of agricultural products, pay attention to the role of the market in forming prices and give better play to the role of the government? We consider that the key is five starting points: the first is to strengthen information monitoring and early warning to build the basis of agricultural marketization; the second is to speed up the construction of the producing market to link up the disconnection between production and marketing; and the third is to improve the price formation and control mechanism to correct the distortion of regulation and control; the fourth is to enhance farmers' marketing ability and solve the problem of subject inequality; fifth is to speed up agricultural informatization to provide technical support for innovative production management and market efficiency. The following only talks about three points about agricultural information monitoring and early warning.

Information Monitoring and early warning is the basis of perfecting Agricultural Market system

Schultz, the winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, pointed out that the key to the transformation of traditional agriculture is to adopt a market approach based on economic stimulus to encourage producers to adopt modern factors of production. We understand that the so-called market mode is to guide producers to make scientific decisions on the basis of changes in production and marketing information such as area, output, price, inventory, consumption, trade and so on. Not only the decision-making of producers, but also the free choice of consumers and the equal exchange of goods and elements are all based on market information. It can be said that open, transparent and comprehensive information is the data basis of modern market system and modern agricultural management. In order to transform the traditional agriculture, we must tamp the data foundation. At present, the developed countries are led by the government, and have established the agricultural information monitoring and early warning system from collection, analysis to release. In particular, the information monitoring and early warning of the United States Department of Agriculture has become an important tool to serve farmers, operators and demanders in decision-making, and a weather vane of changes in the global agricultural product market. Qin Fu, director of the Institute of Agricultural Economics of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, summed up its actual effect as "three rights and one benefit", that is, it dominated the voice of the international market, mastered the initiative in the regulation and control of supply and demand, controlled the dominance of world trade, and safeguarded the core interests of American agriculture.

There is an obvious gap in agricultural information monitoring and early warning between China and the United States.

In recent years, relevant departments in China have carried out agricultural monitoring and early warning work, but there is a big gap between China and the United States in guiding production and domestic and foreign markets. The reasons can be summed up in four aspects: first, the strategic positioning is not right. The main purpose of agricultural information monitoring and early warning in the United States is to open up the market for producers and operators, while China serves more for leaders' decision-making, and agriculture-related information producers are "invisible, incomprehensible, and useless". There is no corresponding legislation to ensure that information is "taken from the people and used by the people". The price collected by various departments is not the transaction price, and there is a gap between the price and the actual market situation. Second, the system and mechanism speak their own words. The operation of agricultural economy in China is managed by different departments, and the information of each link is grasped in different departments, and the standard and caliber of information collection and release of the same variety are not unified. In the United States, agricultural statistics, prediction and release are carried out by the Department of Agriculture, which effectively ensures the authority of information. Third, there is a great disparity in the scattered strength of the team. 12 of the 34 bureaus under the USDA are directly related to monitoring and early warning, and each variety team is composed of 4 to 5 researchers with theoretical skills in economics and statistics. Although we have a large number of related personnel scattered in various departments, there is no joint force, and there is a lack of a stable team of full-time information collection, quantitative analysis and industry experts. Fourth, the basic support technology is backward. Compared with the huge database and normative analysis model of the United States, we have not yet established an agricultural information database covering the whole industry chain and a quantitative analysis model in line with national conditions.

Three consensus is needed to establish an agricultural information monitoring and early warning system with Chinese characteristics.

First, do you want to learn from the United States? The United States is the "century-old shop" of agricultural marketization. Some people say that the United States has fewer people and more land, and is a big exporter of agricultural products, while China, on the contrary, cannot learn. However, as a market economy, the inherent requirements of properly handling the relationship between the government and the market and guiding production and the market through information are consistent. Judging from the discussions with relevant departments and industry experts, all parties agree on the US approach, which should be fully used for reference in the light of China's national conditions. Second, what goals should be achieved? In the top-level design, the monitoring and early warning system construction as a national strategy, industry-wide system planning, the overall layout of the system. Focus on the establishment of monitoring and statistical system from Tian Tou to the dining table, strengthen the construction of market early warning team, strengthen the support of data and models, and create an authoritative information release window. The tactical goal is to promote the reform of traditional agricultural management, reduce the traditional path dependence in production management, and establish a market-oriented modern agricultural management system. Third, how to push forward the work? According to the principle of consistency of business flow, data flow and information flow, we should focus on strengthening the collection of Tian Tou price information, explore the establishment of an agriculture-related information sharing mechanism, and form an industry-wide and comparable basic database; improve working mechanisms, models and methods, start China's agricultural outlook activities in 2014, establish a national agricultural information public service platform based on the official website of the Ministry of Agriculture, and explore the establishment of a real-time market system. Start the agricultural information service "entering the village and entering the household" project, and get through the "last kilometer". We fully believe that with the implementation of the decision of the third Plenary session of the CPC Central Committee, important progress will be made in the market-oriented reform of agriculture and the transformation of traditional agriculture with Chinese characteristics.