The "tight balance" of supply and demand of agricultural products will become the new normal

On December 23, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu, entrusted by the State Council, reported to the standing Committee of the National people's Congress on the work of promoting the construction of a new countryside.

Han Changfu said that promoting the building of a new socialist countryside is a major historical task put forward by the Fifth Plenary session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in October 2005. Over the past 10 years, all regions and departments have conscientiously implemented the arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, issued a series of policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers and rich farmers, and made great progress in the construction of a new countryside. however, the situation of weak agricultural foundation, lagging rural development and large gap between urban and rural areas has not fundamentally changed. In the next step, we should speed up the development of modern agriculture and rural social undertakings, strengthen rural infrastructure construction, rural democratic management and spiritual civilization construction, strengthen agricultural and rural environmental governance and ecological protection, and deepen rural reform.

Grain "11 consecutive increases" Farmers' income increases "Ten consecutive Fast"

The report shows that China's comprehensive agricultural production capacity has increased steadily, and grain production has achieved a historic "eleven consecutive increase". In 2014, the country's total grain output reached 1.2142 trillion jin, exceeding 1.1 trillion jin for four consecutive years. In 2013, the comprehensive mechanization level of crop cultivation and harvest reached 59.5%, and the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress reached 55.2%, indicating that the mode of agricultural production in China has shifted from human and animal power to mechanical operation for thousands of years. Agricultural development has shifted from relying mainly on increasing input of resources to a new stage that mainly depends on scientific and technological progress.

The continuous growth of farmers' income and the obvious improvement of living standards are the remarkable achievements since the promotion of the construction of new countryside. In 2013, the per capita net income of farmers across the country reached 8896 yuan, and the growth rate of farmers' income exceeded that of urban residents for four consecutive years, and the income ratio of urban and rural residents shrank from 3.33 ∶ 1 in 2009 to 3.03 ∶ 1 in 2013. The number of people living in poverty across the country decreased from 122 million at the end of 2011 to 82.49 million at the end of 2013, an average reduction of nearly 20 million per year.

Han Changfu said: since the Eleventh five-year Plan, the central government has invested more than 700 billion yuan to improve the production and living conditions of farmers. The quality of water supply in rural areas has been significantly improved, the problem of drinking water safety for 470 million farmers has been solved, and the proportion of people benefiting from centralized water supply in rural areas has reached 78 per cent.

In addition, China's rural social undertakings have developed steadily and the level of public service has been continuously improved. The rural social assistance system with the minimum living standards and five guarantees as the core has provided a basic living guarantee for more than 59 million people in need. Nine-year compulsory education has been popularized in an all-round way, tuition and fees for students at the stage of compulsory education in rural areas have been completely exempted, textbooks are provided free of charge, and living expenses of boarding students have been subsidized to students from poor families.

The average of the widening income gap among farmers covers most of them.

In the report, Han Changfu believes that although remarkable achievements have been made in the construction of a new countryside and gratifying changes have taken place in the appearance of agriculture and rural areas, agriculture is still a short leg for the simultaneous development of new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, and rural areas are still the short board for building a well-off society in an all-round way.

"China's grain and other major agricultural products have increased production year after year, but various resource factors have been very tight, and there are many challenges in maintaining the good momentum of agricultural development at a high starting point." Han Changfu said that the "tight balance" between supply and demand of agricultural products will become the new normal.

The report shows that China's agricultural infrastructure is weak, there are many historical debts, and the situation of relying on nature for food has not fundamentally changed, and medium-and low-yield fields still account for 2% of the total area of arable land. The over-standard rate of soil pollutants in cultivated land reached 19.4%, the area of soil erosion was 2.95 million square kilometers, and 90% of the natural grasslands were degraded to varying degrees.

The contradiction between the rise of agricultural production costs and the decline of comparative benefits has become more prominent. "it is better to work hard to plant one mu of land than to go out to work for two days." this reflects that the prices of land, labor, and other factors of production continue to rise, especially labor costs are rising rapidly, and agricultural profits are being squeezed.

In 2013, the absolute income gap between urban and rural residents reached 18059 yuan, an increase of 10821 yuan over 2005; the per capita net income gap between farmers in the western region and the eastern region reached 5218 yuan, an increase of 2603 yuan over 2005; and the income gap among farmers is also widening. it is worth paying attention to the fact that the average covers most of the situation.

Affected by the massive transfer of young and middle-aged labor force in rural areas, the problems of aging farmers and "hollowing out" in rural areas are prominent, and it is difficult to renovate villages. The construction of villages in some areas is divorced from the reality of rural areas, simply copying the urban model, carrying out large-scale demolition and construction, driving farmers upstairs, and going to villages, thus destroying the natural landscape, pastoral scenery and cultural characteristics of the countryside.

In addition, in the general elections of some local village committees, such problems as canvassing, bribery, corruption of village cadres, and infringement on the legitimate rights and interests of farmers occur from time to time, and the management of village collective funds, assets, and resources is not standard and transparent. Feudal superstition and other activities exist to varying degrees, and the task of realizing rural civilization and managing democracy is still relatively arduous.

Complete the registration of the right of contracted management of land in about 5 years

In view of the difficulties and problems faced by the new rural construction, Han Changfu introduced the next work plan.

"focus on the protection and scientific use of cultivated land, water and other agricultural resources. We will implement the strictest system of cultivated land protection, conservation and intensive land use and water resources management, delineate permanent basic farmland, and keep the red line of cultivated land protection and water resources management. " Han Changfu said: by 2020, 800 million mu of high-standard farmland will be built with concentrated plots of farmland and guaranteed harvest by drought and waterlogging. We will strive to achieve mechanization of grain, cotton, oil, sugar and other field crops by 2020.

It is very urgent to strengthen the construction of rural infrastructure. Han Changfu proposed that we should focus on asphalt (cement) roads in formed villages in the west, speed up the construction of rural roads, and strive to reach the end of the "12th five-year Plan". To achieve all qualified villages and towns, the eastern and central regions of the formed villages, 80% of the formed villages through asphalt (cement) roads in the western region. By means of power grid extension and independent photovoltaic, we will comprehensively solve the problem of electricity consumption of people without electricity by the end of 2015, speed up the renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas, and complete the task of upgrading the stock of dilapidated houses in poor areas by 2020.

In response to rural reform issues of concern to the masses, Han Changfu said that the state will persist in stabilizing and improving the basic rural management system, actively and steadily promote the reform of the rural land system, and pay close attention to the registration and certification of the right to contracted management of rural land. on the basis of steadily expanding the pilot project, it will be basically completed in about five years.

The standing Committee of the National people's Congress plans to revise the Land contract Law. Han Changfu said that the State Council will cooperate with the revision of the law to give farmers the right to mortgage and guarantee land management rights, and allow farmers to take shares in agricultural industrialization management. We will deepen the reform of the rural collective property rights system, carry out the pilot reform of the market entry of rural collective construction land, and launch the pilot reform of the shareholding rights of rural collective assets. We will speed up the construction of a new type of modern agricultural management system, vigorously support new types of agricultural operators, such as family farms, professional large households, farmers' cooperatives, and leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, and explore the mechanism for the government to purchase agricultural public welfare services from business service organizations. guide the orderly circulation of land and develop various forms of moderate scale operation.