Document No. 1 sets out the mode of agricultural development and the three major reforms related to agriculture next year.

According to the practice of the past 11 years, the No. 1 document of the CPC Central Committee next year will still target "agriculture, rural areas and farmers," and this time it may take "speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development" as the theme to deploy the work of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" in the new year.

Xu Xiaoqing, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the Economic Observer that the central rural work conference to be held later this month will focus on the theme of "speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development." detailed arrangements for the tasks of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in 2015. In the Central No. 1 document to be issued next year, there will also be more details on how to "speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development." In addition, agricultural people are generally concerned about the reform of the target price of agricultural products, standardizing the circulation of agricultural land, and the reform of the rural collective property right system, which will also be the focus of the reform of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" next year.

The transformation of agricultural development mode covers a wide range. According to the requirements of the just concluded Central Economic work Conference, agricultural production should shift from mainly pursuing output growth to paying equal attention to quantity and quality benefits, improving competitiveness, agricultural technological innovation and sustainable intensive development. The ultimate goal is to take the road of modern agricultural development with high output efficiency, product safety, resource saving and environment-friendly. It is to ensure food security and continuously increase farmers' income.

The Central Economic work Conference also made it clear that improving the target price mechanism of agricultural products, strengthening rural financial services, and standardizing the agricultural land transfer market are all key contents in speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development.

Change mode

The No. 1 document of the Central Committee has focused on "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" for 11 years in a row, but in the past, more emphasis was placed on output and quantity for agricultural production and grain production. If the theme of the No. 1 document of the Central Committee in 2015 is "speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development", it can be seen that the central government has changed from unilaterally pursuing the output and quantity of agriculture in the past to paying more attention to the sustainable development of agriculture, and improving the quality and efficiency of agricultural production. It is also placed in the same important position as output and quantity.

In fact, as early as in the report of the 17th CPC National Congress released in October 2007, the central government clearly proposed to change the mode of agricultural development. In the No. 1 document of the Central Committee for several years since then, it has been reiterated many times that it is necessary to promote the transformation of the mode of agricultural development, but judging from the agriculture-related data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Ministry of Land in recent years, due to the aggravation of soil and water pollution and the low efficiency of agricultural production, the agricultural production environment is deteriorating day by day.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Land released the main data of the second national land survey. At present, China's per capita cultivated land is 1.52 mu, less than half of the world's per capita level. In addition, about 50 million mu of arable land has been moderately and severely polluted. In a long period of time, the state will need to spend tens of billions of yuan every year to repair and treat heavy metal contaminated arable land.

In April this year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land issued the latest national soil pollution survey bulletin, the national arable land soil environmental quality is worrying, 16.1% has been varying degrees of pollution. To this end, the state will further strengthen the function of soil environmental supervision, and plans to establish a lifelong accountability mechanism for soil pollution.

In addition to cultivated land pollution and ecological pollution, "who will cultivate land" is also a difficult problem that many "three rural" experts pay close attention to. Due to the low income from farming, there are now more than 260 million migrant workers working in cities, and the people who stay in rural areas are basically the elderly, women and children. Even when it comes to growing grain, crops that used to grow two or three seasons a year have now been changed to one or two seasons. Behind the "11th consecutive increase" of the country's total grain output, "who will farm the land" in the future is also a major hidden worry for China's agriculture.

For a long time, agricultural production and grain production basically follow the development path of traditional agriculture, through the extensive management of resources and consumption, to achieve the growth of output, including grain, resulting in the accumulation of many problems in agricultural production. Judging from the signal just released by the Central Economic work Conference, the next step is to "speed up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development" is to realize the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. Specifically, it is necessary to "take the road of modern agricultural development with high output efficiency, product safety, resource conservation, and environment-friendly."

Deepen the reform

The Central Economic work Conference made it clear that various reforms in rural areas should be further deepened in 2015 under the premise of "speeding up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development." With regard to the reform of the target prices of agricultural products and regulating the transfer of agricultural land, which are generally concerned by agricultural people, the central government has also made it clear that it will be the focus of the reform of agriculture, rural areas and farmers next year.

Specific to the target price reform of agricultural products, this year, the state has launched a pilot project of cotton target price subsidy in Xinjiang and soybean target price subsidy pilot in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. So far, this reform has not involved three major staple grain varieties: wheat, corn and rice.

As for whether the target price will be extended to other major agricultural varieties in 2015, an unnamed official from the National Development and Reform Commission explained that it all depends on the outcome of the pilot reform of cotton and soybeans, which will not become apparent until next year. At present, there is no timetable for promoting reform in the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance.

Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who has participated in the discussion on the target price reform policy, said that it is possible to implement the sugar target price system in Guangxi next year. On the whole, it is expected that the target price reform will be very slow, with regard to the three staple grains. Will be more cautious.

In terms of land transfer, at the end of September this year, the Central leading Group for deepening Reform examined and adopted the "opinions on guiding the orderly transfer of contracted Management Rights of Rural Land to develop appropriate scale Management of Agriculture" and the "pilot Plan for actively developing Farmers' Stock Cooperation and giving shareholding Rights to Collective assets". Although the two documents have not yet been promulgated by the authorities, but from the recent public statements of a number of agricultural officials. We can also basically understand that the central government has clear restrictions on the transfer of agricultural land.

Chen Xiwen and Han Jun, deputy directors of the Office of the Central Financial and Economic leading Group, both said publicly that the transfer of agricultural land must be "moderate". With regard to the phenomenon of urban industrial and commercial capital going to the countryside and leasing large areas of agricultural land for a long time in many places, both Chen and Han believe that the problem of "non-agriculturalization" and "non-grain" in the name of agricultural land circulation is aggravating day by day, and at the same time, it also squeezes the employment space of farmers. The authorities are expected to set stricter policy management measures.

In addition, the Economic Observer learned from the Development Research Center of the State Council that the reform of the rural collective property rights system is also an important part of deepening rural reform in 2015, which will involve a series of reforms such as the entry of collective construction land into the market, the authority of farmers' residential land, and the development of farmers' joint-stock cooperation.