Zhang Laiwu, Vice Minister of Science and Technology: under the new normal, modern agriculture will play a leading role.

"profound changes are taking place in China's economy, and we are standing at a new historical starting point. In the near future, modern agricultural parks, modern agricultural entrepreneurs, professional farmers, investment in agricultural science and technology. These institutions that form a community of interests with agriculture and start businesses in the modern agricultural industry chain will become hot words. Under the new normal, modern agriculture will play a leading role! " Zhang Laiwu, vice minister of science and technology, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Economic Weekly a few days ago.

Modern agriculture is on the rise.

Zhang Laiwu believes that the central government's determination to develop modern agriculture and stimulate the vitality of rural development is unprecedented.

"in the next 30 years, the biggest challenge facing our country is how to crack the dual structure of urban and rural areas." Zhang Laiwu said. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China's agriculture and rural areas have made remarkable achievements, but due to historical reasons, the situation that rural development lags behind cities has not been fundamentally changed, and the dual structure between urban and rural areas still exists. the gap between urban and rural development is still expanding, and more and more agricultural people leave the land to make a living in cities and towns, resulting in the desolation of rural areas and the shortage of labor. "only by developing modern agriculture can we gather industries, gather population, narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, and break the dual structure of urban and rural areas." Zhang Laiwu believes that modern agriculture is the golden key to solving the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

Zhang Laiwu believes that the traditional agricultural management mode of one household is difficult to sustain, and agriculture is increasingly reduced to a weak industry with high investment and slow returns; industrialization and urbanization are competing with agriculture for manpower, land, and other resources; grain production is also faced with problems such as insufficient input capacity and willingness to invest in agriculture. Therefore, changing the organization and management mode of agriculture and developing modern agriculture are the "hard bones" that our country must gnaw.

In addition, the problem of food safety can not be solved without modern agriculture. Traditional agriculture is a "small-scale peasant economy" characterized by small-scale production, extensive management, small scale, backward technical means, and there are many blind areas of supervision. Therefore, in Zhang Laiwu's view, improving the level of food safety, from satiety, eating well, and then to eating healthily, is not only the improvement of the food safety environment, but also a great change in the mode of agricultural production, actively supporting the development of large food groups and building whole-industry chain enterprises from "field to table". Social forces are also promoting the development of modern agriculture.

"there is a gap of about 20 years between China's agricultural modernization and the developed countries in Europe and the United States, which is mainly reflected in the scientific and technological level, financial ability, information level and management level of agricultural modernization. it has led to a series of problems, such as the low level of agricultural development, the low income of farmers, the serious waste of resources and so on." Zhang Laiwu believes that the above four problems are not only the starting point for solving China's agricultural problems, but also the starting point to bring from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture.

"from the coordinated development of the regional economy to building a well-off society in an all-round way, the 18th CPC National Congress regarded urbanization as a historic and strategic plan, and proposed to adhere to the simultaneous development path of the new type of industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. Various forces are working together to promote modern agriculture." Zhang Laiwu hopes that the whole society can pay attention to and promote agricultural modernization.

Finance leads modern agricultural industrialization

In 2008, Zhang Laiwu was transferred from vice chairman of Ningxia Hui Autonomous region to vice minister of science and technology. As a doctor of economics and the first vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology who is not a natural scientist, this reveals a message that the central government hopes that the Ministry of Science and Technology will pay more attention to the link between science and technology and the economy, especially the importance of talents.

"for a long time, we have always had a misunderstanding that scientific and technological innovation is only a scientific and technological concept. In fact, it should be the economic concept and the realization of the market value of science and technology. The early theory of scientific and technological innovation is linear, and our work is arranged according to the linear relationship. At present, scientific and technological innovation should be the triple helix fusion theory, and the interaction among scientific discovery, technological invention and market application is rising spirally. " In early 2012, Zhang Laiwu delivered a speech at the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, explaining and systematically explaining scientific and technological innovation for the first time.

Zhang Laiwu believes that we have put forward the concept of scientific and technological innovation for more than a decade, but the results are not satisfactory so far. The main reason is that there is a deviation in the understanding of the theory of scientific and technological innovation, which affects practice. Based on the triple helix fusion theory, Zhang Laiwu proposed that the main body of innovation is the market, entrepreneurs, not the government. First of all, the government should carry out innovation-driven top-level design, be close to the market and entrepreneurs, build a social service system, vigorously cultivate the market, and promote the gradual maturity of the market.

Zhang Laiwu said: "Modern agriculture is an industrialized agriculture, which leads the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries with modern science and technology." and engaged in the processing of agricultural products (secondary industry) and the sale of agricultural products and processed products (tertiary industry), pre-production and post-natal integration of the industrial system In the process of the development of modern agriculture, the level of science and technology, financial ability, information level and management level are indispensable, but the financial ability is very crucial. when the development of modern agriculture goes through the early period of scientific and technological risk, it lacks capital strength. lack of financial system to serve modern agriculture. Therefore, the applied innovation system marked by finance must be formed. "

As early as in 2010, initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and other seven units jointly sponsored, the first China Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition kicked off. "We just provide a platform for those who have good projects but do not have the funds, so that people can come forward to share the projects and fight for funds." At the opening of the competition, Zhang Laiwu delivered a speech to encourage the whole society to actively participate. A total of 1771 valid projects were collected, and 19 projects received angel investment or venture capital, with a total investment of 81.25 million yuan.

The "Science and Technology Commissioner system" has become China's experience

More than a decade ago, when Zhang Laiwu was working in Ningxia, he deeply realized that the most direct and effective way to transform traditional agriculture and improve labor productivity was to rely on science and technology to improve the comprehensive quality of labourers and cultivate a large number of professional agricultural troops. So in 2002, Ningxia launched and implemented the science and technology commissioner rural science and technology entrepreneurship action.

"any entrepreneur who can bring science and technology to the countryside, to agriculture, to farmers can be called a science and technology commissioner." Zhang Laiwu can easily name a large number of ombudsmen. For example, Guo Yuejun of the Science and Technology Bureau of Pingluo County, Ningxia, was the first batch of science and technology ombudsmen to apply. In the past, when he went to the countryside to promote the technology of dry cultivation and sparse planting of rice, it was difficult for farmers to believe, but when the yield of rice he personally planted increased, the farmers signed contracts with him one after another, and his science and technology service company provided technical services from planting to harvest.

"leading farmers to work, showing them, and making money with them, entrepreneurial mechanisms and market mechanisms enable science and technology commissioners to share risks and interests with farmers, and really form a community of interests with farmers." After designing and witnessing this action, Zhang Laiwu realized the importance of focusing on organizational innovation, reorganizing the industry, and recultivating the main body of business. He believes that with the emergence of various business entities such as farms and large households, more attention will be paid to the market and brands, and the added value of agriculture will be greatly increased; with the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in agriculture, business entities will achieve diversification, specialization, and professionalization, will attract more capital intervention, and realize the market value of agricultural science and technology to a greater extent.

The social entrepreneurship service model created in Ningxia has been widely popularized. By the end of 2011, the number of national science and technology ombudsmen has reached 240000, which has become a national action taken by nine ministries, including the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education. In September 2014, the number of science and technology ombudsmen nationwide had grown to 730000. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the work of science and technology ombudsmen, which has been written into the Central Committee's No. 1 document for two consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee explicitly put forward the "implementation of the science and technology ombudsman system" for the first time. Scientific and technological ombudsmen have led a large number of farmers to start their own businesses, led, established, or assisted in the establishment of a number of small and micro scientific and technological enterprises and agricultural cooperative economic organizations, accelerated the transformation, demonstration, popularization and application of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, and strengthened advantageous industries with local characteristics. It has promoted farmers to increase their employment and income and become rich.

One seed changes the world. The action of science and technology commissioner has attracted the attention of the world. The United Nations and many countries have asked to share China's experience, believing that this system and model is a worldwide breakthrough to solve the dual structure of urban and rural areas and the poor.

"China's agriculture is the place where breakthroughs are most needed, and modern agriculture is a big industry that enriches the country and the people." Reviewing the course of exploration over the years, Zhang Laiwu believes that 730000 science and technology commissioners are the vanguard of China's professional farmers, and China's agriculture will be the main battlefield for hundreds of millions of professional farmers to start businesses and a big stage for joint innovation in various industries.