Four key issues in the Development of Modern Agriculture

Recently, the author went to Shandong Weihai Rongcheng City, Rushan City, Yantai Muping District and Penglai City to investigate the development of modern agriculture. Generally speaking, the current endowment of agricultural resources and factor conditions are undergoing profound changes, as long as we find the right breakthrough, take advantage of the situation and actively promote it, traditional agriculture will certainly be able to accelerate the transformation to modern agriculture.

To accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture, the key is to promote agricultural mechanization, and the breakthrough is to realize the combination of agricultural machinery and agronomy.

Apple industry has always been the dominant industry and the main source of farmers' income in Yantai and Weihai. The apple area of Yantai is 2.65 million mu, accounting for 52.6% of the whole province, accounting for 7.9% of the country, and contributing more than 1/3 to farmers' income. Weihai apple area is 630000 mu, increasing farmers' per capita income by more than 3000 yuan. At present, the main problem is that most of the adult orchards in the two cities were planted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, mainly adopting the traditional cultivation mode of close planting of Arbor rootstock, with tall trees, many branches, closed canopy, poor ventilation and lighting conditions, and low degree of mechanization. the amount of labor is more than 10 times that of developed countries in Europe and the United States. Grass-roots cadres and farmers reported that since most of the young and middle-aged labor force went out to work in recent years, it was expensive and difficult to hire workers during the busy agricultural season, and production costs rose sharply. According to the survey, the average production cost per mu of traditional orchards in 2013 was 6757 yuan, almost double that of 2008, of which labor costs accounted for more than half.

In the face of fierce market competition at home and abroad, the two cities have actively developed modern dwarf rootstock intensive cultivation mode in recent years. This cultivation model has the characteristics of small rootstock and large seedlings, wide row and close planting, ridging cultivation, setting up brackets, etc., which is convenient for mechanized spraying and automatic irrigation, and realizes the integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy, the integration of water and fertilizer, and sufficient light in the crown. Fruit color and quality are better, high quality fruit rate is high. In the Huafeng fruit cooperative in Rongcheng City, the author saw that the new orchard was denser between plants and more spacious between rows, with a row width of 3.5 meters and a tree shape. The person in charge of the cooperative said that the traditional Qiaohua cultivation model did not bear fruit until five or six years; the dwarf rootstock intensive cultivation model could blossom and bear fruit in that year, and it could enter the full fruit period in three or four years, and saved labor and effort; in the past, the orchard was closed and could only be administered manually, but each person could hit a maximum of 10 mu of land a day, but now the orchard has a wide row spacing, and each person can use a machine to administer medicine, and each person can hit at least 100 mu of land a day, and the drug application efficiency can be increased by more than 10 times.

With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, labor force has become a bottleneck restricting the development of modern agriculture. At this stage, the key to promote agricultural modernization is to promote agricultural mechanization, and the breakthrough lies in the combination of agricultural machinery and agronomy. Taking a comprehensive view of all agricultural industries, if agricultural machinery and agronomy are well combined, the degree of agricultural mechanization is high. It turns out that some agricultural machinery and agronomy are not well integrated, and the level of mechanization can also be improved by improving the cultivation model. For example, there are more than 100 corn varieties in China, the planting row spacing varies from 20 to 150cm, and there are dozens of planting patterns, and the corn machine harvest has not been improved for many years. In the past two years, the unified planting technology of row spacing such as corn 60cm has been promoted, and the corn machine harvest level has been continuously improved. However, the agronomic integration of agricultural machinery in some industries is not good, such as cotton picking, rape harvesting, sugarcane harvesting and other mechanization has made slow progress for many years, which is due to the lag in agricultural machinery research and development. there are also factors such as crop variety diversification and low production standardization.

To speed up the pace of agricultural mechanization, we should start from the two aspects of agricultural machinery and agronomy, and step up efforts to establish a working mechanism for joint research and development of agricultural machinery and agronomy. On the one hand, on the premise of following the local farming and cultivation system, we should use agronomy to determine agricultural machinery and develop agricultural machinery adapted to the characteristics of local production; on the other hand, the agronomic cultivation system should also consider the possibility of realizing agricultural machinery operation and the limitations of machinery. determine agronomy with agricultural machinery, improve agronomic cultivation mode, guide farmers to unify varieties, sowing date, row spacing, direction, etc., and promote the combination of agronomy and agricultural machinery. For grain, cotton, oil, sugar and other staple crops, it is suggested that the whole country should study and formulate unified farming standards; for some varieties with local characteristics, it is up to all localities to set their own standards. Once the combination of agricultural machinery and agronomy has made a breakthrough, the pace of transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture will be greatly accelerated.

To improve the quality and safety of agricultural products, it is essential to strengthen the responsibility of local governments, and the most important thing is to establish a traceability system for the quality of agricultural products.

Yantai and Weihai are located in the eastern coastal areas, with a high level of export-oriented agriculture, and most of their agricultural products are exported to Japan and South Korea. Both cities put the quality and safety of agricultural products in a prominent position, including it in the assessment scope of the annual target responsibility system of county and township governments, grasping production on the one hand and supervision on the other, and constructed a supervision system for the whole process from production to processing to sales.

Yantai Dacheng Food Co., Ltd., which the author visited on the spot, adopted the model of self-built base and "company + peasant household" to develop more than 100000 mu of peanut base and drive more than 20, 000 peanut growers. The person in charge of the company told me that the products are mainly sold to Japan and South Korea, and Japan and South Korea are very stringent on the quality inspection of imported products. Once something goes wrong with the product quality, not only the enterprises will lose money, but also the farmers will suffer losses. To this end, the company has helped producers to formulate a strict pesticide residue control program, and there has not been a single case of return due to quality problems of agricultural products in the past few years. The author saw in the Rushan Shuntai Fruit and vegetable Professional Cooperative that the blueberries planted by the cooperative are carried out in strict accordance with the operating procedures of organic production technology, the production process is recorded, and all products are affixed with traceability QR codes. Through Wechat scan code, you can easily get the origin, production date, fertilizer and other information, to achieve the whole process traceability.

To ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products is not an unsolved problem, the key to solve this problem is to strengthen the responsibility of local governments. As the saying goes, "old difficulties, old difficulties, the boss is not difficult to catch." Gao Shuliang, secretary of the Rushan Municipal CPC Committee, and Mayor Sui Jianbo told the author that Rushan City is a national demonstration zone for the quality and safety of agricultural products, and the municipal party committee and municipal government regard the quality and safety of agricultural products as the top project, with an annual investment of more than 4 million yuan. established a whole process supervision system from production to sales. The practice of the two cities shows that as long as the local party and government leaders, especially the main leaders of counties and cities, really attach importance to it and carry out their responsibilities, so that local governments and producers can become stakeholders and jointly responsible parties in the quality and safety of agricultural products, with both prosperity and loss, it will certainly be able to improve the quality and safety of agricultural products.

Realistically speaking, there are many links and long chains in the production of agricultural products. Problems in any link from the field head to the dining table will lead to problems in the quality and safety of agricultural products. From the government's point of view, there is neither manpower nor financial resources, nor energy to strengthen supervision over every link, but to highlight key links, do a good job of key nodes, and guide enterprises to establish and improve the quality and safety traceability system of agricultural products. Achieve quality traceability.

To improve the comparative efficiency of agriculture, the way out is to do a good job in the processing of agricultural products, and the core is to co-ordinate intensive processing and primary processing, taking into account the interests of both large enterprises and small farmers.

The agricultural products processing industry in Yantai and Weihai has developed earlier and at a higher level, which has become an important way to promote agricultural efficiency and increase farmers' income. At present, Yantai has created seven leading enterprise groups, including edible oil, vermicelli, fruit, aquatic products, vegetables, animal products processing and wine brewing, with 13 state-level leading enterprises in the city, driving 3 million farmers inside and outside the city and absorbing 740000 rural labor force to transfer employment. Rushan City has built the peanut industry chain with Hualong Food as the leader, the ginger industry chain with Geely Food as the leader, and the oyster industry chain with good food as the leader, and the agricultural product processing industry is booming. Yantai Gispo Grape Wine Co., Ltd., taking advantage of local resources such as apples, grapes, cherries and pears, has developed deep-processed products such as wine, fruit vinegar beverage, collagen drink, fruit distilled wine and so on.

In the survey, the author found that localities are more interested in and enthusiastic about the development of intensive processing of agricultural products and large-scale agricultural products processing enterprises, and the intensity of support is often greater; however, the primary processing of agricultural products, small and medium-sized agricultural products processing enterprises have not attracted enough attention, support is relatively small. In fact, the intensive processing of agricultural products and the primary processing of agricultural products have their own advantages. The intensive and deep processing industry has a long chain, high added value and strong driving force, and the primary processing is conducive to the storage and preservation of agricultural products and the realization of high quality and high price. Intensive processing and primary processing are the two ends of the same chain, there is no difference between advantages and disadvantages, only the division of labor is different. The development of modern agriculture needs not only a large number of large enterprises engaged in intensive processing, but also many small and medium-sized enterprises and even small and micro enterprises engaged in primary processing, both of which should not be biased. Generally speaking, most of the intensive processing enterprises are backed by strong industrial and commercial capital and have a good hematopoietic function. Government departments mainly create a good development environment in terms of land use and taxation, and support the establishment of a win-win interest connection mechanism with farmers. In primary processing, especially in Tiantou primary processing, operators are often new business entities such as professional large households and farmers' cooperatives, and their strength is generally weak, and they need a lot of funds to set up cold chains, storage, packaging, and so on. The government should give more support in terms of funds and credit, so that farmers can get more tangible benefits directly in the primary processing link.

The development of leisure tourism agriculture can not only enrich farmers, but also beautify the countryside. It is an important carrier for the overall planning of urban and rural development. The focus is to integrate rural resources and turn the first industry into three industries.

Weihai and Yantai make full use of the rich natural resources embraced by the local mountains and seas, vigorously promote the development of leisure agriculture, and build a number of leisure agriculture bases with certain scale and characteristics. Majiagou Village, Liujiagou Town, Penglai City, makes use of natural, ecological, historical and cultural resources, relies on national project funds, and actively attracts social investment. implement the transformation of mountains, rivers, forests and roads, comprehensive agricultural development, ecological agriculture construction, efficient water-saving, dwarf rootstock apple orchard transformation, promote the organic combination of agricultural production function and leisure function, and create a unique rural eco-tourism industry chain. From a poor mountain village to one of the 10 most attractive leisure villages in China in 2013. Xixiakou Village in Rongcheng City is a famous well-off village in the country. in the past two years, it has combined tourism with modern aquaculture, vigorously developed fishermen's music such as leisure fishing, further enriched tourism resources, and achieved good results.

At present, there are 742 leisure agriculture operators in the two cities, with more than 40, 000 employees and an annual reception of more than 4.7 million tourists. There are various types of leisure agriculture, some relying on the advantages of agricultural industry, integrating picking, catering, fishing and sightseeing, some attracting tourists with local unique agricultural natural resources, and some attracting tourists for leisure picking during the blooming season of fruit trees such as apples, cherries and pears and their products on the market. This kind of planning and layout of leisure tourism agriculture and new rural construction together not only optimizes the rural industrial structure and increases farmers' income, but also improves the rural ecological environment and builds a beautiful countryside.

In the investigation, the author also found that in order to develop leisure agriculture, some places actively introduced industrial and commercial capital and occupied a large amount of arable land. In order to develop leisure agriculture and promote the construction of a new countryside, we should take farmers as the main body and farmers and village groups as units to develop "farm music", rather than enterprises going to the countryside to encircle land in villages. Enterprises should drive farmers, not replace them. With the acceleration of new urbanization, this phenomenon is particularly worthy of attention and attention.