Ten years of Agricultural Mechanization in China: a unique China

The great-leap-forward development of the "Golden decade" of agricultural mechanization has written a brilliant page in the history of China's agricultural development. However, history is a progressive ladder, a process of accumulation of elements, and the result of joint efforts.

In China, where the traditional agricultural civilization is profound, mainly operated by small-scale farmers, the contradiction between human and land is prominent, and the geography and climate are complex and diverse, how to realize agricultural mechanization? It is by no means trivial. Doomed to pay more arduous efforts than others, doomed to walk out of a suitable path of development. Behind the "Golden decade", the practice and exploration in different periods has condensed the painstaking wisdom of several generations of people.

The road of agricultural mechanization with Chinese characteristics has gradually become clear, that is, the road of "farmers' autonomy, state support, and market guidance", that is, the road of "resource sharing, service reciprocity, and functional coordination". That is the road of "seeking truth from facts, adjusting measures to local conditions, and keeping pace with the times".

"the fundamental way out of agriculture lies in mechanization"; the Republic has explored hard for decades, leading hundreds of millions of farmers to unremittingly pursue the dream of agricultural mechanization

In the mid-1950s, Mao Zedong put forward a famous thesis that "the fundamental way out of agriculture lies in mechanization" and envisioned five "five-year plans", that is, to basically realize agricultural mechanization in the whole country by 1980.

Now it seems that although the leaders' predictions are somewhat advanced, and even New China is "eager for success" on the road of exploring agricultural mechanization, it has sowed the seeds of the dream of agricultural mechanization in the hearts of hundreds of millions of farmers. let the concept of agricultural mechanization take root in the hearts of the people, and inspire newcomers to break through obstacles and pursue unremittingly.

Reviewing the road taken in the past 65 years, agricultural mechanization in New China has gone through four different stages: the initial stage of establishment from 1949 to 1980, the stage of system transformation from 1981 to 1995, and the stage of market guidance from 1996 to 2003. Since 2004, we have ushered in a "golden decade" in accordance with the law.

After the founding of New China, the party and the state have always regarded the realization of agricultural mechanization as an important strategic goal of building socialist modern agriculture. Since the 1950s, the state has gradually set up agricultural machinery stations in qualified societies and teams, and the government has allocated all kinds of agricultural machinery according to the plan to support the mass agricultural tools reform movement.

From 1966 to 1978, the State Council held three national agricultural mechanization work conferences. The state mainly used funds to support agriculture for agricultural mechanization, with a total financial input of about 9 billion yuan, which promoted the rapid development of agricultural mechanization. Gradually established a relatively complete agricultural machinery management, scientific research appraisal, technical promotion, education and training, sales and maintenance and use service system. China's agricultural machinery industry started from manufacturing new agricultural machinery and tools, gradually developed from scratch, and successively established a number of large and medium-sized enterprises, including Yituo, Tiantuo, Changtuo and other large and medium-sized enterprises, which laid the foundation of China's agricultural machinery industry.

After the implementation of the household contract responsibility system in rural areas, large and medium-sized agricultural machinery lost the opportunity to display their talents on ultra-small-scale land, and the collective agricultural machinery stations were gradually disbanded, except for the policy of keeping the oil supply of agricultural machinery at an equal price. the state's direct investment in agricultural mechanization and agricultural machinery industry gradually decreased, and there was once the embarrassment of "covering production to every household, and there was no way for agricultural machinery".

In 1983, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee allowed farmers to buy and operate agricultural machinery independently. During this period, small agricultural machinery and tools, walking tractors, especially agricultural transport vehicles grew rapidly. However, the retention of large and medium-sized tractors and supporting agricultural tools is stagnant, the matching ratio of machinery and tools is out of balance, the utilization rate of field machinery is low, and the level of mechanization of farmland operation is slow.

Dong Hanying, who has worked in the Agricultural Mechanization Department for many years and is now director of the Supervision Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: "in retrospect, the managers' worry about 'guaranteed production to every household and no way to farm machinery' was superfluous, and this was not the case with farmers' practice. Shortly after I took part in the work in 1982, I found that farmers had a strong demand for small agricultural machinery during a survey in Huaiyuan County, Anhui Province. Although the policy was not yet clear at that time, there was still a lot of debate, and farmers had already taken the lead. At that time, farmers in the county had already bought more than 20,000 hand tractors, which were sold everywhere on the street. " He believes that the biggest breakthrough in policy during this period is to break through the forbidden area that "agricultural machinery is not allowed to be privately owned as a means of production", the development of agricultural mechanization is no longer arranged by the state and the collective, and the autonomy is given to the farmers. this is a great ideological liberation for the development of agricultural mechanization.

In 1995, China began to establish a market economic system, agricultural mechanization preferential policies issued by countries such as agricultural parity diesel oil under the planned economic system were all cancelled, and agricultural mechanization entered a market-oriented development stage. Agricultural machinery management departments do not have any "policy means" on hand, but cross-regional operations provide them with a "service grip", and agricultural machinery departments have been promoting and promoting national cross-regional operations since 1990. Wang Yong, deputy director of the Jiangsu Agricultural Machinery Bureau, recalled that at that time, the main job of the director and staff of the agricultural machinery bureau was to help people with money and began to run everywhere from February to March. For example, those from the south went to the north and those from the north went to the south to contact the harvesting plots. We will resolve various disputes for agricultural machinery operators and machine farmers, and actively promote the development and formation of cross-district operations and agricultural machinery operation markets with Chinese characteristics.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a trend of massive transfer of rural labor force, the trend of seasonal labor shortage in rural areas is becoming more and more obvious, the enthusiasm of farmers in using agricultural machinery has been increasing, and the pace of socialization and marketization of agricultural mechanization services has been accelerated. the cross-regional machine harvest of combine has gradually sprung up, and the road of agricultural mechanization with Chinese characteristics has initially taken shape. The number of combine harvesters in China surged from 73000 in 1995 to 400000 in 2004.

A law and a subsidy policy provide a strong guarantee and a strong driving force for the "golden decade" of agricultural mechanization.

In 2004, in the history of the development of agricultural mechanization in China, two epoch-making "major events" occurred: first, the "Central document No. 1" decided to subsidize farmers' purchase and renewal of large-scale agricultural machinery; second, the Law of the people's Republic of China on the Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization was formally implemented on November 1. Since then, China's agricultural mechanization has entered the best period of development in history.

"the subsidy policy for the purchase of agricultural machinery has a strong directivity and accuracy, which has achieved the effect of killing more than one stone." Zong Jinyao, former director of the Agricultural Mechanization Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: "since 2004, the cumulative investment of 120 billion yuan in state financial subsidies has led farmers to invest more than 200 billion yuan, and their enthusiasm for purchasing and using machines has been unprecedentedly high; the level of agricultural mechanization has been greatly improved; the country's comprehensive agricultural production capacity has been ensured; the agricultural machinery industry has come out of the situation of wandering for many years, and China has rapidly become the largest agricultural machinery manufacturer in the world."

Focusing on the subsidy for the purchase of machinery, the national support policy for agricultural machinery tends to be systematic and perfect. In 2010, the State Council's opinions on promoting the sound and rapid development of agricultural mechanization and agricultural machinery industry defined the policy framework for the promotion of agricultural mechanization with Chinese characteristics. The state and local governments have successively implemented agricultural mechanization promotion projects, conservation tillage projects and other capital construction projects, and carried out pilot projects of agricultural machinery scrapping and renewal subsidies and key agricultural machinery operation subsidies, and explored agricultural machinery mortgage loans, policy-based agricultural machinery insurance, free safety inspection, agricultural machinery warehouse area management according to agricultural land, and other measures to benefit farmers, which effectively mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for purchasing and using agricultural machinery.

"it was the agricultural machinery subsidy policy that finally made me wait until the spring of the development of agricultural mechanization, and once again released my deep-buried feelings of agricultural machinery, especially when two large corn harvesters were transported to the cooperative. I was so excited that I didn't sleep well all night. I got up in the middle of the night to touch the machinery and burst into tears." Fan Jiazhu, chairman of the Ping an Agricultural Machinery Cooperative and national model worker in Changtu County, Liaoning Province, expressed his gratitude in this way.

Fan Jiazhu was a veteran who entered the agricultural machinery industry in 1974. In the 1970s, he created the glory of the "National Advanced Agricultural Machinery Station" and also experienced the pain after the disintegration of the agricultural machinery station. In 2007, the scope of agricultural machinery subsidies was expanded in Changtu, and after years of silence, he came out again and joined 17 drivers to set up agricultural machinery professional cooperatives. Cooperatives raised 1.06 million yuan by themselves, using 750000 yuan subsidized by the central and provincial governments and 540000 yuan subsidized by the Changtu County government to purchase two large-scale corn combine harvesters, as well as 71 sets (sets) of tractors, combined land preparation machines, planters, green reserves, etc., covering all aspects of ploughing, planting and harvesting. In that year, the average salary plus dividends of members reached 30, 000 yuan.

The effect of agricultural machinery subsidy can be seen and felt, while the influence of agricultural mechanization promotion law is invisible and far-reaching.

The law on the promotion of agricultural mechanization is also a confirmation of the creative practice of Chinese farmers and embodies the unity of the party's proposition and the will of the people. In 2007, Zhang Baowen, then vice minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, summarized the main characteristics of the road of agricultural mechanization with Chinese characteristics as "farmers' autonomy, government support, market guidance, socialized service, common utilization, and improving efficiency." these six aspects can find the corresponding provisions in the Law on the Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization.

Liu Min, director of the Agricultural Machinery Appraisal Station of the Ministry of Agriculture, who had participated in the preliminary investigation of the Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Law, said that the understanding was not unified before the promulgation of the law. Some comrades think that China has a large population and little land, and with agricultural machinery, where are the peasants going? Will it affect stability? Some comrades think that according to the concept of western market economy, the government should do nothing, the government should not take care of it, just let agricultural mechanization develop naturally, there is no need to promote it, and the promotion is to "find rice to put into the pot".... The introduction of the law means once again breaking the shackles of thought.

Liu Xian, director of the Agricultural Machinery extension Station of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: "to achieve social progress needs to be promoted. Whether or not to liberate farmers, the law embodies a kind of values and is a powerful spiritual force." The Promotion Law regulates the state's policies and measures to support agricultural mechanization, such as subsidizing farmers to purchase machinery, supporting the demonstration and popularization of agricultural mechanization technology, strengthening the quality and safety management of agricultural machinery, and supporting scientific and technological innovation of agricultural mechanization. it has created a long-term and stable environment for the development of agricultural mechanization and strengthened the direction of our development of agricultural mechanization. "

"We have blazed a path in line with our national conditions, and the state has timely issued laws and supporting policies, and the forces of farmers, the government, the market, and enterprises have never come together as well as they are today. it has built a strong and inexhaustible driving force for the development of agricultural mechanization." White Park, a 77-year-old professor at China Agricultural University and a member of the drafting group of the Law on the Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization, gave such an answer to the four stages of the development of agricultural mechanization in New China.