Experts interpret the Road of China's Agricultural Modernization

Today is World Food Day, according to the Voice of Economics, CCTV Financial Review. The theme of this year's World Food Day is "Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Planet". FAO has always regarded "food for all" as a sacred mission. Surprisingly, however, even as the world economy has developed to this day, this seemingly most basic goal has not been achieved, but has gradually drifted away. Factors such as the continuous growth of global population, the decrease of arable land year by year and the imbalance of regional development have all made the world food production situation very grim.

On the eve of World Food Day, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization welcomed Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Premier Li Keqiang, who is on a visit to Europe, said in his speech at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization yesterday that hunger and poverty remain a "silent crisis" and an "Achilles heel" that deeply plagues all mankind. More than 800 million poor people in the world face the threat of inadequate food and malnutrition. He admitted that eating enough for more than a billion people was China's biggest thing and was once the biggest problem in economic development. He even recalled living in the countryside for many years as a young man and personally experiencing the years of "not enough to eat":"A full meal may soon be forgotten, but the impression left by hunger will never be forgotten."

Food is the most important thing for the people. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, China has successfully solved the problem of food and clothing for the world's most populous country by implementing a series of reform measures such as the household contract management system, increasing its grain output from more than 300 million tons to more than 600 million tons. Now, if China's agricultural production is to reach a new level, it needs to take family management as the basis, promote moderate scale management, and take the road of agricultural modernization in order to solve the big problem of "eating enough".

China uses nearly 9 percent of the world's arable land to feed nearly 20 percent of the world's population, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Tang Min, a special commentator on the Voice of the Economy and counselor of the State Council, said that China's grain production increase is one of the greatest achievements in the 30 years since reform and opening up. In contrast, many countries in the world are still trapped by food problems and have not lifted themselves out of poverty.

Tang Min: According to the UN Millennium Development Goals, only China can achieve this goal at present, and it will soon reach this goal. Most other countries have not achieved it. One reason is China's rapid economic growth, and the other is that the government has paid special attention to poverty reduction for so long. These experiences can be shared with the whole world.

At present, China has set up a complete agricultural science and technology popularization system. Every year, hundreds of thousands of agricultural machinery migrate to and from China like migratory birds. Tang Min believes that despite this, Chinese agriculture still needs to be family-based and needs to be moderately scaled up.

Tang Min: The agricultural model in East Asia is different from that in Europe and America. Because Europe and the United States have a large area and few people, and large-scale machinery industry developed early, while in East Asia, the whole development process is still dominated by family farms. Of course, after a certain stage of development, when there are very few peasants, there is still a need for a part of large-scale agriculture or large-scale commercial agriculture. Until now, most of East Asia's agriculture has been dominated by family farms, although it has moved into the developed world. China's per capita GDP is 7000 US dollars and has not yet entered the ranks of developed countries. We need such an agricultural development model of a certain scale. This model has certain benefits for poverty reduction and income distribution.

Hu Dinghuan, a special commentator on Economic Voice and a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, interpreted this.

Voice of the Economy: What is the relationship between family-based and agricultural modernization? The premier said that based on family management, promoting moderate scale management and developing modern agriculture are conducive to better "supporting China". How do you understand this sentence?

Hu Dinghuan: This question is very good. Because our country's arable land is limited, it is not easy to feed 1.3 billion people. The key is how to improve the efficiency of land use. At present, more and more farmers work in cities, and many cultivated land cannot be effectively utilized. Therefore, the use of family farms and specialized farmers to cultivate land is very effective in increasing grain output and vegetable output.

Voice of the Economy: China is promoting innovation in various forms of agricultural management methods. On the basis of strictly protecting farmers 'land rights and interests and respecting farmers' wishes, farmers with conditions are encouraged to transfer their land management rights and farmers are encouraged to unite and cooperate. So what are the key things we need to do in terms of future business innovation?

Hu Dinghuan: The most critical problem is the rejuvenation and knowledge of the agricultural labor force on family farms. Because now more and more people go to the city from the countryside by studying at university and working. Most of the people who are now employed in rural areas are the elderly and women, and their educational level is relatively low, which is not conducive to the development of modern agriculture. Therefore, our country should think of ways to encourage, encourage, train and train young people with lofty ideals to run family farms in rural areas.

The Voice of Economy: We say that people eat for heaven. Today is also World Food Day, and we are all very concerned about food security, which is a big issue. So as a country, what are the most important aspects of ensuring food security?

Hu Dinghuan: The first point to ensure food security is the problem of agricultural management mode, that is, the development and expansion of family farms proposed by the Prime Minister. The second problem is still science and technology, that is, how to produce more grain and crops on the same area of land, which requires a lot of research. The third is environmental protection. Our current grain output is often increased by increasing pesticides and fertilizers, which has a great impact on environmental pollution and food safety. Therefore, while improving agricultural productivity, we must also pay attention to the environment. We must leave a good environment for our future generations.