Dang Guoying: relying on collection and storage can not improve the competitiveness of agricultural products

Setting the intervention price of agricultural products according to the income target of farmers may weaken the pressure of market competition and put the marginal land with backward productivity into farming.

According to media reports, the reporter learned from authoritative sources that the agricultural 13th five-year Plan studied the abolition of the temporary collection and storage policy in order to solve the problems of upside-down prices and high grain imports brought about by the collection and storage.

Since the beginning of the year, the state has made important adjustments to the price policy of some agricultural products. according to the new policy, the state will retain the temporary collection and storage of corn, rapeseed and sugar, and abolish the temporary collection and storage policy of soybean and cotton agricultural products. The first document of this year also pointed out that the government will promote the reform of the price formation mechanism of agricultural products from government subsidies, gradually establish a target price system for agricultural products, subsidize low-income consumers when the market price is too high, and subsidize producers according to the price difference when the market price is lower than the target price, so as to effectively ensure the income of farmers. From the perspective of development trend, China will gradually give up direct government intervention in the formation of agricultural prices, which is a decision-making progress.

Direct government intervention in the prices of agricultural products does more harm than good. The formation of market price is affected by many factors, including objective factors and subjective factors, so it is almost impossible for officials or market observers to make accurate predictions. If the intervention price of agricultural products is set according to the income target of farmers, it is also possible to weaken the pressure of market competition, put the marginal land with backward productivity into farming and increase the cost of agricultural products. The long-term implementation of this policy will protect the role of birth and settlement, which is not conducive to improving the international competitiveness of China's agricultural production.

The direct government intervention in the prices of agricultural products also leads to great financial pressure on the government. Purchasing agricultural products at a benchmark price higher than the international market price for a long time will make more agricultural products in the international market enter the domestic market in a legal or illegal way, and even lead to the acquisition of foreign agricultural products by the state. This is bound to overwhelm the government's finances.

It is a difficult problem to price agricultural products. From the perspective of actual economic relations, on the one hand, in the face of relatively low prices of agricultural products in the international market, the government will not be able to hold up prices for a long time; on the other hand, if the prices of domestic agricultural products are allowed to be affected by the international market, there will inevitably be more poor quality land out of farming, and the total production will decline. From the perspective of the circulation situation, on the one hand, after the government withdraws from the agricultural product pricing system, there are few pricing subjects in the field of domestic production or circulation that can affect the price of agricultural products, and it is no longer feasible for the government to come forward; on the other hand, the pricing power of large agricultural exporters such as Europe and the United States and the ability to influence the price of our market will be significantly enhanced. This requires us to have a stronger response policy.

The fundamental way to improve the comprehensive competitiveness of China's agriculture is to promote the modernization of China's agricultural management organization system. Develop family farms and expand the scale of agricultural management; the second is to change the mode of agricultural technological progress. In recent years, the maize yield in northwest China has increased rapidly, and the net income of farmers has increased significantly, thanks to the adoption of dry farming techniques.

□ Dang Guoying (scholar)