Document No. 1 focuses on the obstacles to the increase of farmers' income on the agricultural supply side.

In 2016, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee will once again focus on "agriculture, rural areas and farmers", and the relevant content will begin to surface.

According to experts close to the Ministry of Agriculture, the draft of the 2016 Central Committee No. 1 document is entitled "opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on implementing the New concept of Development and speeding up Agricultural Modernization to achieve the goal of achieving a well-off Society in an all-round way" (hereinafter referred to as "opinions"). After revision and improvement, the next step is expected to be promulgated by the end of January or early February in accordance with the usual practice.

Consistent with the goal of supply-side reform put forward by the central authorities, the "opinion" stresses that efforts should be made to strengthen agricultural supply-side reform, and the basic requirement is to increase the effective supply of grain and other agricultural products. The so-called "effective supply" means that the supply of agricultural products should be in line with the overall demand of society and the needs of consumers in terms of sufficient quantity, variety and quality. Generally speaking, the more agricultural products are produced, the better. For example, for example, the supply exceeds demand in the domestic corn market this year, the country has a serious surplus of inventory, and the corn produced by farmers cannot be sold. For the country and farmers, it is a waste and a loss.

"effective supply" also includes reducing the cost of agricultural production and improving agricultural efficiency and competitiveness. "reducing" mainly refers to controlling the total amount of water used in agriculture and reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, while "increasing" refers to improving the scientific and technological content of agriculture and raising farmers' income from growing grain and land.

The experts close to the Ministry of Agriculture summed up agricultural supply-side reform in only nine words-removing inventory, reducing costs, and making up for deficiencies. In terms of "making up for deficiencies", a very important thing is how to develop rural areas and make farmers rich as soon as possible, so that the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way during the 13th five-year Plan will not fail.

Agricultural supply side

An important part of the Central Rural work Conference, which ended on December 25 last year, is to discuss the discussion draft of the above-mentioned "opinions."

According to the aforementioned experts close to the Ministry of Agriculture, what attracted the most attention in the discussion draft was the proposal that "efforts should be made to strengthen the supply-side structural reform of agriculture," which is in line with the strengthening of the supply-side structural reform emphasized by the high level of the central government before.

Niu Li, director of the Macroeconomic Research Office of the Economic Forecast Department of the State Information Center, Li Guoxiang, researcher of the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zheng Fengtian, vice dean of the School of Agriculture and Rural Development of Renmin University of China, and other specialists have further analyzed the agricultural supply-side reform. A number of "three rural" experts agree that basically, the next step in agricultural supply-side reform is to "eliminate inventory, reduce costs, and make up for deficiencies."

Niuli's analysis is that at the supply level, the basic bottom line of agricultural structural reform is to ensure national food security. In terms of quantity, China has achieved "basic self-sufficiency in grain and absolute safety in food rations"; in terms of quality, the richness of China's high-end agricultural products is obviously not enough to meet demand. At the same time, with regard to environmental problems such as pesticide residues, water pollution, excessive heavy metals in soil, and food safety, the future government will step up the reform of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" and make a fuss on improving the supply of high-quality agricultural products. finally, let agriculture become a real money-making industry.

Both Li Guoxiang and Zheng Fengtian mentioned that it is difficult to sell grain in Henan, Northeast, and other major grain producing areas this year, and suggested that the price formation mechanism and storage policies of grain and other important agricultural products should be improved as soon as possible. Li Guoxiang believes that China's agricultural products lack price competitiveness, mainly because the cost of agricultural production is too high and the comparative efficiency of agriculture is on the low side. In order to solve these problems, we must guide the land joint-stock cooperative system and allow farmers to participate in dividends in the form of shareholding. In addition, it is to promote agricultural mechanization, change the mode of agricultural development, improve the efficiency of the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and really reduce the cost of agricultural production.

The aforementioned experts close to the Ministry of Agriculture said that now the reform ideas of the relevant departments in the three aspects of "removing inventory, reducing costs, and making up for deficiencies" are basically clear. to put it simply, to eliminate inventory is to speed up the digestion of excessive national treasury stocks of agricultural products and speed up the transformation of grain processing. To reduce costs is to reduce production costs and improve agricultural efficiency and competitiveness by developing appropriate scale operation, reducing the unreasonable use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and carrying out social services. It is a weak link in strengthening agricultural supply, such as agricultural infrastructure, and increasing the production of agricultural products in short supply in the market.

According to Pan Wenbo, deputy director of the planting Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, in November last year, the overall idea of promoting a new round of agricultural adjustment is clear. In accordance with the national food security strategy and the strategy of "storing grain in the land" and "storing grain in technology" under the new situation, the Ministry of Agriculture will adhere to the "market-oriented, science and technology-oriented, ecological protection priority" to increase production capacity. We will form an agricultural development pattern featuring the overall planning of grain economy and feeding, the combination of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing, the integration of planting and breeding, and the integration of one, two and three industries.

With regard to the supply of major agricultural products, such as grain, cotton and oil, Pan Wenbo said that the self-sufficiency rate of rice and wheat is expected to be maintained at 100%, the grain self-sufficiency rate is more than 95%, and the self-sufficiency rate of cotton, oil, sugar, and cotton should basically meet domestic consumption. The specific requirement for cooking oil is that the self-sufficiency rate should be stable at more than 30%.

The aforementioned experts close to the Ministry of Agriculture added that in the next step of agricultural supply-side reform, the central government also proposed for the first time to establish the concept of big agriculture and big food. for grain production and "food security" is no longer one-sided, blindly emphasis on output and quantity, but from the past output growth and quantity growth to equal emphasis on quantity, quality and efficiency. It has greatly expanded the connotation of "food security", and this change can also be said to be revolutionary.

All-round well-off

2016 is the first year of the 13th five-year Plan. While emphasizing agricultural supply-side reform, the opinion also proposes to increase farmers' income through various channels, so as to promote the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way during the 13th five-year Plan.

According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the income of Chinese farmers has maintained an increase for six consecutive years, and it is also higher than that of urban residents, that is to say, the income gap between urban and rural residents is gradually narrowing. But even under the support of such data, there are still some experts who pay attention to "agriculture, rural areas and farmers". They think that the increase of farmers' income is too slow and the state subsidy to agriculture is too small. Social security support for migrant workers and the elderly in rural areas is still too small.

Not long ago, Song Xiaowu, vice president of the China Economic system Reform Research Association, publicly said that although the income gap between urban and rural residents has narrowed slightly in recent years, it is not because farmers' income from farming has really increased, but because farmers' income from working in cities accounts for 40% of their total income. At present, in the world, "no country will use the money sent by secondary and tertiary industry enterprises to calculate farmers' income, only in the special background of the division of urban and rural areas in China."

Song Xiaowu also said that migrant workers are the worst covered by the social security system. Now some experts also suggest that a separate social security system be established for migrant workers. He believes that to solve the problem of poor social security coverage for migrant workers is not to establish a social security system alone, but to enable them to become citizens as soon as possible, integrate into the city, and enjoy the same social security wages as urban workers. In the equalization of basic public services in cities, migrant workers and their children are also excluded, which also needs to be paid attention to by the relevant departments and solved as soon as possible.

Gao Shangquan, director of the China Economic system Reform Research Association, is also concerned about the income of farmers. At the annual meeting of China's reform held on November 28-29, 2015, he said that if rural areas do not develop and farmers cannot get rich, the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way during the 13th five-year Plan will fail.

Gao Shangquan believes that the important reason for the long-term lag in rural development is that it is difficult for farmers to turn contracted land, homestead, and collective land into capital, and it is difficult for farmers to obtain property income, so they should be reformed through the land system. Should "in a legal way, let farmers' bags bulge up, farmers can lead a well-off life."

With regard to the institutional obstacles that still exist that affect farmers' income in many ways, the expert close to the Ministry of Agriculture said that the central rural work conference mentioned the need to "increase farmers' income through multiple channels," and the "opinions" also made further arrangements in this regard. In recent years, the central government has been encouraging social capital to invest in the agricultural industry, hoping to speed up the development of agricultural scale operation and promote agricultural industrialization, so as to provide some guarantee for increasing farmers' income from growing grain and farming.

In the next step, the parties concerned will continue to promote social capital to participate in agricultural industrialization management. at the same time, social capital will be gradually introduced into rural network infrastructure to promote the development of rural e-commerce. It is expected that through these means, the cost of agricultural production will be greatly reduced, so as to improve farmers' income and provide more and more effective protection.