Actively and steadily promote the comprehensive reform of agricultural water price

China is a large agricultural country, characterized by a large population, little arable land, frequent floods and droughts, and a sharp contradiction between supply and demand of water resources, which determines that China's agriculture must take the development road of irrigated agriculture. Large and medium-sized irrigation districts in China are limited by early economic capacity and technical conditions, and there are some problems in operation and management, such as low design standards of irrigation projects, low quality of irrigation projects, incomplete facilities and so on. In order to solve these problems and promote the healthy operation of the irrigation district, we must consider comprehensively, arrange as a whole and advance synchronously. For this reason, the Ministry of Water Resources proposes to build a "trinity" long-term mechanism for the benign operation of irrigation and water conservancy on the basis of a sound farmland and water conservancy project system, with farmers' water use autonomy as the core and a scientific terminal water price system as a guarantee. This is of great significance to the overall situation of national food security, farmers' income and expenditure, the construction of a water-saving society and the reform of the water pipe system.

The reform of agricultural terminal water price is an inevitable choice to standardize the water price of the last canal system, reform the management system of agricultural water supply, ensure the healthy operation of the project, promote agricultural water saving and efficiency, and ensure national food security. By implementing the terminal water price of agricultural water supply, we can avoid the phenomenon of multiple charges, make farmers know well and use water at ease, and can play the role of curbing arbitrary price increases and random hitchhiking charges, so as to form a benign mechanism for the collection of water charges. it is conducive to the sustainable operation of water conservancy projects and improve the quality of irrigation services.

Analysis on Agricultural Water Price Policy and Water Price Model in China

1. A Survey of Agricultural Water Price Policy in China

Agricultural water price is the transaction price of water as a commodity resource used in agricultural production such as food crops, cash crop water and aquaculture. At present, the agricultural water price is mainly the cost and expense of water supply, excluding profits and taxes.

The development process of agricultural water price in China has gone through three stages. The first stage is the free water supply stage, that is, the price of agricultural water is zero. The second stage is the low standard charge stage of agricultural water price, but the agricultural water price is still far lower than the cost of water. The third stage is the stage of partial cost charging. The Water supply Price Management Law of Water Conservancy Project issued in 2003 and implemented on January 1, 2004 indicates that China's agricultural water price reform has entered the fast track.

Since 2008, China has carried out a comprehensive reform of agricultural water price. In 2013, the Ministry of Water Resources coordinated with the Ministry of Finance to increase support to carry out in-depth demonstration of comprehensive agricultural water price reform in 55 counties in 27 provinces across the country. The No. 1 document issued by the Central Committee in 2015 once again made arrangements to promote the comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices.

two。 Summary of Agricultural Water Price Model

Generally speaking, the water resources pricing model mainly includes the following aspects: 1. Pricing based on the cost of water supply. Measure and calculate the various inputs for water production and supply in raw water supply activities, tap water production and supply activities, sewage treatment activities, and water diversion and other water-related activities to form the production prices of all kinds of water supply industries. 2. Pricing based on farmers' affordability. Based on the economic and social development level, farmers' income level, enterprise production level, available water resources and other conditions in a certain period of time, the acceptable range of water price for all kinds of users is determined. 3. Pricing based on market equilibrium. Based on the level of social and economic development in a certain period, the input-output relationship of production departments, the elasticity of water prices of residents and other factors, a virtual market system is constructed to evaluate the price of water resources under non-market conditions. the equilibrium price of water resources market under certain conditions is analyzed.

Due to the different levels of social and economic development and the different conditions for the occurrence of water resources, the water price system and the water price formation mechanism adopted by different countries are also different. The United States adopts the "service cost + user affordability" pricing model for agricultural irrigation water. India, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and other developing countries, whose national economy is mainly agricultural economy and use a large amount of water for irrigation, usually adopt the water user affordability pricing model to determine their water price.

3. Characteristics of Agricultural Water Service in China

(1) the service object of agricultural water is a weak industry, and the water price should reflect the orientation of the policy. (2) the service provided by agricultural water has the attribute of commodity. (3) as it is impossible to build another irrigation and drainage system in the built water conservancy project area to compete with it in terms of price and service, agricultural water service has a certain monopoly.

From the above characteristics, China's agricultural water service projects are not only different from pure public welfare flood control projects, but also different from hydropower enterprises for profit, so their water prices should not be determined according to the unified model but according to different conditions. Therefore, the pricing of agricultural water in China should be considered from two aspects:

On the one hand, the water price of irrigation and drainage projects is closely related to input, output and national macro policy. Therefore, in the areas with less investment in agricultural water conservancy projects, good rural economic conditions and farmers' ability to pay, the agricultural water price can be raised to the cost of water supply and appropriate profits can be added. For those with large investment in agricultural water conservancy projects in the region, poor economic conditions in rural areas and temporary difficulties in farmers' ability to pay, on the basis of financial subsidies provided by the government, step-by-step measures can be adopted to appropriately increase one point every year, and then raise the water price to the cost accounting price after various conditions have been improved. For the areas in the region where the investment in agricultural water conservancy projects is huge, the rural economic conditions are very poor, and farmers' ability to pay is indeed very difficult, the method of combining central financial subsidy with local financial subsidy can be adopted to solve the problem that the cost of agricultural water supply cannot be compensated, and the problem of profit will be considered when the conditions are ripe.

On the other hand, combined with several traditional pricing methods of agricultural water use in China and the influencing factors of agricultural water use in China, the two-part water price should be adopted in the collection of agricultural water consumption fee in our country. The essence of the two-part water price is to implement different compensation methods for the production cost, fixed cost and variable cost of water supply, that is, the fixed cost is compensated by the basic water price and the variable cost is compensated by the metered water price.

Problems in the Reform of Agricultural Water Price Policy in China

The main problems at present are:

The first is the challenge of ideas. The utilization of agricultural water resources has been priceless or cheap for a long time. On the whole, the reform of water price is the "price increase" of agricultural water use, and the price increase of agricultural water use has been questioned by many people. it poses a great challenge to the newly cultivated concept of "water resources are valuable".

The second is the challenge of farmers' ability to bear. The reform of water price should be within the scope of farmers' bearing capacity, and farmers' bearing capacity is the high limit of agricultural water price. As agriculture is a weak industry, the benefit is not high, in this context, water prices have varying degrees of impact on the cost of agricultural production, especially in the period of rising prices, the affordability of farmers is even lower.

The third is the challenge to the survival of water management units. Water charge is an important economic source for the survival of water management units. Due to the difficulty of collecting fees, the water management unit has become a "poor temple", and its survival is in crisis, which affects the management level to a certain extent and lays a hidden danger for efficient water use.

Suggestions on the Reform of Agricultural Water Price Policy in China

Agricultural water price is not only a water conservancy economic issue, but also a very sensitive political issue, which is closely related to the improvement of comprehensive agricultural production capacity, entangled with the interests of farmers and relevant water management units, and is very complicated. the reform of agricultural water price must be carried out steadily with prudent, positive and steady principles.

1. Strengthen farmers' awareness of water saving and cultivate their understanding of the attributes of water commodities.

In order to achieve the desired results, the implementation and reform of water price policy must be supported and understood by the broad masses of farmers, but free or low-price water use has become a "habit" for many years, which weakens farmers' water-saving consciousness to a certain extent. so first of all, we need to change the concept and understanding of the broad masses of farmers. All townships and villages can ask professionals to explain to you the knowledge of water rights and the current situation of water resources in our country, so that everyone can understand the value of water resources, and the key targets can be those new farmers who have a certain cultural foundation. let them pass on these ideas to other farmers, the effect will be better, when the broad masses of farmers realize the scarcity of water resources and the commodity nature of water, the implementation and reform of water price policy can play a better role.

two。 Do a good job in water price management and standardize the water price policy of the last canal system

Agricultural water use is one of the factors of agricultural production. The government pricing catalogue should be revised in time according to the market development degree of agricultural production factors, the situation of resources and the changes of supply and demand. It is necessary to bring the water price of the last canal system into the scope of government price management, determine the water price of the last canal system according to the operation and management cost of the last canal system, actively implement the terminal water price system of "one price to the household, one ticket charge", and the water management units should extend the management. water supply directly to farmers, reduce intermediate links, implement invoicing to households, increase the transparency of payment, and resolutely curb arbitrary charges and arbitrary price increases. We will earnestly solve the problem of farmers' unreasonable burden of water charges. Since 2008, China has carried out a comprehensive reform of agricultural water price. this comprehensive reform of agricultural water price brings the water price of agricultural last-level canal system into the scope of government management, and implements the terminal water price system of state-owned water conservancy project plus last-stage canal system. To a certain extent, standardize the last canal system.

3. Fully consider the affordability of farmers and establish an incentive mechanism for agricultural water subsidy

The reform of agricultural water price must be within the bearing capacity of farmers, which is the first basic principle of water price reform. On the basis of fully listening to the opinions of farmers, the relevant departments should formulate a reasonable standard and use it as the upper limit of agricultural water price reform to guide water price reform. At the same time, the establishment of agricultural water subsidy incentive mechanism is also very necessary, the so-called agricultural water subsidy incentive mechanism is to combine agricultural water subsidy with water conservation to promote the efficient use of agricultural water resources. Its specific mechanism is to subsidize agricultural water charges, which is distributed directly to farmers like grain subsidies, and agricultural water prices are adjusted at the same time, which is conducive to arousing the enthusiasm of both water management units and farmers. It is worth noting that in order to regulate the proportional relationship between the adjustment of water prices and farmers' subsidies, farmers' subsidy income should be higher than the expenditure of the increase in water prices. Select a suitable place for pilot, establish and improve this kind of subsidy incentive mechanism.