On September 19th, the Information Office of the Ministry of Agriculture held a press conference on the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Agricultural Producer Services (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Rural Economic System and Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, introduced the situation of agricultural producer services and answered questions from reporters. Xu Zhengbin, deputy inspector of the Department of Agricultural Economics of the National Development and Reform Commission, attended the conference.
The reporter learned from the press conference that in recent years, with the in-depth development of modern agriculture, the agricultural producer service industry has accelerated its development, and various service organizations have flourished, with the number exceeding 1.15 million. The service areas cover various industries such as planting, animal husbandry and fishery, and various service methods such as whole-process custody, farming and planting, and joint farming and planting have emerged.
"Who will plant the land" and "How to plant the land well"
Zhang Hongyu said that accelerating the development of agricultural producer services is of great strategic significance for promoting the development of moderate-scale operation and promoting the structural reform of agricultural supply side.
In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China’s industrialization and urbanization have been deeply promoted, and a large number of rural laborers have moved into cities. In 2016, the total number of migrant workers has reached 281 million. "Who will plant the land" and "How to plant the land well" have become a highly concerned issue of the whole society.
Under this background, the central government proposes to accelerate the development of various forms of moderate scale operation and give play to its leading role in modern agricultural construction. To this end, in 2014, the central government issued the Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Circulation of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Moderate Scale Operation of Agriculture, in 2016, the Opinions on Improving the Separation Method of Rural Land Ownership, Contracting Rights and Management Rights, and this year, the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Policy System and Cultivating New Agricultural Management Subjects. Starting with the reform of rural land system and management system, on the one hand, we will promote the transfer of land management rights, cultivate new agricultural management entities, realize centralized scale management of land, and solve the problem of "who will plant the land".
On the other hand, we should focus on developing agricultural productive services, cultivating new agricultural service subjects and realizing centralized scale operation of services to solve the problem of "how to plant good land".
In recent years, the accelerated development of agricultural producer services has played an increasingly important role in better introducing ordinary farmers into the development track of modern agriculture and building a modern agricultural industrial system, production system and management system. At the same time, because China’s agricultural producer service industry is still in the early stage of development, the problems of small service organizations and weak driving force for ordinary farmers are still outstanding, especially with the large reduction of rural labor force and the increasingly prominent aging phenomenon, there are more and more things that one household can’t do, can’t do well and can’t do well. It is urgent to speed up the cultivation of various service organizations and vigorously develop agricultural producer services for the majority of farmers.
"Who serves" and "How to serve well"
When answering a reporter’s question, Zhang Hongyu said that all kinds of new agricultural business entities have the function of providing services for farmers and themselves, but their positioning is different.
The new business entities of agriculture are diversified, with various forms of expression. Generally speaking, there are about four categories: the first category, 877,000 family farms. Secondly, there are now 1.93 million farmers’ cooperatives, including both production cooperatives and service cooperatives. In the third category, there are 417,000 industrialized management organizations, including 130,000 leading enterprises. The fourth category, 1.15 million social service organizations. In practice, these four subjects, on the one hand, directly engage in agricultural production and management, and also provide related services for others. Different subjects have different division of labor and orientation in modern agriculture, and family farms have clear property rights, clear boundaries and low transaction costs, which are most suitable for direct agricultural production activities. To help farmers, especially the disadvantaged farmers, cooperatives are a good organizational form, in which everyone can achieve win-win and common development. In order to promote the structural adjustment of agriculture and focus on the structural reform of supply side, especially to provide more high-end agricultural products, differentiated agricultural products and branded agricultural products that meet the consumption needs of urban and rural residents, it is necessary to cultivate and strengthen leading enterprises. The orientation of socialized service organizations is to provide all kinds of productive services and promote agricultural cost saving and efficiency improvement. Based on the functional orientation of different subjects, we should give full play to their respective comparative advantages, promote the diversified interaction, complementary functions and integrated development of all subjects, and lay a solid organizational foundation for promoting the development of agricultural producer services.
Regarding the service field of agricultural producer services, Zhang Hongyu said that agricultural producer services is a brand-new concept, and the Opinions focus on the whole agricultural industrial chain from the field to the dining table, covering all the related service contents of production links, and should become an independent and complete industry.
First, agricultural market information service. Including the trend of industrial development, price trend, structural adjustment, etc., ordinary farmers and new business entities are more concerned about these issues. Second, agricultural resources supply services. Including the supply of improved varieties, fertilizers and pesticides, and how seedlings and breeding animals can meet the needs of ordinary farmers and new business entities is the second big problem to be solved. Third, agricultural green production technical services. From the perspective of input and production process, we can no longer blindly increase input and only pursue output as in the past. What we are pursuing now is quality and green development, so production technology should focus on green development. Fourth, agricultural waste resource utilization services. With the development of agriculture today, environmental protection and waste disposal are very difficult issues. It used to be called harmless treatment of waste, but now it is called resource utilization. How to effectively solve the problem of resource utilization of agricultural wastes also requires us to provide effective services. Fifth, agricultural machinery operation and maintenance services. The use of agricultural machinery, including maintenance issues, has put forward more and more requirements from ordinary farmers and the vast number of new business entities. Now, from the perspective of agricultural machinery development, how to extend from grain, cotton and oil agricultural products to cash crops and from field crops to characteristic crops, including how to develop small agricultural machinery in hilly areas, mountainous areas and southern water network areas, are all in front of us. Therefore, agricultural machinery operations, including maintenance services, have become a very urgent problem in practice. Sixth, the primary processing service of agricultural products. For example, corn and wheat are harvested and simply processed into flour.Making rice from rice, these initial processing links, especially the storage and transportation links, including the use of cold chain facilities, have put forward many requirements in practice. Finally, agricultural products marketing services. China’s farmers are now very productive, but it is more difficult for ordinary farmers to sell them and sell them at a good price. Therefore, marketing services are very important. For example, how to help farmers to market and build relevant platforms so that the goods produced by farmers can flow smoothly is more urgent than the production links, and it needs the help of the government, including diversified service organizations.
Let ordinary farmers have a sense of gain
In response to a reporter’s question about what specific measures the NDRC has to support the development of agricultural producer services, Xu Zhengbin said that the NDRC has actively cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture and combined with its own functions, mainly doing two things: First, strengthening support and guidance at the policy level. Since 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission has taken the lead in drafting documents such as Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Integrated Development of the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Industries in Agriculture, Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Cold Chain Logistics to Ensure Food Safety and Promote Consumption Upgrade, and Outline for the Innovative Development of Service Industry (2017-2025), which clearly put forward that it is necessary to accelerate the development of agricultural producer services and enhance the service industry’s supporting and leading ability to transform agricultural development mode and accelerate the development of modern agriculture. The second is to increase support at the financial level. Strengthening the construction of agricultural science and technology service capacity is mainly to support the construction of local towns and villages, including regional grass-roots agricultural technology service system. Strengthen the construction of agricultural products circulation system and further increase the support for the construction of cold chain logistics system. Actively support the resource utilization of agricultural wastes, and support various professional service organizations to carry out the comprehensive utilization of sick and dead livestock, residual film and manure, including the "three residues" of agriculture and forestry. In the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will actively combine the construction of relevant projects in the fields of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, including the formulation of relevant policies, and cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture to further support and promote the development of agricultural producer services.
In response to a reporter’s question about how to respond to the demand of various new agricultural business entities, especially farmers, for agricultural productive services, Zhang Hongyu stressed that the purpose of the Opinions is to serve new agricultural business entities, especially ordinary farmers, and to persist in serving agricultural farmers and make them get benefits in the process of policy implementation.
In May this year, the Central Committee’s "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Policy System and Cultivating New Agricultural Business Entities" clearly stated that relevant policies should not only focus on new business entities, but also focus on new business entities to drive ordinary farmers, help farmers, improve farmers and wealthy farmers. The 260 million farmers in China are the foundation of our country’s food security and the supply of important agricultural products. Don’t forget this group at any time. Therefore, in the process of issuing the Opinions, the guiding ideology, basic principles, relevant contents and work requirements all focus on serving ordinary farmers. It is clearly stated in the guiding ideology that ordinary farmers should be introduced into the development track of modern agriculture through producer services. One of the four principles is called service agriculture and farmers, and what kind of support should be given to ordinary farmers in seven service areas. In short, helping ordinary farmers, improving farmers and enriching farmers is the starting point of all policies and the starting point of issuing this document. In the next step, special emphasis should be placed on supporting ordinary farmers in the implementation of the document. In other words, modern agriculture can’t fall behind ordinary farmers, so ordinary farmers should have a sense of gain, participation and promotion to achieve the goal of common prosperity. (Reporter Hu Ranran)
