(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) China's economic war "epidemic" record: agricultural development steadily in the first quarter
China News Agency, Beijing, April 19 (Reporter Chen Suo) In the first quarter, China's agriculture maintained a relatively stable trend. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on the 17th, under the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, China ’s economy suffered an “unprecedented” impact in the first quarter, with GDP falling by 6.8%, and the added value of the first, second and tertiary industries were all decline. However, compared with the secondary industry (decrease by 9.6%) and tertiary industry (decrease by 5.2%), the value added of the primary industry decreased by 3.2%, a smaller decline, in which the value added of agriculture (planting industry) increased by 3.5% against the trend. Become a bright color in the first quarter economic report.
"Compared with the secondary and tertiary industries, the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic on agricultural production is smaller." Kong Xiangzhi, a professor at the School of Agriculture and Rural Development of Renmin University of China, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Service that agricultural production is mainly in the field. Due to scattered operations, there is basically no problem of resumption of work. As Chinese officials have repeatedly proposed that spring cultivation should not be delayed, various measures have been introduced in time to address the problem of transportation of agricultural production materials during the epidemic, which quickly eliminated the adverse impact of the epidemic on agricultural production.
Regarding the reason for the decline in the value added of the first industry in the first quarter, Mao Shengyong, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, said that pork production fell by 29.1% year-on-year in the first quarter, mainly due to the drag of the animal husbandry industry and affected by the early African swine fever epidemic. Due to the impact of the recent epidemic, the slaughter of pigs, cattle, sheep and poultry has been affected to a certain extent. In the first quarter, the total output value of animal husbandry decreased by 10.6%, and the animal husbandry accounted for about 45% of the entire primary industry in the first quarter, so the increase in primary industry was lower Value speed.
Kong Xiangzhi said that in addition to the drag of the livestock industry in the first quarter, the sales of agricultural products, especially fresh agricultural products, in February and March were also affected by the epidemic, but with the smooth flow of transportation and the opening of online channels, they have been gradually resolved.
Agriculture is the foundation and "ballast stone" of the national economy. Agriculture is stable and the world is stable. According to experts, overall, China's agricultural production has a stable foundation.
In the first quarter, the added value of agriculture (planting industry) increased by 3.5% year-on-year. Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China ’s agricultural production is confident of overcoming the adverse effects of the epidemic. At present, China ’s agricultural production and planting measures are in place, and by increasing the support of subsidies, the area of grain cultivation is guaranteed. It has firmly seized the opportunity of spring cultivation, and grain production is expected to increase in 2020.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the current climatic conditions in China's main agricultural areas are generally favorable, spring cultivation and spring sowing are progressing smoothly, and the overall growth of winter wheat is better than that of last year and normal years. At the end of March, the proportion of the sown area of winter wheat first and second class seedlings nationwide reached 87.2%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points from the same period last year.
Kong Xiangzhi said that the huge food reserves accumulated by China in the past have effectively guaranteed China's food security and ensured that "the rice bowl is firmly in his own hands."
In addition, Kong Xiangzhi said that the current sound development of the Chinese farmer management system is also one of the important reasons for maintaining agricultural stability. "China has formed many farmer production cooperatives and hundreds of thousands of family farms. These organizations need to transfer land for production. For small farmers, they may not want to plant land, but for family farms, this season of non-production will face cost pressures and huge losses due to poor income. New business entities have stronger access than small farmers. Agricultural production materials, sales channels, and financial service capabilities, so the development of China's new business entities has played a very important role in supporting the restoration of agricultural production during the epidemic. "
Regarding the livestock industry that dragged on agriculture in the first quarter, Li Guoxiang said that the impact of the African swine fever epidemic this year is significantly less than last year. Through several policies to promote hog production, the current production capacity of hogs has accelerated to recover. This year's hog production capacity will be greatly restored compared with 2019. "The production capacity of hogs is expected to reach 45 to 48 million tons in 2020."
The data shows that at the end of the first quarter, the live pig inventory increased by 3.5% compared with the end of the fourth quarter of last year, of which the breeding sow inventory increased by 9.8%, achieving two consecutive quarter-on-quarter growth.
Kong Xiangzhi said that due to the cycle of pig production recovery, it is expected that the livestock industry's drag on agriculture will continue for several months, but the planting industry will continue to rise, coupled with the extensive cultivation of double-season rice, this year's substantial increase in grain income is a high probability event. It is expected that agricultural production will achieve more stable and rapid recovery and development in the following quarters.
Li Guoxiang said that follow-up needs to focus on the prevention and control of animal diseases, pests and diseases, always tighten the roots of agricultural production risk prevention and control, and focus on the decline of farmers' wage income, and increase policy support. (Finish)