What are the signals revealed by the first mention of "agricultural power" in the No. 1 Central Document?

(Economic Observer) What are the signals revealed by the first mention of "agricultural power" in the No. 1 Central Document?

　　China News Agency, Beijing, February 13th. Question: What are the signals revealed by the first mention of "agricultural power" in the No. 1 Central Document?

　　China News Agency reporter Chen Su

　　On the 13th, the No. 1 Central Document was released as scheduled. This year's No. 1 Central Document will continue to focus on "agriculture, rural areas and farmers."

What is different from previous years is that this year's No. 1 Central Document puts forward "an agricultural power" for the first time. What is the meaning of this formulation?

What are the new layouts and changes in China's "three rural" work?

Focus on "Sannong" for 20 consecutive years

　　From 2004 to 2023, Chinese officials issued the No. 1 Central Document with the theme of "Sannong" for 20 consecutive years. Work is highly valued.

　　The No. 1 Central Document released this year reaffirmed the importance of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers", and its status as a "ballast stone" was further emphasized.

　　The document states that the most arduous and arduous tasks of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way still lie in the countryside.

The world's major changes unseen in a century are accelerating. China's development has entered a period of strategic opportunities, risks and challenges, and uncertain and unpredictable factors.

We must unswervingly make solving the "three rural" issues the top priority of the whole party's work, mobilize the power of the whole party and the whole society to comprehensively promote rural revitalization, and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

What is the meaning of the first mention of "an agricultural power"?

　　The document proposes that a strong country must first strengthen its agriculture, and only a strong agriculture can make the country strong.

Based on the national conditions and agricultural conditions, embodying Chinese characteristics, we must build a strong agricultural country with strong supply guarantee, strong scientific and technological equipment, strong management system, strong industrial resilience, and strong competitiveness.

　　Jiang Wenlai, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Agricultural Regional Planning of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that "an agricultural power" was first proposed as a key point in the No. 1 Central Document.

China is a large agricultural country, but it is not a strong agricultural country. Building a strong agricultural country is conducive to comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, quickly filling the shortcomings of modernization, and is very important for China to build a socialist modern power.

　　In 2022, the report of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the goal of building a modern and powerful socialist country in an all-round way. If China wants to achieve this goal, it is self-evident that it is necessary to make up for the shortcomings in agriculture and rural areas and realize the simultaneous realization of a strong agricultural country.

　　Wang Sangui, a professor at the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, pointed out that the No. 1 Central Document for the first time proposed "an agricultural power" also has considerations for the international environment.

In recent years, the international situation has been very unstable. Against this background, the importance of agriculture to maintaining national stability and the basic livelihood of residents has become increasingly prominent, and the food issue cannot be missed.

China is a country with a large population and scarce arable land resources. It is even more necessary to tighten the string of food security and gradually reduce its dependence on the international market.

In the past, many advanced agricultural technologies and high-quality germplasm resources were mastered by foreign countries, facing the risk of being "stuck".

How to realize the "agricultural power"?

　　Wang Sangui said that "an agricultural power" refers to the overall improvement of agricultural production, which is the goal of agricultural development.

The improvement of China's agricultural production efficiency and the increase of farmers' income will continue to be realized in the process of building a strong agricultural country. "A strong agricultural country" is an overarching goal of China's agricultural development.

　　Ye Xingqing, director and researcher of the Rural Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council of China, said that to build a strong agricultural country is to build an agriculture that matches the socialist modern power.

Among them, strong supply security means that the primary function of agriculture is to provide sufficient agricultural products for social and economic development, and it must have a strong output capacity and supply security capability; strong facilities and equipment means that through technological progress, facility construction (including high standards) farmland, farmland water conservancy, etc.) to improve agricultural production efficiency; a strong management system refers to the development of new business entities and socialized services, and the extension of the agricultural industrial chain so that small-scale farmers can share a sufficiently high proportion of the industrial management system. Value-added income; strong industrial resilience means that China's agriculture can withstand major natural disasters, extreme climate changes, and can withstand severe fluctuations in foreign markets, improving agricultural climate resilience and reserve adjustment capabilities; strong competitiveness means improving Improve agricultural labor productivity, reduce costs, and improve the international price competitiveness of agricultural products.

　　He said that this year’s No. 1 Central Document was issued at a key point in the initial year of building a strong agricultural country. It adheres to goal orientation and problem orientation. Specific measures are put forward for the shortcomings and weaknesses, including strengthening the construction of agricultural infrastructure, strengthening agricultural technology and equipment support, and promoting the high-quality development of rural industries, etc.

This document is not only related to this year's "three rural" tasks, but also related to whether China can make a good start in building an agricultural power, and it is necessary to implement the relevant measures of the document.

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