"China News Weekly" reporter: Zhang Xinyu
Published in the 1133rd issue of "China News Weekly" magazine on March 25, 2024
On the second day of the second lunar month, the Spring Plowing Festival arrives, and spring plowing begins in various places. As early as three weeks ago, many towns and villages in Fujin City, Heilongjiang Province, had begun clearing snow and building sheds to prepare for spring plowing in advance, laying the foundation for a full year of agricultural production.
Fujin City, as a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, is located in the hinterland of the Sanjiang Plain. It is a standard agricultural city. Its grain output has ranked first in Heilongjiang Province for eight consecutive years, and has become a "national producer" for two consecutive years. The first county in terms of food supply.”
This year, they have received a target task of increasing grain production by about 400 million kilograms, which means an increase of about 8%. This is not an easy goal to achieve. The background is that on March 12, the State Council executive meeting discussed and approved the "New Round Action Plan for Increasing Grain Production Capacity (2024-2030)". The meeting pointed out that ensuring food security is a top priority, and we must fully implement a new round of actions to increase grain production capacity by 100 billion kilograms in accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, and firmly grasp the initiative on food security.
Ensuring food security is a long-term issue for China. In 2023, China's grain output will hit a new record high, stabilizing at more than 1.3 trillion kilograms for nine consecutive years. However, China's grain supply and demand are still in a "tight balance" state.
As China fully implements a new round of actions to increase grain production capacity by 100 billion kilograms, many major agricultural cities, including Fujin, have begun a new round of exploration.
From 3.07 billion catties to 6.51 billion catties
Walking into the small building of the Fujin Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the plan to increase grain production capacity is posted in a conspicuous position outside the office door. By 2023, Fujin City’s grain output will have achieved “twenty consecutive harvests”.
6.51 billion catties, which is the city’s grain output in 2023. In 2009, Fujin City's grain output was 3.07 billion kilograms. The substantial increase in grain production in Fujin City is a microcosm of the significant increase in China's grain production in the past decade or so.
In 2009, in order to ensure national food security, my country implemented a plan to increase grain production capacity by 100 billion kilograms. The "National Plan for Adding 100 Billion Jin of Grain Production Capacity (2009-2020)" discussed and adopted at the State Council Executive Meeting proposed that by 2020, my country's grain production capacity will reach more than 1.1 trillion kilograms, an increase from the grain production capacity in 2008 100 billion catties.
The results of the last round of planning to add 100 billion kilograms of grain production capacity are very significant. In 2012, my country's grain output reached the 1.2 trillion kilogram mark, completing the goal eight years ahead of schedule. By 2023, my country's grain production will increase by more than 300 billion jin compared with 2008, far exceeding the production increase planned in the previous round.
Judging from the data, in the process of increasing China's grain production in the past decade or so, the Northeast region has made a particularly prominent contribution.
Li Tengfei, associate researcher at the Academy of Sciences of the National Grain and Material Reserves Administration, pointed out in an article published in 2023 that from 2008 to 2021, the Northeast region has the largest increase in grain production, with an increase of 110 billion kilograms during the planning period, accounting for 10% of the total increase in grain production nationwide. 37%. Looking at data from each province, Heilongjiang Province increased production by as much as 72.9 billion kilograms, the highest among all provinces in the country.
The last round of planning to add 100 billion kilograms of grain production capacity was able to far exceed the target. An important prerequisite is the continued expansion of sown area.
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that from 2008 to 2012, my country's grain sown area expanded from 1.61 billion acres to 1.71 billion acres, and the total grain output increased by more than 100 billion kilograms. By 2015, the grain sown area expanded to 1.78 billion acres, and the total grain output increased by more than 200 billion jin compared with 2008.
The same goes for Fujin. Fujin's sown area has experienced qualitative changes in more than ten years, expanding from 4.845 million acres in 2008 to the current 5.686 million acres.
Of course, as a contender for the title of “the nation’s number one grain-producing county,” Fujin has done much more than that. Yang Zhiyu, member of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Municipal Party Committee and deputy mayor, first mentioned "land" in an interview with China News Weekly. Land is the basis of agricultural production, and improving soil fertility is the basis for increasing food production.
Although Fujin is located in the hinterland of the Sanjiang Plain with excellent soil conditions, there is still a considerable area of cultivated land with medium and low yields. Fujin City Northeast Paddy Field Modern Agricultural Machinery Cooperative was established in 2014. Liu Chun, chairman of the cooperative, recalled to China News Weekly that before 2014, the land where the cooperative was located was in a low-lying area, and it was difficult to drain water out. In flood years, There is no production, and there are good harvests only two years out of ten years. In addition, when it rains, the roads in the fields are muddy, making it impossible for vehicles to enter and to pull grain out. When the cooperative was established, the Fujin Municipal Government proposed the policy of "treating waterlogging with rice" and carried out land consolidation projects, built water conservancy facilities, repaired field roads, and planted rice in a continuous area to increase grain production.
Yang Zhiyu said that in the past eight years, Fujin has seen significant results in the transformation of low- and medium-yield fields. In recent years, Fujin's soil fertility has been significantly improved by taking advantage of the country's high-standard farmland construction.
High-standard farmland refers to farmland with flat, concentrated and contiguous land, complete facilities, fertile soil, good ecology, strong disaster resistance, and adaptable to modern agricultural production and management methods with guaranteed yields during droughts and floods, high and stable yields. Data provided by Fujin City shows that Fujin has built a total of 2.15 million acres of high-standard farmland. According to data provided by Fujin, the total area of cultivated land in Fujin City is 9.2 million acres.
In the past few years, high-standard farmland construction has also been an important step in improving comprehensive grain production capacity across the country. In November 2019, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Effectively Strengthening the Construction of High-Standard Farmland to Improve the National Food Security Capability", which included the construction of high-standard farmland into the assessment of local governments at all levels' farmland protection responsibility targets. The "National High-Standard Farmland Construction Plan (2021-2030)" approved and implemented by the State Council in September 2021 clearly states that 1.2 billion acres of high-standard farmland will be built by 2030.
In addition to soil fertility, seed selection is crucial to increasing grain production.
"Now, about 80% of the varieties grown in Fujin City come from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences." Zhang Mingxiu, director of the Fujin Agricultural Technology Promotion Center, told China News Weekly that Fujin has cooperated with the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences since 2006. In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs launched a pilot project for the joint construction of pilot counties for the modernization of agricultural science and technology across the country. Fujin also carried out joint construction of pilot counties with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences to conduct research on varieties suitable for cultivation in the Fujin area. Filter and optimize.
Jing Yuliang is the party secretary and president of the Suihua Branch of the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He told China News Weekly that the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences will select matching varieties for the local area based on the regional temperature and demand for varieties. For example, in 2023, the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences selected the soybean variety "Suinong 35" in a joint venture with Fujin, achieving a yield of 668.6 kilograms per mu, setting a record for high-oil soybean yields in Heilongjiang Province.
Improved varieties also require good methods, good techniques, and good opportunities. This is a set of combinations to increase yields. Zhang Mingxiu said that in order to increase grain yields, corresponding cultivation models must be matched according to different varieties of crops. Take soybeans as an example. In recent years, Fujin has promoted large-ridge and close-planting cultivation technology, assisted by technologies such as variable fertilization, and equipped with special agricultural machinery for large-ridge and close-planting of soybeans. Zhang Mingxiu said that such a combination of punches can increase production by more than 10%.
However, it is not easy for farmers to accept new varieties and advanced cultivation methods. Yang Zhiyu said that in the past few years, farmers did not recognize cultivation techniques such as large ridges and dense planting, and they tried to promote them for several years. Zhang Mingxiu also said that Fujin has built a number of demonstration parks and demonstration bases to let farmers see that new varieties combined with new models can increase yields by more than 10%. It took a few years for farmers to gradually become willing to accept them.
In recent years, Fujin's agricultural production has increasingly emphasized the application of science and technology and the development of smart agriculture.
Taking meteorological observation as an example, the 10,000-mu high-standard paddy field demonstration park in Fujin City has the only cold rice ecosystem field meteorological station in Northeast China. It mainly carries out observation experiments and comprehensive research on the typical underlying surface ecology and agricultural meteorology in the Sanjiang Plain area. . Liu Chun said that after the meteorological and agricultural departments research and analyze the experimental data, they will provide more precise guidance to farmers. "For example, if there is a low temperature the day after tomorrow, it will be harmful to the growth of rice. The meteorological and agricultural departments will immediately remind farmers to pour deep water." , to ensure that rice is not damaged by freezing."
Originally, farmers followed the proverb "Be busy planting wheat during the Qingming Festival, plant fields during the Grain Rain, and plant crops during the blooming apricot trees." However, as the application of technology further spreads in agriculture, Liu Chun discovered that it is now possible to express local expressions based on meteorological data. Sow seeds when the temperature is suitable to increase grain production early and prevent drought, low temperature and other abnormal climate changes from causing harm to grain production.
The key is corn and soybeans
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, as of the end of 2023, my country's grain output has stabilized at more than 1.3 trillion catties for nine consecutive years. From another perspective, in recent years, my country's grain sown area has been relatively stable. This also means that the new round of increasing grain production capacity by 100 billion jins faces greater challenges.
Yi Hongmei, a professor at the School of Modern Agriculture at Peking University, deputy director of the New Rural Development Institute, and a researcher at the China Agricultural Policy Research Center, told China News Weekly that my country’s food security situation is generally relatively optimistic, and the self-sufficiency rate in food rations has basically achieved 100%. The self-sufficiency rate of grains is above 95%. However, as residents’ food consumption structure upgrades, the demand for feed grains continues to increase, and the gap between production and demand continues to expand. “This is the main challenge facing my country’s food security.” At present, the main sources of feed grains in my country are corn and soybeans.
"With economic development, the general trend of my country's grain consumption is that the per capita consumption of grain rations tends to decrease, while the per capita consumption of non-staple food such as meat, eggs, milk and aquatic products tends to increase, and the total consumption of feed grains tends to increase." Li Guoxiang It was also pointed out that under the current level of science and technology and the food consumption pattern of Chinese residents, soybean production should be promoted to a new level.
Northeast China is the main soybean and corn producing area in my country. Taking soybeans as an example, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics at the end of 2023, the sowing area of beans nationwide is 180 million acres. In Heilongjiang, the soybean sowing area in 2023 will be 73.975 million acres, ranking first in the country in sowing area.
Fujin has always closely followed national policies. Zhang Mingxiu said that before 2009, Fujin, as an important soybean-producing county in the country, had a large soybean planting area. With the advancement of the last round of planning to add 100 billion kilograms of grain production capacity, Fujin has promoted the gradual increase of rice planting area, while the proportion of soybean planting area continues to decrease. In the past two or three years, with the province's call to "stabilize grain production and expand soybeans," Fujin's soybean planting area has begun to rebound, and soybean production has also increased. In 2019, of Fujin's total grain output of 6.16 billion kilograms, rice accounted for 66.2%, corn accounted for 26.3%, and soybeans accounted for 7.5%. By 2023, of Fujin’s total grain output of 6.51 billion kilograms, the proportion of rice will drop to 42.9%, while the proportions of corn and soybeans will increase to 43.7% and 13.4% respectively.
Yang Zhiyu said that the increase in soybean planting area in Fujin in recent years is also directly linked to the efficiency of growing grain. "The minimum purchase price of rice has always been maintained at 1.31 yuan, while rice cultivation requires high investment, and the harvest is greatly affected by the weather." Around 2022, the returns from planting corn and soybeans are much higher than those of rice, so many local farmers have changed to Plant soybeans.
However, the impact of these practices on the new round of increasing grain production capacity is limited. Yi Hongmei pointed out that in the past ten years or so, our country has almost tapped out the potential of cultivated land. "Our country's cultivated land area is limited. In the future, if we increase the cultivated land area to tap the potential of increasing grain production, the space will be relatively small." She said that the total grain output is the grain cultivation area multiplied by the grain yield per unit area. When farmland resources are limited, increasing grain production capacity requires increasing unit yields.
The No. 1 Central Document of 2024 takes "ensuring national food security" as the top priority, and it clearly states that "the focus of increasing grain production should be on increasing yields per unit area on a large scale."
The same goes for Fujin. For large agricultural cities and provinces like Fujin City and Heilongjiang, they have tried their best to tap their potential in increasing grain production in the past decade or so. It is a great challenge to continue to increase grain production. This year, one of the key tasks of the Fujin Agricultural Technology Extension Center is to increase grain yields.
Many experts pointed out that from the perspective of China's grain pattern, the key to improving grain yields also lies in corn and soybeans.
Sun Junming, a researcher at the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, pointed out to China News Weekly that my country's wheat and rice yield levels have reached the world's leading level, but my country's corn and soybean yield levels still have huge room for improvement.
Especially in terms of soybean yield per unit area, there is a big gap between my country and the world's advanced level. Sun Junming said that in 2023, my country's average soybean yield per mu will be 132.7 kilograms, while the average soybean yield per mu in the United States is 222.8 kilograms, and the world's average soybean yield per mu is 178 kilograms. "I think my country's average soybean yield per mu will be at least about 180 kilograms." , reaching the world’s average level.”
As one of the top ten soybean-producing counties in the country, Fujin's average soybean yield per mu is already comparable to the world average. Zhang Mingxiu said that without disasters, the average soybean yield per mu can reach 180 kilograms to 200 kilograms. However, because the soybean variety "Suinong 35" has achieved a yield of 668.6 kilograms per mu, Fujin also has a higher pursuit of increasing soybean yield.
Li Guoxiang believes that the key to increasing soybean yield is variety selection. Sun Junming also pointed out that variety is the first priority, because seeds are the "chip" of agriculture, and "soybean varieties with high yield and density tolerance must be cultivated."
Breeding requires a long process, and overall improvement of my country's breeding level is definitely not something that can be achieved in a short time. Yi Hongmei pointed out that since 2021, my country has launched an action to revitalize the seed industry. Obviously, "the pressure for revitalizing the seed industry cannot all fall on the Northeast granary. A nationwide effort needs to be made to improve the breeding level of soybeans and other crops."
In Li Guoxiang's view, domestic seed cultivation currently mainly relies on agricultural scientific research units, such as the Academy of Agricultural Sciences system. He believes that in the future, enterprises should play a greater role, introduce market-oriented mechanisms, and set up reward mechanisms to guide enterprises to focus on scientific research. Major grain-producing areas such as Northeast China cultivate high-quality varieties according to local conditions.
From a national perspective, Sun Junming pointed out that improving the yield level of soybeans and other crops requires continuing to promote the local implementation of cultivation technologies. "In the 1970s and 1980s, there were many local people promoting cultivation technology, but now, due to low economic benefits and other reasons, many local technology promotion departments have been abandoned." Sun Junming believes that in addition to cultivating high-quality varieties, It is necessary to truly promote advanced cultivation technology to farmers, so as to effectively increase grain yields.
Promote large-scale agricultural operations
As soon as summer enters, the continuous rice fields in the 10,000-mu high-standard paddy field demonstration garden in Fujin City will turn into a sea of green. The main operating entity of the demonstration park is Fujin Northeast Paddy Field Modern Agricultural Machinery Cooperative. It has 132 households with members, owns 10,858 acres of land, and implements large-scale agricultural operations.
Yang Zhiyu said that in Fujin, promoting the standardization of agricultural production and the scale of production and operations is another leg to increase grain yields. “Through the development of agricultural social services, such as trust services and land transfer, we can integrate the scattered land managed by small farmers and carry out standardized production and large-scale operations, thereby increasing unit yields and increasing benefits.”
In fact, the reports of the 19th and 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China both proposed to promote the development of moderate-scale agricultural operations. General Secretary Xi Jinping also emphasized at the Central Rural Work Conference at the end of 2022 that the development of moderate-scale operations is the direction of modern agriculture.
Fujin’s exploration is a variety of custody service models, and it has identified multiple production custody service links including sowing, spraying, top dressing, harvesting, etc. Farmers can choose half or full custody. In 2023, the entire managed area of Fujin City will reach 1.2462 million acres, and the half-managed area will exceed 4 million acres. At present, agricultural production custody services have a relatively obvious effect on increasing grain yields. In 2023, the average yield per mu of corn under full trusteeship will increase by 50 kilograms, and the average yield per mu of soybeans under full custody will increase by 20 kilograms.
Managed services make the use of large machinery and standardization of agricultural production a reality. Songdian Village, Shangjie Town, Fujin City, is one of the first villages in the city to carry out custody service demonstrations. Zhang Zhiyu, secretary of the party branch of the village, told China News Weekly that in 2019, Songdian Village transferred 1,500 acres of land. In terms of production and operation, unified purchasing of seeds and fertilizers, unified farming, unified management, unified harvesting, and unified sales, "the utilization rate of large machinery reaches more than 98%, which can achieve scientific farming. The planting spacing is very precise, the seedlings emerge neatly, and the grain yield is also improved." It’s improved.”
The matching of advanced agricultural technologies can therefore be better realized. Zhang Mingxiu said that almost every town in Fujin has several typical organizations that provide agricultural production trusteeship services. Agricultural technology extension personnel will provide direct guidance to these organizations. Many organizations will also hire some experienced agricultural experts. Once they appear, Problems such as pests and diseases can be quickly addressed with highly targeted solutions.
Zhang Zhiyu said that due to large-scale agricultural operations that reduced costs and increased output, the trustee farmers in Songdian Village achieved an increase in income in the first year. In the second year, some farmers who originally did not agree with land trust also chose land trust, and the trust area of Songdian Village doubled. At present, Songdian Village has more than 5,000 acres of cultivated land in trust.
In fact, developing large-scale agricultural operations has become a major trend to increase grain production and farmers' income. The No. 1 Central Document of 2024 emphasizes the need to build a modern agricultural management system, with small farmers as the foundation, new agricultural management entities as the focus, and social services as the support, and accelerate the creation of high-quality production and management teams that adapt to the development of modern agriculture. Improve the production and management level of family farms and farmer cooperatives, and enhance the ability of services to drive small farmers. Strengthen the construction of agricultural socialization service platforms and standard systems, focus on key weak links in agricultural production and small farmers, and expand service areas and models.
However, it is worth noting that large-scale agricultural operations are not more, the better, they need to be “moderate”. Yi Hongmei said, "We found in our research that when large-scale operations exceed a certain level, yields will decrease." She explained that this is because ultra-large-scale operations can increase profits by expanding planting areas. , even if the yield per unit decreases, ultra-large-scale business entities can still earn profits from the expanding planting area, and lose the motivation to increase yield per unit area. "Therefore, there are still certain restrictions on scale operations."
Is the investment coming?
Attracting investment is becoming a major event in Fujin.
Driving through downtown Fujin, the terrain has almost no undulations. The endless plains continue to stretch beyond the horizon, and there are cultivated fields as far as the eye can see. At present, the total area of cultivated land in Fujin is 9.2 million acres, and the per capita cultivated land of farmers is about 10 times the national average. Fujin, like many typical major grain-producing counties, shoulders the responsibility of "ballast stone" for food security.
However, shouldering the responsibility of "ballast" for food security will also bring corresponding costs. To ensure food security, many major grain-producing counties have sacrificed opportunities for economic development. How to change the dilemma of "grain and wealth inversion" is a question that almost every major grain-producing county needs to answer.
In the 2023 Fujin Municipal Government Work Report, the word "investment" appears very frequently. When summarizing the work, the Fujin Municipal Government particularly emphasized the role of attracting large business and capital, and placed "increasing investment and expanding domestic demand" as the first priority in 2024, focusing on "improving investment attraction." Qualification effect”.
Chen Chengyu, deputy director of the Fujin Municipal Commerce and Port Bureau, told China News Weekly that in 2023, Fujin went out for 33 investment promotion inspections and connected with 61 companies. Almost all of them were led by municipal leaders from the Commerce Bureau, Development and Reform Bureau, and Industry and Information Technology Bureau. The person in charge formed an inspection team to go out to attract investment. The Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions were the key areas for inspection.
Money is indeed coming in. In 2023, Fujin signed 16 projects with a contract value of 9.9 billion yuan.
Extending the industrial chain is a common practice in many major grain-producing counties, and Fujin is no exception. Han Tianjia, member of the Standing Committee of the Fujin Municipal Party Committee and Vice Mayor, told China News Weekly that in recent years, Fujin City has mainly carried out investment promotion activities around the five major industrial chains of rice, corn, soybeans, livestock and poultry, and new energy, "highlighting our industries. Advantages" and continue to extend the industrial chain of Fujin's agricultural product processing industry.
For processing companies, Fujin does have some unique advantages. Heilongjiang Nuotong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nutong Biotechnology") is a high-tech enterprise headquartered in Dalian. It was introduced to Fujin in 2019. The company uses corn starch as raw material and obtains amino acid products through biological transformation. Wang Chen, the relevant person in charge of Novo Biotech, told China News Weekly that the reason why he chose to settle in Fujin was because Fujin has high-quality corn resources and has introduced leading upstream companies such as Xiangyu Biochemical. "It is close to upstream companies." , we don’t need to build our own starch workshop and use their corn starch and other primary products as raw materials, reducing costs.”
As long as we calculate the value of the products, it is easy to understand the importance that Fujin City Government attaches to expanding the agricultural product deep processing industry chain. Wang Chen said that the price of 1 ton of corn is about 1,700 yuan, and the price of converting 1 ton of corn into amino acid products is about 7,000 yuan.
In 2022, Novo Biotech launched a marigold processing project to extract lutein from marigold, which can be widely used in functional foods and medicine. Chen Chengyu said that originally there were no farmers in Fujin to grow marigolds. In order to promote this project, the Fujin city government established a special team to promote the lutein project, organizing towns and surrounding cities and counties to plant marigolds and provide raw materials for extracting lutein. . In 2023, Novo Biotech will acquire 5,000 tons of marigolds in and around Fujin City. Wang Chen said that the company hopes to achieve an acquisition volume of 50,000 tons in the future.
Although Fujin City is paying more and more attention to attracting investment and optimizing the business environment, the remote geographical location is still an insurmountable difficulty for Fujin City. Long transportation distances and high freight rates have become obstacles that cannot be ignored in Fujin City's ability to attract high-quality enterprises. "Trains transport goods out of Fujin City, but when they come back they are often empty, so the freight increases." Yang Zhiyu said that in the process of attracting investment, many companies said that long transportation distances and high freight costs were the reasons for their failure in the end. Reasons for choosing to settle in Fujin City.
The solution to “Who will farm the land?”
Although more and more major grain-producing cities are transforming rural industries with industrialization and industrial chain thinking, whether farmers' benefits can be significantly improved is an issue worthy of attention.
A study on food security and economics published in the British magazine "Nature Food" in 2021 found that only 27% of global food consumption expenditures fell into farmers' pockets, and the largest share went after farm delivery (that is, when the products leave the farm) (after) value chain. Yi Hongmei pointed out that how to protect the interests of farmers in the process of transforming rural industries so that farmers can enjoy the benefits brought by agricultural value-added is an important topic.
The income from growing grains continues to shrink, which is significantly inhibiting farmers' enthusiasm for growing grains. Farmers are the main body of grain production, and their enthusiasm for growing grain is related to the foundation of grain production.
In some provinces, the declining enthusiasm of farmers to grow grain has made "who will farm the land" a difficult problem.
In January this year, the website of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs published an article "Research Report on the Major Issue of "Who Will Farm the Land" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), pointing out that the phenomenon of older agricultural workers and lower education levels is more serious, and younger people People are no longer willing to farm, and the reasons are multiple. One of the important reasons is that production costs are rising year by year and the comparative efficiency of growing grains is declining. Affected by this, the average annual growth rate of grain production costs in Shaanxi Province in recent years has been much greater than the average annual growth rate of grain output value. With the substantial increase in production costs and the slight increase in income, the net profit and cost profit rate of grain planting have generally shown a downward trend. Sometimes even on the verge of losing money.
Fujin City is also facing the problem of population loss. Since 2011, Fujin City has continued to experience population loss. In addition, many interviewees from Fujin City said that the aging trend of local farmers is becoming more and more obvious.
However, in the opinion of some experts, the solution to the problem of "who will farm the land" has emerged, that is, large-scale agricultural operations. The "Report" also focuses on large-scale land management, pointing out that it is necessary to promote the standardized and orderly transfer of land, cultivate new agricultural business entities, and promote large-scale and intensive management of rural land.
Currently, Fujin City is also solving the problem of “who will farm the land” by promoting large-scale agricultural operations.
Many interviewees from Fujin mentioned that large-scale agricultural operations can liberate farmers from the land. Zhang Zhiyu said that in Songdian Village, which has a high degree of large-scale agricultural operation, after farmers entrust their land to the village collective, they can receive the income without having to worry about it. Therefore, many farmers can go to other places to work and earn double money. “These farmers Probably about 40%." There are also some farmers who originally cultivated both dry fields and paddy fields, but chose to entrust the dry fields to the village collective and concentrate on planting paddy fields themselves to increase production and income. Liu Chunye said that at the Northeast Paddy Modern Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Fujin City, a certain proportion of farmers choose to work in the cooperative after the land transfer, so that they can get two incomes.
Yang Zhiyu believes that as long as the income from growing grain can be guaranteed and farmers can make money, there is no need to worry about farmers' willingness to grow grain. Only by increasing farmers' income can food security be more solidly guaranteed.
Yi Hongmei's research team found that in the next 5 to 10 years, more and more farmers in major grain-producing areas will gradually withdraw from agriculture and no longer engage in farming. For farmers who remain in rural areas, "in recent years, the state has cultivated many new business entities." By developing moderate-scale agricultural operations, farmers' incomes can be steadily increased while ensuring food security.
However, she also pointed out that in the process of developing moderate-scale agricultural operations, attention must be paid to protecting the interests of elderly farmers and small farmers.
On the one hand, as more and more young farmers go to cities for employment, if problems are encountered in the process of urbanization, the phenomenon of "gnawing at the old" may occur. However, the level of pension payment in rural areas is low, and older farmers will be more severely affected. Big impact. Therefore, Yi Hongmei believes that in order to increase farmers' income and ensure food security, we should find ways outside of agriculture to accelerate the development of small and medium-sized cities, continue to promote non-agricultural employment, and eliminate institutional obstacles to urban-rural integration so that the agricultural migrant population can Really integrate into the city.
On the other hand, as large-scale agricultural operations continue to advance and the number of small farmers decreases, their negotiating power with business entities will weaken. In this regard, Yi Hongmei said that in the process of promoting large-scale agricultural operations, it is necessary to ensure that these farmers can simultaneously enjoy the benefits of large-scale operations through institutional improvements.
"China News Weekly" Issue 11, 2024
Statement: The use of articles from China News Weekly must be authorized in writing.