Comprehensive grain production capacity is the basis for realizing grain output. In the current situation where it is increasingly difficult to increase production, my country has launched a new round of action to increase the production capacity of 100 billion jins of grain. The State Council executive meeting discussed and approved the "New Round of Action Plan for Increasing 100 Billion Jin of Grain Production Capacity (2024-2030)" 》. At present, all localities are making every effort to increase grain production capacity to ensure that grain is produced, supplied, and supplied with high quality.
Increase in grain production enters bottleneck period
The main producing areas and major grain-producing counties are the main force in grain production and the main contributors to the increase in grain production.
Chongren County in Jiangxi is a major grain-producing county in the country. Its output has been stable at around 260,000 tons for many years, and the increase in output has entered a bottleneck period. Ai Qirong, deputy head of the county, said that the current increase in grain production in the county is mainly due to poor returns from rice cultivation for many years, a shortage and aging rural labor force, little cultivated land and small production scale, insufficient adaptability of modern agricultural technology, and the resumption of rice planting. Restricted by factors such as unmatched policies, it is necessary to comprehensively improve the comprehensive grain production capacity.
Not only in Chongren County, but also in many areas across the country, the increase in grain production has entered a bottleneck period. Li Jun, deputy dean and professor of the School of Economics and Management of China Agricultural University, believes that it is increasingly difficult to increase grain production, indicating that the potential of existing comprehensive grain production capacity to increase production has been fully released. The comprehensive grain production capacity is determined by the resources, environment, economy, and technical conditions at that time. The improvement of production capacity is a process of continuous accumulation and construction. Every expansion of grain production space, innovation in agricultural science and technology, and innovation in systems will bring major breakthroughs in grain production.
Since the founding of New China, the comprehensive grain production capacity has increased significantly, with grain output jumping from more than 200 billion jins in 1949 to 1,390.8 billion jins in 2023. Over the past 70 years, the increase in grain production has entered a bottleneck period many times. For example, after grain output exceeded 300 billion jins in 1952, it was not until 1966 that it exceeded 400 billion jins. In the 14 years after it exceeded 900 billion jins in 1993, grain output reached 1 trillion jins many times and fluctuated downwards many times until it reached 1 trillion jins again in 2007. In order to further increase grain production capacity, in 2009, my country launched the "National Plan for Adding 100 Billion Jin of Grain Production Capacity (2009-2020)", and grain output has continuously reached 1.1 trillion Jin, 1.2 trillion Jin, and 1.3 trillion Jin. .
A new round of action to increase grain production capacity by 100 billion kilograms is an important measure to ensure national food security. Li Jun said that at present, the uncertainty of the international situation has increased, the rigid growth of domestic grain demand and the difficulty of increasing production coexist, and grain supply and demand have been in a tight balance for a long time. Only by improving the comprehensive grain production capacity, breaking through the bottleneck of grain production, and ensuring that grain output reaches a new level can we better meet the growing domestic demand for grain consumption and respond to the uncertainty of the external environment with the certainty of stable domestic grain supply.
Improve comprehensive production capacity
To implement a new round of action to increase grain production capacity by 100 billion kilograms, we must do a good job in the important issue of cultivated land, adhere to the red line of cultivated land, improve the quality of cultivated land, strengthen the construction of high-standard farmland, develop saline-alkali land according to local conditions, and expand the space for grain production. Ai Qirong said that it is necessary to strictly abide by the red line of cultivated land protection and implement policies to prevent cultivated land from being abandoned, ensure that cultivated land is used for food production, and give priority to planting "double-cropping rice." For cultivated land that is abandoned seasonally or year-round, on the premise of maintaining the land contract rights of the original contracting households, the village collective can coordinate and carry out production in the form of contract farming, centralized transfer, etc. For arable land with poor conditions and difficult mechanical operation, farmers are actively guided to plant corn, potatoes, soybeans and other high-efficiency and stable-yield food crops as an effective supplement to the food area and output.
The key to improving comprehensive grain production capacity lies in science and technology. The contribution rate of my country's agricultural science and technology progress exceeds 63%, the comprehensive mechanization rate of agricultural farming and harvesting reaches 73%, the coverage rate of improved crop varieties is more than 96%, and the contribution rate of improved varieties to agricultural production reaches 45%, but there is still much room for improvement. Li Jun believes that we should accelerate research on key core agricultural technologies, implement seed industry revitalization actions, and develop and cultivate a number of new varieties such as high-yield and high-oil soybeans, short-growth period rapeseed, ratoon rice, and salt-alkali tolerant crops. Implement the action to make up for shortcomings in agricultural machinery and equipment, and promote breakthroughs in the development and promotion of hilly and mountain tractors, 300-horsepower continuously variable transmission tractors, regenerating rice harvesters and other machinery.
Green is the background color of agriculture, and ecology is the foundation of agriculture. In the past, my country's increase in grain production came at the expense of resources and the environment, resulting in severe water shortages, degradation of cultivated land quality, and intensification of agricultural non-point source pollution. Zhang Xuebiao, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Information of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and director of the International Intelligence Research Office, said that in the new round of actions to increase grain production capacity by 100 billion kilograms, production and ecology must be addressed together, and the old path of over-consuming resources and damaging the environment must not be followed. , but we must take a new path of resource conservation and environmental friendliness, develop green ecological agriculture, promote input reduction, clean production methods, and resource utilization of agricultural waste to achieve a win-win situation between increasing grain production and developing green agriculture.
Mobilize enthusiasm for planting and catching grain
Farmers are the main force in ensuring food security, and main production areas are the ballast stone in ensuring food security. Zhang Xuebiao believes that in the new round of actions to increase grain production capacity by 100 billion kilograms, it is necessary to increase policy supply and improve farmers' grain income guarantee mechanism and main producing area interest compensation mechanism, so that farmers can make money growing grain and main producing areas can capture grain. Do not suffer losses and fully mobilize enthusiasm for planting and catching grain.
In recent years, the state has increased its support for policies that strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich farmers, and has introduced a series of policies such as agricultural support and protection subsidies, subsidies for corn and soybean producers, one-time subsidies for farmers who actually grow grain, grain price support policies, and agricultural insurance subsidies to ensure that Farmers gain profits from growing grain, but new agricultural business entities such as family farms, professional cooperatives, large grain growers, and agricultural enterprises still face some difficulties in further developing and growing.
"The development and growth of cooperatives is faced with problems such as low integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, insufficient capital investment, and serious land fragmentation." Tao Yong, chairman of Shuangying Agricultural Machinery Planting Professional Cooperative, Xiheizuizi Village, Shijiabao Town, Lishu County, Jilin Province explain.
Zhou Hu, deputy county magistrate of Lishu County, said that most of the county's new agricultural business entities are in the primary stage of development, with a low degree of industrialization and a weak demonstration role. In order to solve the problems of financing difficulties and land use faced by new agricultural business entities, the project will try its best to favor new agricultural business entities, focusing on supporting key links such as agricultural machinery, grain drying, and warehousing, so as to promote the continuous development and growth of new agricultural business entities. Efforts should be made to promote business operations, continuously improve the level of agricultural socialization services, and enhance the management capabilities of farmers; do a good job in linking production and marketing, extend the grain industry chain, encourage the development of grain order production, achieve high quality and low prices, and accelerate the value-added and efficiency increase of the grain industry.
Large grain-producing counties generally face the problem that the more grain they produce, the more difficult their finances become. Zhou Hu said that he hopes the country will continue to improve the reward and subsidy mechanism for major grain-producing areas, expand the scale of rewards for major grain-producing counties, and establish a reward mechanism linked to commercial grain. Develop intensive grain processing, continuously extend the grain industry chain, and improve the ability to transform grain on site. Increase the construction of talent teams for grassroots agricultural technology extension systems to provide talent support for grain production.
Li Jun believes that we must adhere to the priority development of agriculture and rural areas and integrate actions to increase grain production capacity into the rural revitalization strategy. It is necessary to strictly implement the party and government's shared responsibilities for food security, use responsibility assessment as a powerful starting point for improving food production capacity, and strive to push grain production capacity to a new level and achieve new breakthroughs in grain production at a high base.
Our reporter Liu Hui
(Economic Daily)