Du Zhixiong: Food Security under the New Background of Agricultural Development

The new background of agricultural development actually involves two issues. One is what kind of development trend China's agriculture is experiencing, or what kind of change it is experiencing. The second is how to deal with the impact of the new development trend or changes in agriculture on the food security strategy.

Development Trend of Chinese Agriculture in 1.

The theme of the conference is food security. In fact, strictly according to the definition of food security, food security is a systematic problem, including production problems, consumption problems, and an intermediate link from production to consumers. Of course, food security is still a production issue first. Since we are talking about production, that is, agriculture, what kind of changes are taking place in agriculture?

One is to pay more attention to the development of animal husbandry now and in the future. China's agriculture is undergoing a change from planting-oriented to animal husbandry-oriented. In recent years, the development trend of planting and animal husbandry in the total agricultural output value has been approaching. In the past, many agricultural policies revolved around planting and grain production, or mainly based on raw grain in food. However, many problems in China's agriculture are not entirely the problems of planting industry, it may be more of a livestock problem.

Second, the planting industry is experiencing a trend of centralized industrial layout. In the past, many of our agricultural products were not different from place to place. Since 2000, the Ministry of Agriculture has implemented a series of practices to promote the regional distribution of characteristic agricultural products from the perspective of policy guidance. Objectively speaking, China's grain production, including the production of other foods, is becoming more and more centralized. We can see a basic trend just by looking at the three major grain varieties (rice, wheat, and corn). Now the number of counties that produce 80% of rice, wheat, and corn in the country has dropped sharply, which is a manifestation of the partial increase in production concentration.

Third, small-scale agriculture is changing to large-scale agriculture. my country has been cultivating a modern agricultural management system in the past two years. The core of the agricultural management system is the cultivation of agricultural production and management entities, including the transformation of professional farmers and large professional households to family farms, land cooperatives, and agricultural companies. Director Chen Xiwen has reported to you the latest figure on the transfer of rural land this year, which accounts for 28.8 percent of the total contracted land area of farmers. In fact, it was only 26% in the country by the end of last year. It can be seen that the speed of land transfer is very fast, and now the 1/4 land has changed from the original land contractor to the new agricultural operator. The question is where did it go and to whom? There are now many companies entering agriculture, and a series of problems may arise here, including the efficiency of agriculture's operations, whether it is necessarily large-scale agriculture that is efficient, etc., and there are a series of problems behind this that have not been resolved.

Fourth, pay more attention to the quality and safety of agricultural products. Our country should realize the transformation from the goal of quantity-oriented agricultural development to the goal of equal emphasis and balance between quantity and quality. But now the situation of food safety is very serious, and the quality of food is closely related to agriculture or planting. For example, the feed in the aquaculture industry comes from the planting industry. Many problems in the farming industry determine the quality of our agricultural products.

The fifth is to rely more on the role of science and technology in the whole agricultural industry chain. In the past, we may have paid more attention to technology in the field of production. In fact, from the perspective of food security, the role of technology is not only reflected in the field of production, but also needs to enter the field of circulation, such as the Internet of Things technology. There are also many technologies that need to be involved. Without the guidance and driving role of technology, our food security is difficult to guarantee. A very simple example, maybe the total amount of grain in our country is enough, but the main production is in the northwest, and the southeast is lacking. Here we need to rely on the information circulation technology of the intermediate link.

Sixth, it is more dependent on international markets and resources. Since 2004, China has begun to transform from a net exporter of agricultural products to a net importer. From 2004 to 2014, the net import of agricultural products has increased tenfold in this decade.

The seventh is the transformation of agricultural development from a single production function in the past to a multi-function such as ecological and cultural heritage and environmental protection. This transformation may be a very important direction for the next agricultural development. Leisure agriculture is also a very important manifestation of the versatility of agriculture, which indicates a very important trend in the future agricultural field, which is the transformation from a single production function to a diversified function. From the perspective of industrial development, the integration of agriculture with other industries is reflected in industrial integration. Japan's original Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries proposed to develop six industries in rural areas more than ten years ago. The six industries are industries of industrial integration, that is, one by two by three equals six, and one plus two plus three equals six. Six industrialization.

New Changes in 2. Agriculture Require the Construction of Food Security Strategy

on the whole, new changes are taking place in China's agriculture. How can we adapt to such changes to construct a new food security strategy?

First of all, the structure of our agriculture must be adjusted. How can the corresponding structural adjustment adapt to the change of agriculture from planting industry to animal husbandry? For example, with the development of animal husbandry, we have to return food to the field through the belly of animals, is it through grain or straw? This structural adjustment is also linked to the agricultural support and protection system. For example, agriculture has now shifted from price protection to income protection. All our current food subsidies are aimed at the grains produced. With the change of agricultural structure, how can the agricultural support and protection system adapt to this change? To reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the production field, there must be some alternatives such as biological or organic fertilizers. Now we all know that on the one hand, chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used excessively, and on the other hand, they are still being subsidized. The comprehensive subsidy is to subsidize farmers to purchase fertilizers. These new organic fertilizers and biopesticides are not included in the comprehensive agricultural subsidies, so how can our support and protection system adapt to such a change? There is also the fact that when we talk about food security, we are always talking about production, but our waste is very serious, the 16th of this month is International Food Day, and the theme of this year's Food Day is one called family farming and one is to save food. In fact, after my country's grain is produced, there is a lot of waste in the circulation, purchase, and consumption links. How can we construct a new consumption model of agricultural products to minimize production and reduce pressure on the ecology and environment? Maintaining the sustainable growth of agriculture is also a problem. There is also a question of price. A very big reform that is being pushed forward in our country is the shift from a minimum purchase price system to a target price system, which will certainly lead to an increase in the prices of agricultural products, but when the prices of agricultural products go up, what about urban low-income people? Therefore, to construct a low-income protection policy, only under this premise to allow a moderate increase in the price of agricultural products, especially food. There is also the problem of eco-friendly agricultural production methods, which are related to the biological pesticides and organic fertilizers mentioned above.

How to choose the path of China's agricultural modernization? China's agriculture is the traditional mode of production of small farmers, the future of China's agricultural modernization is to achieve agricultural modernization on a small-scale basis. At present, many places are encouraging the large-scale, large-scale and long-term flow of land to industrial and commercial enterprises, which has a series of dangers. How to adapt to the series of changes that are taking place in agriculture in the future modernization path of China's agriculture? I personally think that we must find measures and methods to adapt to such a change. This is a very important work for China's agricultural development in the future. This also provides a very broad research stage for our social science workers.

Editor: Zhai Tianchang