Speech by President Du Zhixiong at the Family Farm Academic Seminar and Achievement Conference (January 20, 2018)

Speech by President Du Zhixiong at the Family Farm Academic Seminar and Achievement Conference

january 20, 2017

respected Dean Cai Fang, Director Hong Yu,

dear experts and media friends, good morning!

"New Era, New Subject" Family Farm Academic Seminar and Research Results Conference (2017) "will now begin. First of all, on behalf of one of the organizers-China Foreign Agricultural Economic Research Association, I would like to extend a warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to all leaders and experts for coming to this seminar!

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the strategy of rural revitalization. As the general starting point of the work of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, this new strategy will have a far-reaching impact on China's future "three rural" work. Rural revitalization is first of all the revitalization of rural industries, and the revitalization of rural industries focuses on the revitalization of agriculture. This is why we understand why the report puts the rural revitalization strategy in "innovative development concepts, building a modern economic system" and puts "industrial prosperity" The main reason for the primary goal of rural revitalization.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has been paying close attention to the construction of the three major systems of modern agricultural production system, industrial system and management system. These three systems have also become the main content of the rural revitalization strategy. The cultivation of new agricultural production and management entities, especially the cultivation of agricultural production entities, will help to realize the transformation of China's agriculture from quantity growth to quality growth, realize green and sustainable development, improve the international competitiveness of agriculture, ensure food security and increase the income of agricultural producers. It can be said that what kind of agricultural production main body team is the basic prerequisite for realizing China's agricultural modernization, and what kind of agricultural production theme team there is also determines what kind of agricultural modernization China realizes.

I understand that it is precisely out of this recognition that the Ministry of Agriculture has increased the cultivation of family farms in accordance with the spirit of the No. 1 Central Document in 2013. In February 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the Guidance on Promoting the Development of Family Farms. Not only that, the Department of Economics and Management of the Ministry of Agriculture in charge of family farm development also specially commissioned our Rural Development Institute to track, monitor and study the development of family farms. At that time, IFAD took the lead and integrated social forces to carry out the monitoring work immediately. At present, it has completed the monitoring for three consecutive years. The acquisition of monitoring data for the fourth year is currently in full swing. We have published two "China Family Farm Development Report" in cooperation with the Department of Economics and Management, and the third report is being published.

While completing the monitoring of family farms by the Ministry of Agriculture, we have also carried out a large number of theoretical, policy and empirical studies on the development of family farms within the framework of the key discipline construction project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences-"Agricultural Modernization Research. At the meeting, we sent you a collection of relevant research papers that our monitoring and research team has published or will publish in the past few years.

Our monitoring and research show that family farms, as one of the main components of new agricultural production and management entities, are the "most suitable" and "most desirable" agricultural production and management entities among the many new agricultural management entities in China at this stage. "Most suitable" means that, as the main body of new agricultural production, it adapts to the historical changes of China's overall economic development and agriculture as the main industrial sector of China's economy, and is suitable for the future development trend of China's ultra-small-scale agriculture, especially suitable for the natural and economic characteristics of agricultural production; "Most desirable" means that the operating characteristics and actual performance of family farms illustrate, family farms are most in line with the "goals and tasks of China's modern agricultural development at this stage" mentioned earlier ". For these judgments, we will report in detail this afternoon.

Of course, there are still different understandings in the theoretical and policy circles about the development of family farms. The development of large-scale family farms in China is not aimed at the commercialization, super-large, and super-large scale of New World countries. It should be the natural evolution of China's small-scale agricultural production entities under the background of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Monitoring data show that a large number of family farms themselves originate from traditional farmers. At the same time, the development of family farms is not a simple substitute for small farmers. Compared with traditional small farmers, their operating characteristics and goals have also changed significantly and are more inclined to the main body of the market economy. Not only that, a large number of our studies also show that due to the characteristics of family farms as both the main body of production and the main body of service, it can also promote the integration of small farmers into the development of modern agriculture and realize the organic integration of small farmers and agricultural modernization.

Today, we host the "New Era • New Subject" family farm academic seminar and research results conference (2017) with two main purposes. One is to promote the healthy and smooth development of family farms through in-depth discussions on family farms by experts. The second is to introduce the research findings of our monitoring and research team over the past few years to experts and absorb their criticisms, help us do better monitoring and research.

Thank you very much for the experts and media friends who sacrificed their weekend time to attend the meeting. Here, in particular, I would like to thank President Cai Fang for his consistent support for our work and the trust of the Department of Economic Management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Director Zhang in our monitoring team!

Thank you all again!