Achieving high-quality development is one of the essential requirements of Chinese-style modernization, and the development of new quality productivity is the intrinsic requirement and core focus of promoting high-quality development. To promote the process of Chinese-style agricultural modernization and realize the historic leap from "agricultural power" to "agricultural power", it is urgent to accelerate the development of new agricultural productivity with high quality as the goal, innovation as the guide, and science and technology empowerment as the core, and accelerate the construction of an agricultural power.
01 The essential characteristics of new agricultural productivity
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Productive forces are the most active and revolutionary factor to promote social progress, and the development of productive forces is a fundamental criterion for measuring social development." The 2024 government work report proposes to "vigorously promote the construction of a modern industrial system and accelerate the development of new quality productivity". The new quality productivity is an important manifestation of the advanced productive forces, which is the contemporary advanced productive forces born by the revolutionary breakthrough of technology, the innovative allocation of production factors, and the deep transformation and upgrading of the industry.
The basic core of the new quality productivity of agriculture lies in the integration of scientific and technological innovation resources, the introduction of new technologies, new equipment, new models and other means to improve the total factor productivity formed by the optimal combination of agricultural factors such as labor, knowledge, technology, management, data and capital, aiming to promote the development of agricultural productivity from quantitative to qualitative change, accelerate the deep transformation and upgrading of agriculture, and achieve high-quality agricultural development. The essential characteristics of new agricultural productivity are that high-quality labor force is the main characteristic, disruptive innovation is the technical characteristic, multi-factor penetration and integration is the configuration characteristic, the agricultural boundary breakthrough and industrial chain extension are the structural characteristics, and the digital intelligence and green transformation are the morphological characteristics.
02 The basic components of new agricultural productivity
Following Marx's theory of productive forces, the basic composition of the new quality productive forces in agriculture includes three aspects.
First, a new type of labor. The key to cultivating and developing new quality productivity is to cultivate and strengthen new types of workers who can continuously create and skillfully operate new labor tools, expand and develop new labor objects, and use and maintain new infrastructure. In the field of agriculture, the leap in labor factors is manifested in the development of knowledge-based, skilled, and innovative agricultural workers as the main force of agricultural development, while highly intelligent agricultural machinery and simulation robots partially replace traditional agricultural workers, so as to realize the coordinated development and complementary advantages of intelligent robots and high-quality labor.
The second is a new type of labor tool. New labor tools such as robots, Internet of Things, and automation equipment are important carriers of new productivity. Intelligent agricultural machinery and equipment, including intelligent crop monitoring, unmanned aerial vehicle farming, intelligent livestock monitoring, autonomous agricultural machinery, intelligent facility agriculture and equipment management, etc., will become an important mode of production; system cognitive analysis, accurate dynamic perception, data science, gene editing, microbiome, etc., will become a breakthrough direction of the revolution of agricultural technology means.
The third is a new type of labor object. On the one hand, the collection, processing and intelligent utilization of big data will give birth to new types of labor objects and expand the depth of agriculture; on the other hand, scientific and technological progress will break through the limited constraints of land and other natural resources, enrich food sources and functional services, and expand the spatial and technical boundaries of agricultural activities. In addition, cell factories and artificial foods driven by disruptive technologies such as synthetic biology and stem cell breeding will expand new forms of agricultural development; personalized nutrition and health-derived food customization, disease prevention and integration of medicine and food will give birth to new fields of agricultural development; genetic engineering and intelligent equipment will improve the natural attributes of agriculture, and promote the green, low-carbon and sustainable development of agricultural production with collaborative innovation of the whole chain, which will reconstruct the new momentum of agricultural development.
03 Target positioning of new agricultural productivity
To develop new agricultural productive forces and build a strong agricultural country, we must anchor several basic goals:
First, the production capacity has been greatly enhanced. Ensuring a stable and safe supply of grain and important agricultural products has always been the top priority in building a strong agricultural country. The new quality of agricultural productivity must focus on promoting a substantial increase in the production capacity of grain and other important agricultural products, and consolidate the important function of agriculture as a product supply.
Second, the production efficiency has been greatly improved. The core of improving agricultural production efficiency is to improve agricultural production efficiency through the popularization and application of agricultural science and technology innovation achievements such as new varieties, new agricultural machinery, new soil conditioners, new fertilizers, new agricultural (veterinary) drugs, and new agronomic technologies. The new quality productivity of agriculture must focus on promoting the substantial improvement of land yield, labor productivity and resource utilization, and further stimulate the growth potential of agricultural total factor productivity.
Third, the production efficiency has increased substantially. We should use new technologies, innovate new models, develop new business formats, deeply develop multiple functions of agriculture and tap the diversified value of rural areas, promote the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and upgrade the whole chain of rural industries, so as to enhance market competitiveness and sustainable development capabilities. The new quality of agricultural productivity must be centered on improving production efficiency, and efforts must be made to promote the improvement of agricultural quality and efficiency, the increase of peasants' incomes and prosperity, and the substantial leap forward in the progress of rural civilization.
04 Focus on the development of new agricultural productivity
In order to make the mainland enter the first phalanx of global agricultural powers, it is necessary to break through the constraints of endowment and take the road of green and efficient agricultural development, improve agricultural production efficiency, stabilize the safe supply of agricultural products, strengthen scientific and technological innovation to serve the development of the industry, and serve the goal of building an agricultural power with new quality productivity.
The first is to implement the "Future Agricultural Science and Technology Action Plan" for the global future agricultural industry highland. In the field of agriculture, synthetic biology, bioinformatics, biomanufacturing, digital agriculture, green and low-carbon agriculture, cell agriculture, medical agriculture and other frontier fields have achieved a number of world-class achievements with high independent original value, obvious major breakthroughs and strong industrial leadership, seize the world's future agricultural high-tech position and industrial highland, consolidate the new kinetic energy of new agricultural productivity, and give full play to the leading role of scientific and technological innovation in agricultural modernization and the construction of an agricultural power.
The second is to build a modern agricultural industrial system and implement the "Science and Technology Action Plan for Emerging Agricultural Industries". Accelerate the cultivation and expansion of emerging agricultural industrial clusters such as biological seed industry, intelligent agricultural machinery, agricultural data industry, biological feed, biological fertilizers, agricultural vaccines, new foods, etc., and gradually build a modern agricultural industrial system of "agricultural strategic emerging industries + traditional advantageous industries + characteristic high-quality industries", so as to comprehensively enhance the international competitiveness of the mainland's agricultural industry.
The third is to face the new trend of agricultural modernization and implement the "Action Plan for Agricultural Digital Productivity". Focus on the deployment of modern digital seed industry development projects, livestock and poultry breeding management intelligent projects, fishery intelligent projects, intelligent agricultural machinery development projects, intelligent pest and disease prevention and control projects, non-point source pollution monitoring and prevention and control digital projects, important agricultural products industry chain monitoring and early warning and quality and safety supervision digital projects.
Fourth, we will implement the "Science and Technology Action Plan for Green and Low-Carbon Agricultural Development" for the strategic layout of green agricultural development. Strengthen the research and development of agricultural energy-saving, water-saving, fertilizer-saving, drug-saving and other technologies, focus on the deployment of cultivated land protection, soil fertility improvement, saline-alkali land utilization, marine agriculture, efficient use of agricultural water resources, low-carbon circular agriculture, organic agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, agricultural biosecurity and other scientific and technological fields, accelerate the improvement of the scientific and technological level of the mainland's agricultural green development, and promote the development of agricultural green productivity.
Fifth, in order to comprehensively promote the rural revitalization strategy, the "Science and Technology Action Plan for Comprehensive Rural Revitalization" will be implemented. To establish the concept of the great land, the concept of big food and the concept of big agriculture, we should not only ask for calories and protein from cultivated land, grassland, forest and ocean, plants, animals and microorganisms, develop food resources in all directions and channels, reduce the ecological pressure of cultivated land in traditional food production, but also lead the cultivation and development of emerging agricultural industries and emerging business forms, and further extend to new fields and new forms of business such as nutrition and health, medicine and public health, ecological civilization, and agricultural culture, so as to closely link the development of new agricultural productivity with the comprehensive promotion of the revitalization strategy.
Content source: agricultural ginseng, recommended by the whole network of agricultural industry observation
Author: Luo Biliang is a senior professor of liberal arts at South China Agricultural University, director of the Laboratory of Agricultural and Rural Policy and Reform and Innovation, and president of the Guangdong Economic Association