Wei Houkai: Coordinate efforts to ensure food security and increase farmers' income
Rural revitalization
★★★★★
The Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2023 clearly stated that it is necessary to make unremitting efforts to do a good job in the "three rural" work, and regard it as one of the nine key tasks of doing a solid job in economic work in 2024. The meeting made arrangements and arrangements for the "three rural" work in 2024, emphasizing that it is necessary to anchor the goal of building an agricultural power, and effectively promote the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside in accordance with the basic idea of "two guarantees, three promotions, and two strengthenings", and build a livable, workable and beautiful countryside. Among them, the "two guarantees" are to ensure national food security and ensure that there is no large-scale return to poverty, the "three improvements" are to improve the level of rural industry development, rural construction and rural governance, and the "two strengthenings" are to strengthen the two-wheel drive of science and technology and reform, and strengthen the measures to increase farmers' income. In promoting the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, ensuring national food security has always been a bottom-line task, and improving farmers' income and living well-being is the starting point and foothold of rural revitalization. To a certain extent, to ensure that there is no large-scale return to poverty during the transition period, the core is to promote the sustained and stable income increase of the vast number of people lifted out of poverty on the basis of improving the comprehensive guarantee, and enhance their endogenous development capacity. Therefore, in order to effectively and effectively promote the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside and build livable, workable and beautiful villages, it is necessary to take multiple measures to promote the sustained and stable increase of farmers' income on the basis of ensuring national food security, effectively solve the dilemma of increasing the income of farmers who grow grain, and effectively coordinate the guarantee of food security and the promotion of farmers' income. Since 2017, the implementation of China's rural revitalization strategy has made a good start, successfully completed the goals and tasks of the first phase and the first five-year plan, and has now entered a new era of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and accelerating the construction of an agricultural power. Anchoring the goal of building an agricultural power and effectively promoting the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside has become the focus of the current "three rural" work. Rural revitalization is not just the revitalization of a certain field, but a comprehensive revitalization that includes the revitalization of rural industries, talents, culture, ecology and organizations. To promote the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside is to fully realize the strong agriculture, the beauty of the countryside and the prosperity of farmers, and its goal is to reflect the general goal of agricultural and rural modernization and the general requirements of "industrial prosperity, ecological livability, rural civilization, effective governance, and affluent life". In this set of goals, ensuring national food security and promoting the steady increase of farmers' incomes are undoubtedly the two most important goals. Among them, ensuring national food security is the bottom line task of comprehensive rural revitalization, and it is a goal that must be ensured, and promoting farmers' income increase and prosperity is one of the ultimate goals of comprehensive rural revitalization, and it is also an important way to achieve common prosperity for all people. However, there is a certain conflict between these two goals in the case of small-scale decentralized operation as the main form and low comparative returns from grain growing. It is an indisputable fact that due to the high cost of grain production and the limited increase in grain prices, the comparative returns on growing grain have always been low. After four consecutive years of losses from 2016 to 2019, China's net profit per mu of grain production has not yet recovered to the best level of previous years, although it has now turned profitable. Compared with 2011, the average net profit per mu of rice, wheat and corn in 2021 decreased by 53.4%, and the cost profit margin decreased by 68.2%. Moreover, the comparative returns of growing grain are lower than those from growing cash crops and working outside the home. Compared with the cultivation of cash crops such as fruits and vegetables, the average cost profit margin of the three kinds of grain from 2019 to 2021 was 3.85%, the average cost profit margin of the seven vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, cabbage, peppers, Chinese cabbage, potatoes) was 66.50%, and the average cost profit margin of vegetables and apples was 17.3 times and 5.0 times that of the three grains, respectively. Compared with the income of migrant workers, the per capita monthly income of migrant workers in 2021 will be 4,432 yuan, which is equivalent to the net profit of planting 104.9 mu of soybeans, 73.9 mu of rice, 34.3 mu of wheat and 27.3 mu of corn. At the same time, since the complete exemption of agricultural tax and special agricultural product tax in 2006, grain production has not only been unable to bring fiscal revenue to local governments, but also requires a large amount of investment from local finances. This shows that the opportunity cost of peasants growing grain and local grain grabbing is relatively large, and that grain farmers and grain-producing areas have made tremendous sacrifices while making contributions to ensuring national food security. The relatively low returns from growing grain and the small contribution to local finances have led to low enthusiasm among peasants for growing grain and insufficient motivation for local grain grabbing. It is embodied in three aspects: First, in the past few years, the tendency of cultivated land to be "non-grain" has been obvious. From 2017 to 2019, the sown area of grain continued to decrease, with a total decrease of 47.5 million mu, a decrease of 2.66%, of which rice, wheat decreased by 3.42%, wheat decreased by 3.80%, and corn decreased by 6.55%, while the sown area of non-grain crops increased by 4.52% in the same period. The tendency of "non-grain" in the transfer of cultivated land is particularly obvious. In 2020, among the 532 million mu of cultivated land in circulation, the area of unplanted grain accounted for 41.14%. (1) This tendency of cultivated land to be "non-grain" is caused by many factors, such as high land transfer rent, low efficiency of grain planting, lax control over cultivated land use, and adjustment of agricultural structure. Second, the phenomenon of cultivated land abandonment is quite serious, especially in some mountainous areas, hilly areas, and suburbs. According to research, China's cultivated land abandonment rate has fluctuated around 5.86% in recent years, with a maximum of 7.39% in 2009 and a decrease to 4.87% in 2020. This means that in 2020, the area of cultivated land abandoned in the country will reach 93 million mu. (2) The abandonment of a large amount of cultivated land will pose a serious threat to national food security. Third, the main grain producing areas are shrinking, and (3) the grain self-sufficiency rate in the main sales areas and the production and marketing balance areas continues to decline. Compared with 1998-2003, the average grain self-sufficiency rate in the main marketing areas decreased from 50.6% to 17.1% from 2016 to 2021, and the average grain self-sufficiency rate in the production and marketing balance areas decreased from 91.0% to 66.2%. During this period, the grain self-sufficiency rate of 25 provinces in the country declined. At present, only a few provinces in the country, such as Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Anhui, and Xinjiang, can transfer grain. In recent years, although the per capita disposable income of rural residents has continued to grow rapidly, the increase in peasants' income mainly depends on wage income and net transfer income, especially the wage income of peasants who go out to work and the government's transfer income. Moreover, the more underdeveloped the region, the higher the proportion. From 2016 to 2022, wage income and net transfer income contributed 44.2% and 24.5% respectively to the increase of farmers' income, with a total of 68.7%. At present, the peasants' net operating income from agricultural production is relatively small, and the peasants' income increase depends more on part-time occupation rather than mainly on planting, and the overall contribution of planting, especially grain planting, to the increase of peasants' income is already very small. During this period, the net income from the primary industry contributed only 16.2 percent to the increase in farmers' income, and only 11.8 percent from the net income from agriculture (planting) contributed to the increase in farmers' income. What's more, village differentiation has also intensified in recent years. In contrast, some villages engaged in non-food production generally have higher incomes, while those engaged in food production have lower incomes. According to the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Comprehensive Survey, the average income level of villages dominated by food crops is about 20% lower than that of villages dominated by other crops. (4) It can be seen that the difficulty of increasing the income of grain farmers is still a major problem restricting the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. In order to effectively solve this difficult problem and get rid of the dilemma of difficulty in increasing the income of grain farmers, it is necessary to face up to and properly handle the conflict between the objectives of ensuring food security and promoting the increase of peasants' income, and adopt more effective and effective measures to promote the increase of grain farmers' income and prosperity. 2. Properly handle the relationship between ensuring food security and promoting the increase of peasants' income, the large Chinese population, the shortage of arable land and water resources on which grain production depends, and the conspicuous contradiction between man and land, ensuring national food security has always been a major national strategic issue. Unlike some of the world's agricultural powers, which have a small population and land area, China has a population of more than 1.4 billion, which is larger than the population of the existing developed countries combined, and the domestic food consumption and demand are huge. In 2022, China's total grain production reached 687 million tons, with 146 million tons of grain imports and very small exports, and domestic food consumption was as high as 830 million tons if changes in grain stocks were not taken into account. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, global trade in cereals in 2022-2023 is only 474 million tonnes. Therefore, in order to promote modernization in a country with a huge population like China, it is necessary to ensure national food security at all times. It can be said that ensuring national food security is the bottom-line task of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way and promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in an all-round way, as well as the bottom-line requirement for promoting the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside and accelerating the construction of an agricultural power. Taking ensuring national food security as the bottom-line task of building a strong country is an important feature of Chinese modernization and the construction of an agricultural power, and it is also an important goal and development direction that the Chinese government has been pursuing unremittingly for a long time. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the central government has always put the guarantee of national food security in a prominent position, formulated and implemented a new national food security strategy, continuously increased financial investment and policy support, vigorously grasped grain production, and grain output has continuously reached a new level. Since 2015, China's grain output has been stable at more than 650 million tons, reaching 695 million tons in 2023, an increase of 1.28 times from 1978. In terms of per capita grain availability, China has exceeded the international food security standard of 400 kilograms per capita for many years, both in terms of total grain output and cereal output. Among them, the per capita grain availability exceeded 400 kg for 15 consecutive years since 2008 and reached 486 kg in 2022, and the per capita grain availability exceeded 400 kg for 12 consecutive years since 2011, reaching 449 kg in 2022. The sustained and steady growth of grain output has laid a solid foundation for ensuring national food security. It should be noted, however, that since the beginning of the new century, along with the increase in domestic grain consumption and demand, China's grain imports have grown rapidly, and the grain self-sufficiency rate has been declining. From 2000 to 2022, China's grain imports increased from 13.57 million tons to 146.32 million tons, an increase of 9.8 times, with an average annual growth rate of 11.4 percent, of which grain imports increased from 3.15 million tons to 53.19 million tons, an increase of 15.9 times, with an average annual growth rate of 13.7 percent. Due to the sharp increase in imports, China's grain self-sufficiency rate has been declining in recent years, from 100.1% in 2000 to 82.7% in 2022, and the cereal self-sufficiency rate has also fluctuated, from more than 100% at the beginning of the 21st century to 92.6% in 2022. This shows that in the new journey of promoting the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, the task of ensuring national food security is more arduous and onerous. Ensuring national food security is the biggest livelihood project and the primary task of building an agricultural power, and must always be placed in a priority position. However, from the perspective of comprehensive rural revitalization, ensuring national food security cannot be at the expense of the interests of grain farmers and grain producing areas, and it is necessary to coordinate the goal of ensuring food security and promoting farmers' income increase, and effectively solve the contradictions and conflicts between the two. That is to say, on the premise of ensuring national food security, we must ensure that the income of grain farmers can achieve sustained and rapid growth at the same time, and that the grain-producing areas and major grain-producing counties can simultaneously realize the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside and common prosperity. These two synchronizations can be used as important indicators to judge the success of the overall plan to ensure food security and promote farmers' income increase. The Central Economic Work Conference clearly stated that it is necessary to "coordinate high-quality development and high-level security". Food security is the cornerstone of national security, and increasing farmers' income and getting rich is the core content and outstanding shortcomings of high-quality development. Therefore, it is necessary to coordinate high-quality development and high-level security to ensure food security and promote farmers' income increase. In order to coordinate high-quality development and high-level security, it is necessary to elevate the overall planning of ensuring food security and promoting farmers' income to a more prominent position at the national strategic level. Under the new situation, in order to effectively solve the dilemma of increasing the income of grain farmers, the key lies in handling the relationship between ensuring food security and promoting farmers' income increase, organically combining the two goals, increasing the government's overall planning, and achieving overall coordination under high-quality development and high-level security. On the one hand, the premise of ensuring food security must be the prerequisite for increasing peasants' incomes, and the adjustment of agricultural structure and supply-side structural reform cannot break through the bottom line of food security. On the other hand, for farmers and new organizations engaged in grain production, it is necessary to establish a diversified and long-term mechanism for sustained income increase, so that the income of grain farmers and new organizations can also achieve sustained, stable and rapid growth. It should be noted that it is the common responsibility of the central and local governments at all levels to ensure food security and increase peasants' incomes in an overall manner, and in particular, the central and provincial governments should assume more overall responsibilities. This is because ensuring national food security is the common responsibility of the main producing areas, the main marketing areas, and the production and marketing balance areas, and in particular, the main marketing areas and the production and marketing balance areas should assume more responsibility for ensuring food security, stabilize and continuously improve the grain self-sufficiency rate, thereby reducing the pressure on grain production in the main producing areas and providing more opportunities for the peasants in the main producing areas to increase their incomes; at the same time, the central and provincial-level governments should further increase the intensity of financial and policy support, improve the mechanism for compensating vertical and horizontal interests, and fully arouse the peasants' enthusiasm for growing grain and for local grain grabbing. It is necessary to improve the diversified interest compensation mechanism to truly make it profitable for peasants to grow grain and to make the main producing areas have the enthusiasm to grasp grain. 3. Take multiple measures to ensure food security and promote farmers' income Under the new situation, it is necessary to adopt diversified implementation paths to ensure food security and promote farmers' income: First, strengthen the protection and rational use of cultivated land. Arable land is the lifeblood of food and agricultural production. Strictly abiding by the red line of cultivated land and permanent basic farmland protection and making rational use of cultivated land resources is the basis for ensuring food security and increasing farmers' incomes in an overall manner. The Central Economic Work Conference clearly stated that it is necessary to "reform and improve the system of balancing farmland occupation and compensation, and raise the standard of investment in high-standard farmland construction". It is necessary to further increase the investment in construction funds in accordance with the standard of not less than 3,000 yuan per mu, adhere to high-standard construction, strengthen follow-up management and maintenance, and comprehensively build, manage, and make good use of high-standard farmland; at the same time, in accordance with the requirements of the "trinity" of quantity, quality, and ecology, we should optimize and improve the system of balancing the occupation and compensation of urban and rural construction land, and truly achieve the goal of occupying one to make up for the other, to occupy the superior to make up for the superior, and to occupy the paddy field to supplement the paddy field. In addition, it is also necessary to strictly implement the priority order for the use of cultivated land, strengthen the management of cultivated land "non-agricultural" and "non-grain" use, and ensure that permanent basic farmland is mainly used for grain production, and that all high-standard farmland is used for grain production in principle; it is necessary to carry out in depth the action of abandoning cultivated land and reuse it, strengthen the redevelopment and reuse of idle and inefficient land, actively explore the link between villages and villages on land for collective construction in rural areas, and earnestly improve the efficiency of land use; strengthen the comprehensive utilization of saline-alkali land and the development of non-traditional cultivated land resources, and constantly expand the space for grain and agricultural production. Second, we need to improve food productivity in multiple ways. Compared with advanced countries, there is still a big gap between China's grain production in terms of land yield, labor productivity and resource utilization, especially the obvious low labor productivity has become a key factor restricting the improvement of China's grain competitiveness. To this end, it is necessary to take the improvement of labor productivity in grain production as the breakthrough point and adopt effective and effective measures to earnestly increase grain productivity. It should be noted that at present, China has a large number of grain farmers, a small scale of production and operation, and a high degree of part-time occupation, all of which are not conducive to the enhancement of grain competitiveness. It is necessary to meet the needs of urbanization and the diversification of rural industries, speed up the pace of transfer of agricultural labor, further reduce the number of peasants who grow grain, and realize the operation of grain production on a moderate scale through such means as land transfer, trusteeship services, substitution of cultivation and planting, and shareholding cooperation, so that the peasants who grow grain will embark on the road of professionalization, knowledge, and organization. At the same time, it is necessary to speed up the innovation of grain science and technology and the cultivation of improved varieties, promote the mechanization and intellectualization of the whole process of grain production, further improve the socialized service system, realize the green, high-quality, characteristic and branded grain production, and continuously improve the level and quality of grain output. Third, it is necessary to speed up the development of a large-scale modern grain industry. The grain industry is a large industry involving many industries and links, such as grain production, storage, transportation, processing, sales, and service, and it is necessary to promote the all-round and in-depth integration of the grain industry and speed up the building of the grain industry into a modern large industry in accordance with the requirements of the Central Economic Work Conference on "building agriculture into a modern large industry." At present, the focus is to accelerate the transformation of the mode of grain production, continuously extend the grain industry chain, upgrade the value chain, build the supply chain, implement the coordination and linkage of the industrial chain, the value chain and the supply chain, and build a vertically integrated and integrated food industry chain; We will continue to optimize the layout of the grain industry, guide and promote more distribution of grain processing links in the main grain-producing areas and major grain-producing counties, so that grain farmers and the main producing areas can share more of the value-added benefits of the grain industry chain. Fourth, improve the compensation mechanism for the interests of grain production. Compensation for the benefits of grain production includes compensation for the interests of producers, compensation for the interests of the main producing areas and ecological compensation for grain production. At present, the compensation for the interests of grain production in China is mainly concentrated in the compensation of the interests of grain producers and the vertical compensation of the interests of the main grain producing areas, and there is a lack of horizontal compensation mechanism between the grain production and marketing areas, and the national ecological compensation system has not yet included grain production. The Central Economic Work Conference clearly pointed out that it is necessary to "explore the establishment of an inter-provincial horizontal interest compensation mechanism in grain production and marketing areas." To this end, we can consider establishing an inter-provincial horizontal compensation mechanism for the interests of grain production and marketing areas on the basis of improving the compensation mechanism for the interests of grain producers and further increasing support for the main grain-producing areas and large grain-producing counties, and in accordance with the principle of "whoever eats grain gets the money, and whoever transfers grain is compensated." The specific method is to use the cost of grain production and the amount of grain transferred in and out as the main basis, and determine the actual compensation funds to be paid by each grain transfer area according to the grain transfer volume, compensation coefficient and compensation standard per kilogram cost, so as to realize the compensation for the interests of the grain shortage transfer area to the grain production and transfer area (5). In addition, in addition to providing a variety of grain products, grain production also creates ecological service value, and grain production should be included in the scope of national ecological compensation, and actively carry out pilot explorations to establish a grain ecological compensation mechanism, and give corresponding compensation according to the value of ecological services provided by different varieties of grain production per mu. Notes: (1) Huang Zuhui, Li Yiyun, Mao Xiaohong, 2022: "The Current Situation and Countermeasures of "Non-Agricultural" and "Non-Grain" Cultivated Land in Mainland China", Jianghuai Forum, No. 4. (2) Li Tingting and Liu Changquan, 2023: "The Current Situation, Causes and Governance Strategies of China's Cultivated Land Abandonment", in Wei Houkai and Wang Guirong (eds.), Analysis and Forecast of China's Rural Economic Situation (2022-2023), pp. 254-270. (3) (5) Wei Houkai and Jia Xiaoling, 2023: "The Shrinking Situation of China's Main Grain Producing Areas and Their Welfare Losses", Journal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National Academy of Administration), No. 5. (4) Su Hongjian, 2022: "Village Classification, Farmers' Income and Diversified Rural Revitalization", in Wei Houkai (ed.), Comprehensive Survey and Research Report on China's Rural Revitalization 2021, China Social Sciences Press, pp. 273-287.
[Wei Houkai: Member of the Chang'an Street Reading Club, Director of the Institute of Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences]
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