Dang Guoying, researcher at the Institute of Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: Creating a "heart" for the revitalization of rural industries

Developing industries that enrich the people and promoting rural revitalization is a long-term goal and an important task, which requires long-term efforts and continuous advancement.

What are the key points in building a prosperous industry? In order to achieve sustained and high-quality industrial development in rural areas, what aspects should be exerted? How can rural industries get rid of the low-end supply of industrial chains and value chains and improve comprehensive benefits?

On related issues, a reporter from Minsheng Weekly interviewed Dang Guoying, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In Dang Guoying's view, as a local economic development process, the logical relationship of rural revitalization has four core elements, namely modern agriculture, highly specialized agricultural industrial chain, reasonable urban and rural population layout, and modern industrial organizational structure.

Among them, modern agriculture is the core element of rural revitalization. Dang Guoying believes that whether agriculture, especially modern agriculture, develops well or not is closely related to the level of agricultural scale operation, the degree of specialization of the agricultural industrial chain, and the form of peasants' industrial organization, and all these factors are greatly affected by the rational layout of the urban and rural population.

The layout of the municipalities should be balanced

As the primary industry, agriculture is the basic industry for realizing rural revitalization.

What conditions do you need to have suitable for agriculture? Dang Guoying said that a basic condition must have suitable natural conditions such as climate, soil, and water sources.

"In some places, it is not suitable for the development of agriculture, it is impossible to support the peasants, and the people must move away." In this regard, our country has made great efforts in recent years, and important achievements have been made in poverty alleviation and relocation. ”

Dang Guoying stressed that it is necessary to clearly understand and face up to this problem, "not every inch of land can be revitalized."

Places with good agricultural conditions may not necessarily be revitalized. He gave the example of India, "India's soil climate conditions are actually good, but its countryside is still not developing well."

What kind of places are suitable for agriculture? He concluded that with the right natural conditions, the following must also be in place:

First of all, in the concept of the large countryside, there are fewer people in agricultural areas. "Only when there are fewer people can we engage in large-scale operations, and a family of two or three acres or seven or eight acres of land cannot achieve revitalization in the countryside."

Secondly, in the concept of large rural areas, it is necessary to have a certain population size, produce rural economic centers, form the advantages of gathering certain links in the agricultural industry chain, and serve farmers and agriculture.

Dang Guoying said that modern agriculture is an open agriculture, and traditional methods such as slash-and-burn farming and iron ploughing and cattle farming have long been unrealistic. This means that agriculture before, during and after production must rely on the outside world, and it is necessary to establish links with technology, equipment, talents and other elements outside the agricultural area.

"This creates the requirement of a rational layout of urban and rural populations." Dang Guoying said that if modern agriculture wants to achieve sustained and healthy development, industrial chain services must be modernized, industrial chain services need people, and these people must also get services, and must achieve urban quality services, otherwise the agricultural industrial chain cannot attract high-quality labor resources.

For example, he said, if a farmer needs to consult a question, he cannot go to Beijing alone to consult and learn, or an expert will run over a special trip, and the efficiency of this service is not high.

Therefore, Dang Guoying pointed out that according to international experience, every 100 to 300 square kilometers, can form an agricultural and rural service center, and has the quality of public services in the city, so that professional farmers can reach this center by half an hour by car, and similarly, all kinds of service personnel in the center can also reach any farm with a maximum of half an hour's drive, which should be a necessary condition for the development of modern agriculture.

How is this scope defined? He said that from a comprehensive point of view, the level of agriculture in the Netherlands is the highest in the world, and the efficiency of agricultural labor and the yield of arable land are also high, which is worth learning from. Municipalities in the Netherlands radiate about 100 square kilometers, and in the United States about 260 square kilometers. According to China's national conditions, the towns in the rural areas of the eastern, central and western regions can have different municipal radiation areas, for example, it is better to plant cash crops of about 100 square kilometers, and it is more reasonable to plant grain 300 square kilometers.

"Cities and towns must have a balanced layout, and the service force must not be too dispersed." Dang Guoying stressed that such a density of municipalities can help solve the problem of farmers' access to public services.

The center of gravity of the agricultural industry chain sinks to the municipalities

In view of the problem of broken or inefficient operation of the industrial chain and value chain in some places, Dang Guoying believes that this situation is related to the fact that the center of gravity of the agricultural industrial chain has not sunk to the town.

In his view, the value creation of the agricultural industry chain is 5 to 10 times the value of food raw materials. The sinking of certain links in the agricultural chain to the municipality, together with other related industries, is enough to support the prosperity of a municipality. Farmers' working hours are different from other employees, and with the change of seasons, there is a certain demand for part-time work, which can also be met here, which will help to solve the problem of urban and rural income differences in stability.

In addition, the growth of farmers' income continues to deepen the sharing of the value of the agricultural industrial chain. For example, he said, a considerable part of the total income of farmers is not obtained in the production link of the farm, but the farmer enters the agricultural industry chain, such as agricultural product processing, storage and sales, agricultural technology research and development, agricultural product promotion and other links.

This requires farmers to enter the industrial chain operation, can not always rely on long-distance work, to become a member of the economic organization in the industrial chain, to ensure the stability and diversity of their income.

"Another point is that sustainable and high-quality industries must be specialized and scaled operations." Dang Guoying gave examples of apples from the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi and dingxi potatoes in Gansu.

He introduced that there are 45 apple production base counties in Shaanxi Province, of which half are state-level poverty-stricken counties, and more than 10 million employees in the whole industrial chain have formed an apple industrial cluster on the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi. According to statistics, in 2020, the total area of apple planting in the province will reach 9.45 million mu, with an output of 11.3 million tons; the scale of facility agriculture will be 3.62 million mu, an increase of 220,000 mu, and the output value of the whole industrial chain will achieve the goal of 100 billion yuan, becoming one of the 50 advantageous industrial clusters approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Finance in 2020.

Dingxi, Gansu, which once had "longzhong bitter barren world", is one of the best potato cultivation areas. Faced with the barren yellow land, the people of Dingxi have made potatoes into a large industry. In 2020, the total output value of the potato industry in Dingxi City reached 20.2 billion yuan, and the per capita industrial net income of farmers was 2034 yuan, accounting for 23% of the per capita disposable income of farmers.

In addition to the unique natural conditions, Dang Guoying believes that the key to the success of these places lies in achieving the "three chains": extending the industrial chain, connecting the supply chain, and upgrading the value chain. Based on local characteristic resources, promote the development and growth of rural industries, optimize industrial layout, improve the interest linkage mechanism, and let farmers share more of the benefits of industrial value-added.

Develop the rural tertiary industry around the town

If traditional agriculture mainly relies on experience, then modern agriculture relies on technology, management, and ideas, so this involves the problem of "people".

Especially in the new development stage of rural infrastructure modernization and rural governance capacity modernization, without the support of high-quality farmers, technical personnel, and management talents that are corresponding to it, rural revitalization will be an empty phrase.

How to attract this group of people? "This requires the establishment of a big concept of the countryside, viewing the countryside as a combination of towns and agricultural areas, and vigorously developing the tertiary industry around the towns." Dang Guoying said that only with perfect supporting industries such as education, medical care, leisure and entertainment can we attract and retain this part of the service industry chain of high-precision talents.

What are the signs of the municipality's perfect package? Dang Guoying mentioned that a local service industry has developed to a certain extent, the demand for cafes will increase, he believes that cafes are a clear symbol of urban culture, if a town with only tens of thousands of people, even cafes have, this is the embodiment of rural revitalization.

"Municipalities, not villages, and even less large cities, must be distinguished. More than half of the existing towns in China should develop into rural towns with small urban functions. This is a major topic in China's agricultural modernization, and it still needs to be studied in depth. The adjustment of the country's agricultural policy should also be carried out around this theme. Dang Guoying stressed that there are not only perfect supporting services, but also can see the landscape and retain nostalgia, this kind of place, in order to serve modern agriculture.

(□ Reporter Wang Di of Minsheng Weekly)