Green reforms

China should accelerate the building of agricultural powerhouse

Building up an agricultural powerhouse is an important foundation for building a modern socialist country in all respects. Over the past few years, the country has been upholding the principle of putting agricultural and rural development first, which provides strong support for the fruitful transformation of China's agriculture.

China has strengthened its grain production capacity and ensured a stable and secure supply of grain and key farm produce. In 2022, China's grain output reached 1.37 trillion jin (687 billion kilograms), exceeding 1.3 trillion jin for eight consecutive years and registering a bumper grain harvest for 19 consecutive years. Cumulatively, a total of 1 billion mu (about 67 million hectares) of high-standard farmland has been fostered in China. China's per capita share of grain has been above 470 kg for six consecutive years, higher than the internationally recognized security line of 400 kg. China has maintained a self-sufficiency rate of over 95 percent for corn, rice and wheat, and achieved absolute security of staple food.

China has made continued progress in agricultural science and technology and strengthened the growth momentum for the agriculture sector. Superior crop varieties and mechanization have been steadily promoted, with superior varieties covering almost all main crops. Currently, the planting area of self-bred crop varieties accounts for more than 95 percent of the country's total. The self-sufficiency rates of core provenances of livestock and poultry have reached over 75 percent. Intelligent agricultural machinery equipment based on modern information technologies have been applied.

The agricultural industrial structure has been continuously improved, with a notable increase in the ability to drive and lead the development of relevant sectors. From 2013 to 2021, the total output from China's farming, forestry, livestock and fishery sectors grew by 4.2 percent on an annual average basis. Industrial integration in rural areas has been deepened and new industries and new businesses forms — such as deep processing of farm produce, leisure tourism and rural e-commerce — are thriving, becoming an important means to expand the functions of agriculture and increase farmers' incomes.

Looking forward, China should move faster to improve the weak links of boosting the strength in agriculture, such as management mode, total factor productivity, science and technology innovation, industrial competitiveness, and green development.

To start with, there exist great difficulties in transforming the smallholder operation mode, wherein the agricultural operating entities lack professional skills. Small-scale decentralized management is the mainstay of China's agricultural production. According to the results of China's Third National Agricultural Census, smallholder farmers, which account for over 98 percent of China's agricultural operating entities, operate on 70 percent of the country's total arable land. Too scattered operation by individual farmer households has restricted the maximization of household production capacity and increased the difficulty of scale production and farmers' income growth.

Second, the agricultural total factor productivity is relatively low in China. Compared with the world's major agricultural powerhouses, China lags behind in agricultural core technologies and sci-tech popularization and application. Developed countries basically accomplished mechanization of farming from the 1950s to the 1970s, and some agricultural powerhouses have already entered a stage of molecular breeding combined with genetic editing, among others.

Third, the industrialization level is yet to be improved. China's agricultural import sources are overly concentrated in several countries. Domestically, the system of division of labor and cooperation based on the entire agriculture industry chain is yet to be improved, and the cooperation between leading enterprises in industrialized operation of agriculture and small- and medium-sized enterprises, farmers' cooperatives and commercial agricultural service providers are yet to be strengthened.

Fourth, China is faced with obstacles in green transformation of the agricultural industry. Extensive and excessive use of chemical products has caused land desertification and severe pollution, posing great challenges to low-carbon and green transition of Chinese agriculture.

Chinese path to modernization is the modernization of a huge population. We should take into consideration China's national conditions and resource endowment featuring limited land for a huge population. Different from agricultural powerhouses that have a small population with a single-featured agriculture. China needs to build up its strength in agriculture by establishing a comprehensive agricultural powerhouse and coordinate between the farming, forestry, livestock and fishery sector and all relevant sectors. Furthermore, China needs to rely on its own strength to ensure food security and accomplish the task of letting hundreds of millions of farmers increase their incomes and get rich.

To speed up the building of China into an agricultural powerhouse, we need to respect China's huge population and based on China's resource endowment with little land, strengthen the bottom line of ensuring the stable and secure the supply of grain and important agricultural products.

Industrialization-driven high quality and high efficiency is essential for enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of the agricultural sector and turning the sector from a big one to a strong one. China should encourage modern production factors to concentrate in agricultural industrialization organizations with more competitiveness, vigorously cultivate clusters of advantageous agricultural sectors, optimize the layout of special farm products, and accelerate the ascent toward the medium- and high-end of the agricultural value chain.

Advancing science and technology progress and rural reforms provides the underlying driving force for China to build up its strength in agriculture and maintain a leading position, while sustainable agricultural development is the intrinsic requirement and necessary condition for building up China's strength in agriculture. China needs to constantly exert the role of innovation-driven development in areas of agricultural science and technology and rural reforms, promote low-carbon, green and sustainable development of the agricultural sector, strengthen the building of a supporting system, and invigorate the intrinsic growth momentum of Chinese agriculture.

Wei Houkai is the director of the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Cui Kai is an associate researcher of the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.