Realizing the agricultural modernization of small farmers with agricultural production custody

The main difficulties and path choices for small farmers to develop modern agriculture

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "Consolidate and improve the basic rural management system... Keep the land contracting relationship stable and long-lasting, and extend the 30-year period after the second round of land contracting", further solidifying the development of modern agriculture in China. The institutional basis has safeguarded the peasant masses' main position in developing modern agriculture. It can be foreseen that in a relatively long period of time, family management dominated by small farmers is still the basic mode of operation of China's agriculture.

From the international experience, the East Asian small-scale farming model represented by Japan and South Korea can be compatible with modern agricultural development, but the premise is to establish effective linkage mechanisms between modern elements such as capital, technology and management and small farmers. In Japan and South Korea, this linkage mechanism is mainly undertaken by the Agricultural Cooperative System. In fact, modern agriculture is a socialized large-scale production process. Even the medium-sized farm management model represented by France and Germany and the large-scale farm business model represented by the United States are inseparable from the strong support of agricultural socialization services. .

The development of modern agriculture in China's small farmers must solve the following problems: First, how small farmers can connect with socialized production; Second, how small farmers connect with modern factors such as capital, technology and management; and third, how to make small farmers have the enthusiasm to achieve the above docking. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, the time and space conditions of the above three issues have undergone great changes. One major change is that China's agriculture is realizing the transformation from the era of manpower and animal power to the era of mechanization. The power is the shortage of agricultural labor, aging, the combination of labor and the rising opportunity cost of agricultural labor, and the improvement of agricultural capital, equipment and technological capabilities. For example, sometimes farmers can earn more than one acre of wheat. At the same time, with the development of society, farmers' willingness to work hard as they have in the past has greatly diminished, and farmers are reluctant to do heavy work. All of this indicates that China's agriculture is moving towards a new era.

The new kinetic energy of modern agricultural development in the new era still mainly comes from the peasant masses and the market. Advancing the development of modern agriculture in the new era should conform to the historical trend of shifting from manpower and animal power to mechanization, and conform to the desire of most farmers to withdraw from the heavy manpower and labor practices but are unwilling to withdraw from a one-family business model. In practice, there are two main ways to adapt to the above trends; one is the transfer of management rights of contracted land. Under the conditions of "three powers", the management rights will be transferred to the hands of new business entities such as cooperatives, family farms, and leading enterprises to realize the integration of land and socialized production and modern capital, technology and management. The advantage of this model is that farmers can get out of the agricultural management, share the fixed income, and not bear the risk of agricultural management; the shortcoming is that the new business entity needs to pay the transfer fee to the farmers, objectively increasing the development of modern agriculture. Costs, for example, around 2016, in a number of plain areas, the cost of an acre of land transfer costs 800-1200 yuan.

Another model is agricultural production custody. Agricultural production custody is a kind of management mode in which the farmer entrusts all or part of the operation of farming, planting, prevention and collection in agricultural production to the service organization without transferring the land management right. In recent years, some well-known agricultural business models, such as Shandong's “land custody”, Hubei's “substituting for farming”, Jiangsu's “joint farming”, and Sichuan's “agricultural co-production system” all belong to the agricultural production custody category. They are all major or key operations by social service organizations. In the country, various agricultural production custody models including single or multiple operation links are quite common. According to preliminary statistics, as of the end of 2016, the national custody area calculated by the comprehensive custody coefficient is 232 million mu. The advantage of the custody model is that farmers still maintain the main position of family business, and are responsible for their own profits and losses, and they are responsible for their own risks. Social service organizations charge fees from custody services, do not need to pay transfer fees, and realize capital through social services. Modern elements such as technology and management transform traditional agriculture.

Realizing the agricultural modernization of small farmers with agricultural production custody

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that "the agricultural socialized service system should be improved to achieve an organic connection between small farmers and modern agricultural development." Agricultural production custody is a time-oriented way for social services to directly serve agriculture and farmers, and is an important business model for realizing the organic connection between farmers and modern agricultural development.

The rise of agricultural production custody has profound economic and social reasons. In recent years, due to the shortage of agricultural labor, the problem of aging, and the rise of labor prices, farmers have to complete the agricultural operations on the contracted farmland with their own labor force and simple operation machinery. It is better to entrust the main production operations. It is more cost-effective and efficient to provide mechanized service organizations that are mechanized, scientific, and much more scalable. Take Huafeng Agricultural Professional Cooperative in Tianmen City, Hubei Province as an example. In 2016, the cost of cultivating, planting (planting) and collecting the three main operations is: the farmer's own arable cost of 80 yuan, the custodian fee is 50 yuan; The mu is equivalent to 250 yuan, the custody fee is 120 yuan; the farmer's own harvest of one mu is equivalent to 80 yuan, the custody fee is 50 yuan per mu, and the comprehensive cost difference is 46%. According to our investigation in some plain agricultural areas, in general, farmers have cultivated and managed them to social service organizations. Although the cost difference in each operation is different, the overall cost savings are 20%-40%, and some even higher. The main reasons for cost savings and increased efficiency are the large-scale procurement of production materials, resulting in lower prices, a significant reduction in machinery costs over labor costs, a significant increase in operational efficiency and quality, and a reduction in harvest losses. At the same time, the aging of the rural labor force has become a general trend, and has become an important social cause for the rise of agricultural production custody. Some elderly workers have no ability and willing to do heavy farm work, and can only host some agricultural production operations.

In general, the advantages of agricultural production custody have the following aspects:

First, it can adapt to the diverse needs of farmers. A considerable part of the farmers nowadays are leaving the land but not leaving the land completely, leaving the village but not leaving the village completely. There are also a large number of rural laborers who can do some farm work, but they can't do too much farm work, want to engage in mechanization and scale, and they can't do it by their own strength. Based on their own business conditions and labor conditions, these farmers can entrust all farm activities to service organizations, and can also host some farm activities to service organizations, which is more flexible.

Second, it is conducive to maintaining the basic status of family business. By adopting the custody method, even if it is managed by the whole process, it is still the family business that the farmers themselves have the final say. If the transfer method is adopted, the farmers will give up the family business to a certain extent. From the historical experience, the process of peasants leaving the land is a gradual process, even an iterative process. Family management has the institutional and institutional capacity to accommodate the costs and risks that occur during the process of digestion, and agricultural production custody is to achieve this tolerance. An important way of capacity: Under the conditions of custody, the relationship between farmers and land and agricultural production can be very close or loose, but whether it is close or loose, it does not affect the advancement of agricultural modernization.

Third, it is conducive to the development and expansion of the rural collective economy. Providing social services for family management and carrying out unified levels of management have always been important functions of rural collective economic organizations. In recent years, village party branches in some areas of Hubei have relied on collective economic organizations to organize cooperatives and contact socialized service organizations to provide production custody services for farmers. This has served both family management and the collective economy, and is an important growth point for the collective economy.

Fourth, it is conducive to reducing the cost and risk of agricultural scale development. Taking Anhui as an example, in 2016, the province's arable land transfer area reached 31 million mu, and the estimated total transfer fee reached 25 billion to 30 billion yuan, which formed the cost of agricultural development. There is no need to pay a transfer fee for centralized operations through managed development services. At the same time, the large-scale management entity will also focus on the arable land transfer. For example, the flood disaster caused by the flooding in Dangyang County, Hubei Province in 2016 will reduce the production. The main body of the land through circulation will have to pay the land transfer fee according to the regulations, and the loss will be large. There is basically no loss. One of the key advantages of the smallholder model is the risk dispersion, and the hosting approach maintains this advantage.

Accelerate the development of agricultural productive service industry and vigorously promote agricultural production custody

Agricultural productive services are social services that run through the agricultural production chain and directly complete or assist in the completion of all aspects of agricultural pre-production, mid-production and post-production operations. In other words, agricultural productive services are the part of social services that “directly work for farmers”. Without the full development of the agricultural productive service industry, there is no extensive agricultural production custody; at the same time, there is no good form of agricultural production custody, such as farmers and agriculture, and the development of agricultural productive services lacks a strong driving force. In August 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Agricultural Productive Service Industry" (Nongjingfa [2017] No. 6), and the General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture issued Regarding the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Agricultural Production Trusteeship (Nongjianjing [2017] No. 19), we must fully implement it.

First, it is highly valued. It is necessary to fully understand the importance of developing agricultural productive service industry and agricultural production custody as an effective measure to promote small-scale farmers to build modern agriculture, and at the same time, as an important field to promote rural entrepreneurial innovation, put on the work schedule. It is necessary to strengthen cooperation among all parties, implement division of labor and responsibilities, and form an effective working mechanism for jointly promoting the development of agricultural productive services and agricultural production custody. It is necessary to summarize the propaganda and promotion of good practices and give full play to the typical demonstration role.

The second is to increase policy support. In accelerating the development of agricultural productive service industry, we must vigorously support the development of various service organizations through financial support, credit support, tax reduction and exemption, etc., especially to address the financing difficulties of social services such as agricultural materials, agricultural machinery, and agricultural technology. It is difficult to raise funds and use land. Regarding the construction of agricultural facilities, it should be said that the policies are there, but they are not implemented. In promoting the custody of agricultural production, it is necessary to determine the links and modes of local support for custody according to local conditions and local conditions. Large-scale agricultural products such as grain, cotton, oil and sugar are related to the national economy and the people's livelihood. We must focus on supporting the production and custody of bulk agricultural products such as grain, cotton, oil and sugar. We must determine the key support of the region in accordance with the requirements of the short-board of modern agriculture and the popularity of farmers. Service content, such as unified defense, straw returning, film recycling, etc.; based on the local farmers' production needs and service organization's service capabilities, determine the key supporting mode in the region, such as single-link custody, multi-link custody, the whole process Hosting, and more.

The third is to strengthen industry guidance. Promote the construction of service standards, encourage relevant departments, units and agricultural production custody service organizations to study and formulate service standards or service specifications in line with local conditions; strengthen service price guidance, and the price of agricultural production custody services shall be determined by the supply and demand sides in accordance with market principles, but it is necessary to strengthen Guide and supervise the price of the service to protect the interests of the farmers. Strengthen the dynamic monitoring of social service organizations. For service organizations that do not meet the requirements for service quality and are dissatisfied with the masses, they should supervise and correct them; and give priority support to organizations with strong service capabilities and good service effects. (Original title: Agricultural Production Trusteeship: New Momentum for Modern Agriculture Development in the New Era)