China.org.cn | June 6, 2023
Farmers' Daily, farmer.com.cn:
The Central Rural Work Conference proposed to advance rural revitalization on all fronts and accelerate agricultural and rural modernization. How can the high-quality grain project help rural revitalization? Thank you.
Cong Liang:
Rural and industrial revitalization are the top priorities, and the high-quality development of the grain industry is especially important. In recent years, the NFSRA has fully implemented the high-quality grain project, insisting on effectively dovetailing the high-quality development of the grain industry with rural revitalization, taking the revitalization of the grain industry as the key and focal point, promoting the building of a modern grain industry system, and lending strong impetus to rural revitalization. The focus of our work is on two aspects.
On the one hand, we will actively expand the development space of the grain industry by building, supplementing, and strengthening the chain. We will step up efforts to do a good job in grain production and sales, and the integration of primary and secondary industries, actively explore the upstream and downstream extension driven by the advantages of the grain industry chain, adapt measures according to local conditions through remedying deficiencies and strengthening weak links, and tap the potential of the entire industry chain – from the field to the dining table – to add value. For example, Funan county in Anhui province has taken the development of the high-quality wheat industry as a focal point, has promoted contract farming from 350,000 mu to 600,000 mu, and has helped farmers increase their income by more than 200 yuan per mu. At present, the "Funan Model" has been promoted and copied in 323 counties across the country, and the development of high-quality grain orders has exceeded 10 million mu, helping nearly 1.9 million small agricultural households and more than 3,400 farmer cooperatives effectively increase their income.
On the other hand, we will promote growth in rural incomes and make farmers become rich based on the improvement of the interest linkage mechanism. By making sure quality grain enjoying relatively higher prices, and building a mechanism for linking the interests of small agricultural households and leading enterprises, we fundamentally improve the ability of small agricultural households to deal with risks, allow farmers to share more of the value-added benefits of the grain industry, and promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. For example, Huzhou city in Zhejiang province has improved the interest linkage mechanism featuring "processing enterprises + national grain warehouses + farmers" to realize cooperative grain harvesting and shared grain storage based on grain reserve resources. This scheme has added 650,000 mu to the planting area of high-quality grain , brought more than 260,000 metric tons of purchase orders, increased farmers' income by 200 million yuan, reduced costs for grain processing enterprises by 130 million yuan, and cut financial losses by 170 million yuan.
In the next step, we will further motivate local governments to develop the modern grain industry, stimulate the vitality of the entire chain of market entities, and explore new paths and new models for the development of the grain industry to boost rural revitalization. We will delve into typical cases and demonstration models and intensify publicity, promotion, and replication to promote the high-quality development of the grain industry to promote rural revitalization. Thank you.