March towards a Powerful Agricultural Country —— Interview with Tang Renjian, Director of the Central Agricultural Office and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs

  Interview with the minister at the end of the year and the beginning of the year. For three consecutive years, Tang Renjian, director of the Central Agricultural Office and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, wrote three sets of keywords to CCTV reporters at the General Station:

  2021: grain, seeds and cultivated land

  2022: Food

  2023: Agricultural Power

  What is the relationship between the three groups of keywords? Tang Renjian said,come down in one continuous lineThe internal logical relationship is very clear.

  "A strong agricultural country is programmatic and outlines. The primary task is to consolidate the foundation of food security in all directions. Seeds and cultivated land are two of them. Grasping these two keys will ensure food security. "

  Go all out to secure China’s rice bowl.

  Looking back on 2022, China’s grain production is remarkable. In the face of difficulties such as multiple outbreaks of epidemic in COVID-19, record-breaking autumn flood in the north, extreme high temperature and drought in the south and high prices of agricultural materials, the output still reached a record high, reaching 1,373.1 billion Jin, with an increase of 7.4 billion Jin. It is particularly worth mentioning that the self-sufficiency rate of soybeans has also increased by 3 percentage points. Stable production and supply of grain and important agricultural products have provided basic support for stabilizing expectations, prices and the economic market.

  Food security is "the biggest in the country".

  Tang Renjian said that all countries in the world that are truly powerful and have no weaknesses have the ability to solve their own food problems. In the coming period, with the high-quality development of China’s economy and the promotion of urbanization, the demand for grain and important agricultural products will still show a rigid growth trend. 2023 is the first year to implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress, and it is also the first year to accelerate the construction of an agricultural power. It is of special significance to ensure the stable and safe supply of grain and important agricultural products.

  "We will take a new round of 100 billion Jin of grain production capacity improvement as the starting point and go all out to stabilize China’s rice bowl."

  The grain production capacity is at a high starting point of 1.3 trillion Jin, and then increased by 100 billion Jin. Hard as it is, it will be done.

  Tang Renjian said, "This matter is not a question of whether it can be done or not, but a question of what must be done. We must mobilize all resources and do everything possible to increase the grain production capacity by 100 billion Jin."

  Tang Renjian said that in the long run, it is necessary to make full efforts to improve the comprehensive agricultural production capacity. Grasp the material foundation, resolutely hold the red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land, gradually build all 1.546 billion mu of permanent basic farmland into high-standard farmland, and continue to do a good job in seed industry revitalization and key agricultural technology research; We will also pay attention to the mechanism guarantee, improve the income guarantee mechanism for grain farmers and the compensation mechanism for interests in major producing areas, fully implement the responsibility of the party and government for food security, and consolidate the foundation of food security in all directions.

  In 2023, in the face of the new development situation, the focus is on two stability, two expansion and two promotion.

  Two stabilities — — Stable area and outputEnsure that the grain area is stable above 1.77 billion mu, strive to increase, ensure that the grain output continues to be above 1.3 trillion Jin, and strive to increase production. 

  Two expansions — — Expand beans and oil:We will plant more than 10 million mu, ensure that the soybean oil area is stable at more than 350 million mu, and strive to expand again.

  Two mentions — — Self-sufficiency rate of bill of lading production and delivery:Strive to increase the yield per mu of corn demonstration fields by more than 100 kilograms and the self-sufficiency rate of edible vegetable oil by more than 1 percentage point.

  When the reporter asked what specific policy measures would be taken, Tang Renjian said, first of all, both administrative promotion and policy support should be taken to do everything possible to stabilize the area. In the assessment of food security, the weight of area yield and planting structure should be increased. At the same time, we should pay attention to both farmland hardware and scientific and technological software to raise the yield per unit area. 45 million mu of new farmland will be built, and 35 million mu of high-standard farmland will be upgraded. Start the project of increasing the yield of major grain and oil crops with the focus on corn. In addition, we should pay attention to disaster prevention and loss reduction, and reduce the losses.

  Promote consumption and expand investment, and vigorously promote the domestic cycle.

  Speaking of expanding domestic demand, Tang Renjian believes that agriculture, rural areas and farmers involve many industries, a wide range of fields and a large group. In expanding domestic demand and building a new development pattern, there is a very broad space to move and the potential to be tapped.

  Tang Renjian gave such a set of data:

  Although farmers’ income is not very high at present, the consumption increment created is almost the same as that of urban residents. With the continuous growth of farmers’ income, rural consumption has been accelerated.It is estimated that the annual consumption demand will increase by about 2 trillion yuan.

  The lag of agricultural and rural infrastructure construction is the most intuitive manifestation of the gap between urban and rural areas, which has a huge investment demand. Preliminary calculation,In the next 5 to 10 years, the investment demand for high-standard farmland and facility agriculture alone will be nearly 15 trillion yuan.

  Tang Renjian said that in 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will continue to make efforts to comprehensively promote rural revitalization and accelerate the construction of an agricultural power, especially in accelerating the activation of the rural market and releasing farmers’ consumption potential, smoothing the urban and rural circulation of workers and peasants and promoting the domestic cycle.

  Optimize supply and expand consumption.From the supply side and circulation channels, we will expand the production of green, organic, geographical indications and famous new agricultural products, focus on improving rural consumption hard facilities, optimize the soft environment, expand the rural coverage of e-commerce and logistics express delivery, and make agricultural products "go up smoothly" and industrial products "sink smoothly" to promote the upgrading of urban food consumption and the growth of rural durable goods consumption.

  Strengthen investment in construction traction.Solidly promote rural construction, continue to strengthen the construction of high-standard farmland, vigorously develop modern facility agriculture, lay out and build a number of storage and fresh-keeping facilities in production areas, cold chain collection and distribution centers and large-scale cold chain logistics bases, and continuously improve conditions such as water circuit and gas room information in rural areas, so as to expand effective investment in agriculture and rural areas and boost economic growth.

  Developing industries to help farmers increase their income.Guide all localities to strengthen leading enterprises, make up chains, promote formats and build brands, strengthen the processing and circulation industry of agricultural products, promote the integration of agricultural, cultural and tourism, vigorously develop rural e-commerce, accelerate the construction of modern agricultural parks, and continuously broaden the channels for farmers to increase their income and become rich.

  solidResolutely stick to the bottom line of not returning to poverty on a large scale

  Consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation is the bottom line task of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization. Tang Renjian said that in 2022, the results of poverty alleviation continued to be effectively consolidated. By the end of November, 65.7% of the monitored objects had eliminated the risk of returning to poverty, and the rest had also implemented assistance measures. There was no phenomenon of the whole village returning to poverty, and the employment scale of poverty-stricken laborers increased by 1.33 million over the previous year, reaching 32.78 million.

  "At present, affected by factors such as the COVID-19 epidemic and the economic downturn, we have encountered some new situations and new problems in consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation." In the face of difficult challenges, Tang Renjian gave a response plan.

  "We will take greater and more targeted measures to further enhance the endogenous development momentum of poverty-stricken areas and poverty-stricken people, and use development methods to keep poverty far away."

  In cultivating and upgrading industries,In accordance with the requirements of the word "native products", guide all localities to rely on the characteristic resources of agriculture and rural areas to develop various functions of agriculture, tap the diversified values of rural areas, and promote the upgrading of the whole chain of rural industries. We will increase the proportion of bridging funds used for industrial development to more than 60%, plan and implement a number of overall regional industrial projects, improve the mechanism of linking agriculture with agriculture, let the people out of poverty share more value-added benefits, and increase their income through industry stability.

  In terms of efforts to stabilize employment,Develop a number of county-level industries with large employment capacity to enrich the people, increase employment services and skills training for poverty-stricken laborers, and ensure that the employment scale of poverty-stricken laborers is stable at more than 30 million.

  In promoting entrepreneurial innovation,We will implement entrepreneurship support policies, build a number of entrepreneurship incubation training bases, and orderly guide college graduates to their hometowns, capable people to their hometowns, migrant workers to their hometowns, and entrepreneurs to their hometowns, so as to drive employment and increase income through entrepreneurship.

  A strong country must first strengthen agriculture, and a strong agriculture can strengthen the country.

  Tang Renjian said that the strong signal of attaching importance to agriculture and strengthening agriculture has been issued with heavy drums and hammers. We will systematically plan for anchoring this goal, study and formulate plans for accelerating the construction of a strong agricultural country, keep the two bottom lines of ensuring food security and preventing large-scale return to poverty at a higher level, promote rural development, rural construction and rural governance with high quality, innovate and implement the two-wheel drive of scientific and technological reform, and constantly open up a new era, a new journey and a new situation for the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, laying a solid foundation for a good start in building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.

  (CCTV reporter Zhang Qin Wang Wei Liang Lijuan Wang Kaibo Yang Xiaobo Zhong Min Zhang Yuxi Jaco Zhang Hao Wang Jialin Huang Wei Shen Hao Han Fei)