--Interview with Wei Houkai, Director of the Institute of Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

■ China Economic Times reporter Fan Sili

To effectively coordinate ensuring food security and increasing farmers 'income, we must take multiple measures to promote farmers' sustained and stable income increase on the basis of ensuring national food security, and effectively solve the problem of difficulty in increasing farmers 'income.

"Ensuring national food security is a goal that must be ensured; and promoting farmers to increase their income and become rich is an important way to achieve common prosperity for all people." Wei Houkai, director of the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, recently analyzed in an exclusive interview with a reporter from the China Economic Times that when small-scale decentralized operations are the main form and the comparative benefits of growing grain, there is a certain conflict between these two goals.

01

Face up to the conflict of goals between ensuring food security and increasing farmers 'income

** China Economic Times:Ensuring food security and increasing the income of grain farmers are the main goals of rural revitalization. How to understand and view the conflict between these two goals?

Wei houkai:** Due to the high cost of grain production and the limited increase in grain prices, the comparative benefits of growing grain have been low. Since the comprehensive exemption of agricultural taxes and agricultural specialty taxes in 2006, grain production has not only failed to bring fiscal revenue to local governments, but also requires a large amount of investment from local governments. Most of the major grain-producing counties in China are financially poor counties. Grain farmers and grain-producing areas have also made great sacrifices while contributing to ensuring national food security.

The comparative benefits of growing grain are low and the contribution to local finance is small, resulting in low enthusiasm for farmers to grow grain and insufficient motivation for local governments to seize grain. Specifically reflected in three aspects:First, the tendency of cultivated land to be "non-grained" has been obvious in previous years. This tendency is caused by many factors such as higher land transfer rents, lower grain planting benefits, lax control of cultivated land use, and adjustment of agricultural structure; Second, the abandonment of cultivated land is relatively serious, especially in some mountainous, hilly and suburban areas. A large amount of cultivated land is abandoned will pose a serious threat to national food security; Third, the main grain-producing areas are shrinking, and the grain self-sufficiency rate in the main sales areas and the balanced production and marketing areas continues to decline. Currently, only a few provinces across the country can transfer grain.

In recent years, although the per capita disposable income of rural residents has continued to grow rapidly, the increase in farmers 'income mainly depends on wage income and net transfer income, especially the wage income of farmers who go out to work and government transfer income. Farmers earn less net operating income from agricultural production, and farmers 'income increase depends more on part-time employment rather than mainly on planting.

02

Properly handle the relationship between ensuring food security and increasing farmers 'income

** China Economic Times:Ensuring food security and increasing farmers 'income are important aspects of achieving China's strategic tasks. How to properly handle the conflict between the two goals?

Wei houkai:** To effectively solve the dilemma of grain farmers 'difficulty in increasing their income, the key is to properly handle the relationship between ensuring food security and promoting farmers' income increase, organically combine the two goals, increase government coordination efforts, and achieve high-quality development and high-level security. Achieve overall coordination. On the one hand, promoting farmers 'income increase must be based on ensuring food security. Agricultural structural adjustment and supply-side structural reform cannot break through the bottom line of food security. On the other hand, for farmers and new organizations engaged in grain production, a long-term mechanism for diversified and continuous income increase must be established, so that the income of grain farmers and new organizations can also continue to grow steadily and rapidly.

The central and provincial governments should further increase financial and policy support, improve vertical and horizontal interest compensation mechanisms, and fully mobilize farmers 'enthusiasm for growing grain and local grain grabbing. By improving the diversified interest compensation mechanism, it will truly make it profitable for farmers to grow grain and give the main producing areas the enthusiasm to seize grain.

03

Take multiple measures to coordinate food security and increase farmers 'income

** China Economic Times:What specific measures should be taken to coordinate the two major goals and tasks?

Wei houkai:** Under the new situation, coordinating ensuring food security and increasing farmers 'income requires adopting diversified implementation paths.

Strengthen the protection and rational utilization of cultivated land. Strictly adhering to the red line for the protection of cultivated land and permanent basic farmland and rationally utilizing cultivated land resources are the basis for coordinating food security and promoting farmers 'income increase. It is necessary to further increase investment in construction funds, adhere to high-standard construction, strengthen follow-up management and maintenance, and comprehensively build and manage high-standard farmland. In accordance with the requirements of the "trinity" of quantity, quality and ecology, optimize and improve the balance system of urban and rural construction land occupation and compensation, and truly achieve the goal of "occupying one to supplement one, dominating one to supplement the superior, and occupying paddy fields to replenish water." Strictly implement the priority of cultivated land use, strengthen the management of "non-agriculturalization" and "non-grain conversion" of cultivated land, and ensure that permanent basic farmland is mainly used for food production, and that in principle, all high-standard farmland is used for food production. We will thoroughly implement actions to control cultivated land abandonment, strengthen the redevelopment and reuse of idle and inefficient land, actively explore village-to-village linkage of rural collective construction land, and effectively improve land use efficiency. Strengthen the comprehensive utilization of saline-alkali land and the development of non-traditional cultivated land resources, and continuously expand the space for food and agricultural production.

Improve grain productivity through multiple ways. There is still a large gap between China's grain production rate, labor productivity and resource utilization rate compared with advanced countries. It is necessary to take improving labor productivity in grain production as a breakthrough point and take effective measures to effectively increase grain productivity. It is necessary to adapt to the needs of urbanization and diversification of rural industries, accelerate the pace of agricultural labor transfer, further reduce the number of grain farmers, and achieve moderate scale operations of grain production through land transfer, trusteeship services, contract farming, and joint-stock cooperation, so that grain farmers embark on the path of professionalism, knowledge, and organization. It is necessary to accelerate the innovation of grain science and technology and the cultivation of improved varieties, promote the mechanization and intelligence of the entire process of grain production, further improve the social service system, achieve green, high-quality, characteristic and branding of grain production, and continuously improve the level and quality of grain output.

Accelerate the development of modern grain industries. The current focus is to accelerate the transformation of grain production methods, continuously extend the grain industry chain, upgrade the value chain, build a supply chain, implement the coordinated linkage of the "three chains" of industrial chain, value chain and supply chain, and build a vertically integrated and integrated grain industry chain. Explore the multi-dimensional functions of grain production, especially economic, cultural, educational, ecological, landscape and other functions, promote the comprehensive and deep integration of grain production with grain processing, e-commerce logistics, cultural tourism, leisure and health care, educational experience, etc., and promote the grain industry Horizontal integration and integration. Continuously optimize the layout of the grain industry, guide and promote more grain processing links in major grain-producing areas and large grain-producing counties, so that grain-growing farmers and major grain-producing areas can share more of the value-added benefits of the grain industry chain.

Improve the compensation mechanism for grain production interests. Benefit compensation for grain production includes not only benefit compensation for producers, but also benefit compensation for main producing areas and ecological compensation for grain production. China's current interest compensation for grain production mainly focuses on the interest compensation of grain producers and vertical interest compensation of main grain-producing areas. There is a lack of a horizontal interest compensation mechanism between grain production and marketing areas, and the national ecological compensation system has not yet included grain production. On the basis of improving the compensation mechanism for the interests of grain producers and further increasing support for major grain-producing areas and large grain-producing counties, we can consider establishing a grain production and marketing area in accordance with the principle of "whoever eats the grain will take the money, and whoever transfers the grain will compensate". Inter-provincial horizontal interest compensation mechanism. In addition to providing various grain products, grain production also creates ecological service value. Grain production should be included in the scope of national ecological compensation, and pilot exploration of establishing a grain ecological compensation mechanism should be actively carried out. Based on the ecological service value of different varieties provided by grain production, corresponding compensation will be given on a per mu basis.