Li Weiguo: Focus on improving the quality of agricultural machinery development

[ China Agricultural Machinery Industry News ] After years of hard work, China's agriculture has developed to a new stage, which has also led to a series of problems, such as environmental pressure, increased resource pressure, and weak agricultural products. One of the more prominent problems is the shortage of agricultural labor. With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the rural labor force has shifted to the secondary and tertiary industries. According to statistics, the net outflow of industrial labor in the past decade is about 100 million, with an average of about 10 million per year. Although this rate will slow down in the future, the annual outflow of millions of laborers from rural areas will continue.

Li Weiguo: Improving the Quality of Agricultural Mechanization Development

In the past few years, in the agricultural production, the regional, seasonal and structural labor shortages that often occur have brought about two problems: “one high and one low”. One is the high labor cost. According to statistics from relevant departments, in China's agricultural production costs, labor costs account for an average of 50%, while developed countries such as the United States only account for about 10%, so the cost gap between our country and developed countries is very large. The other is the low willingness of farmers to farm. Earlier, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu put forward a point of view in the media interview. In the future, farmers may become a sought-after occupation. There are two preconditions for achieving this goal. One is the increase in farmers' income and the other is that agricultural labor is more decent. So who is going to plant the land? How to plant? This is an urgent problem we need to consider in the future.

It is effective to rely on the various subsidy policies of the state to stimulate the enthusiasm of the peasants. But now, these policies also have a situation in which the marginal effects decline or decrease. Faced with the double extrusion of the “floor” and the “ceiling” of agricultural production costs, the traditional planting model of resources and efforts has become unsustainable, and there is an urgent need to change the way of agricultural production.

In the process of transformation of agricultural production methods, agricultural mechanized production will become increasingly important. The degree of mechanization will directly affect the agricultural production costs and farmers' willingness to plant, affect the extensive application of advanced agricultural science and technology, and affect the reduction of agricultural inputs. Therefore, agricultural mechanization is related to the adjustment of the entire agricultural structure, the extension of the industrial chain, and the improvement of the competitiveness of China's agricultural products market.

During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, China's agricultural machinery and equipment level, operation level, technology level and social service level have all improved rapidly. According to statistics, in 2016, China's total agricultural machinery power reached 1.14 billion kilowatts, and the comprehensive mechanization level of agricultural farming and harvesting in the country reached 65% , especially in the weak link of mechanized crop production such as corn harvesting and rice planting. The total output value of the agricultural machinery industry exceeded 450 billion yuan, ranking the largest country in agricultural machinery manufacturing.

However, compared with the requirements of modern agricultural development, the contradiction of the effective supply of agricultural machinery, technology, talents, policies and services in China has become increasingly prominent. The low-level and extensive development characteristics of many links are still obvious. Concentrated in two aspects:

First, from the perspective of products, the effective supply of key agricultural machinery and equipment is insufficient. At present, although China has become a large agricultural machinery manufacturing country in the world, it is big but not strong. Mainly due to the shortage of low-end products, insufficient products; mechanical surplus of food crops, lack of mechanical products in aquaculture, etc.; many kinds of farming machinery products, insufficient harvesting machinery; suitable for plain machinery products, suitable for machinery products in hilly areas Seriously inadequate; many agricultural machinery products and key components rely on imports. It is understood that there are more than 7,000 kinds of agricultural machinery in the United States, covering almost all areas of agricultural production. At present, there are only more than 3,500 kinds in China, and most of the products are still "cheap, usable, and easy to be bad" . High-performance paddy field transplanters, large-scale cotton pickers, work tools and other products are basically occupied by foreign brands.

Second, from a technical point of view, the entire process of mechanized integrated supporting technology system is effectively insufficient. Promoting agricultural mechanization involves mechanical R&D and manufacturing, land environment, variety selection, cultivation (culture) methods, processing methods and production and management organization methods, and the integration of technical systems is required. At present, the limitations of the receptor system and the level of understanding, China's agricultural technology is isolated to some extent. In some places, there is still a separation of agricultural machinery and agronomy. For example, some provinces in the south, the agricultural authorities promote the technology of throwing and throwing, and the director of agricultural machinery The department promoted mechanized transplanting technology and did not form a joint force. At the same time, the standardization of crop variety cultivation and planting systems suitable for mechanized production has not been paid attention to, the varieties are too high-yield, the crop maturity is inconsistent, and the cultivation methods are not uniform. In summary, China's agricultural machinery technology reserves and research and development is not enough, single agricultural machinery technology is more, integration support and system solutions research has just started. In addition, agricultural machinery socialization services, agricultural machinery public services and agricultural machinery personnel training systems have not yet been formed, and cannot meet the development needs of modern agriculture.

The "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" is a key period for the transformation of China's traditional agriculture into modern agriculture, and it is also an opportunity period for the accelerated development of agricultural mechanization. Our general direction is to adhere to the goal orientation and problem orientation, to adapt to the new situation of agricultural development, and to adapt to the new expectations of modern people for life. Focus on the short-term link, increase the pace of structural reform of the agricultural machinery supply side, effectively improve the equipment of the Zhongquan industrial chain, cultivate high-quality agricultural machinery management talents, provide agricultural machinery supply, social services, and public services, so as to continuously improve the mechanization of agriculture. Development quality.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, our work will focus on four areas:

First, efforts were made to strengthen scientific and technological innovation and improve the supply capacity of agricultural machinery products. The year before, the state issued "Made in China 2025". Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Agricultural Machinery Development Action Plan (2016-2025)", which defined the priorities and objectives of the agricultural machinery development in the next decade. In the next step, we will focus on the implementation of policies, market-oriented, enterprise-oriented, build a platform to assist innovation, increase investment in scientific research, and improve research and development capabilities and research. In the agricultural machinery subsidy policy, appropriate adjustments should also be made to strengthen the support for existing products. In particular, this year, the subsidy pilot program for new agricultural machinery products will be further expanded to effectively promote enterprise product innovation.

The second is to work hard to strengthen the integration of agricultural machinery and agricultural technology and improve the agricultural machinery technology system. Focus on strengthening the cooperation and joint research of agricultural machinery departments and management, scientific research and extension institutions, and strive to cultivate varieties suitable for mechanized operations, as well as cultivation and management methods suitable for mechanized operations, to achieve mutual adaptation of agricultural machinery operations and cultivation modes, and to promote fine production of key industries. Management.

The third is to work hard to strengthen the external conditions of inter-departmental cooperation and improve the development of agricultural machinery. In particular, it is necessary to combine high-standard farmland construction, speed up land remediation and transformation, improve infrastructure construction, and create better operating conditions for the development of agricultural machinery. At the same time, improve the processing technology of agricultural products and improve the harvesting standards of agricultural products, making it a more suitable product for mechanized harvesting. This is very important for economic crops, especially for mechanized harvesting of cotton and sugar cane, which must be modified in the processing.

The fourth is to work hard to strengthen policy guidance and promote agricultural machinery services. It is necessary to further explore the organization scale of agricultural machinery socialization services, distribution methods, service methods, equipment utilization rates and benefit mechanisms, further improve service models such as cross-regional operations, order operations, and land transfer, and gradually explore a social service model suitable for China's agricultural machinery. Agricultural machinery public services should further improve supporting policies, including further improving operational subsidies, technology promotion, maintenance services, and safety production. In recent years, we will cooperate with the Department of Science and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture to train 10,000 large agricultural machinery or agricultural machinery cooperative leaders every year, with the aim of creating new farmers facing modern agriculture.

Generally speaking, in the next few years, we will continue to deploy mainly in accordance with the Outline of the Thirteen-Year Five-Year Development Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the National Modern Agrochemical Program (2016-2020) issued by the State Council. Within the scope of the organization, we will implement the whole mechanization promotion of major crop production, effectively promote the upgrading of China's agricultural mechanization to “full process, comprehensive, high quality,” and give full play to the important role of agricultural machinery in saving costs and promoting scale management. Promote the reform of China's agricultural supply side structure to play a greater role.

(According to the author's speech at the "2017 Sannong Development Conference")