In the first half of the year, the agricultural and rural economy was generally stable.
The annual grain production base is good.
On July 21st, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Zeng Yande, chief agronomist of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and director of the Development Planning Department, introduced the operation of agriculture and rural economy in the first half of 2023 and answered questions from reporters.
The rural industry continues to grow, and the support of scientific and technological equipment continues to increase.
"Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has paid close attention to ensuring production and supply, consolidating achievements and keeping the bottom line, coordinating and promoting revitalization, and taking various measures to increase income. In the first half of the year, the agricultural and rural economy was generally stable." Zeng Yande introduced that, on the whole, the agricultural and rural economy maintained a good momentum of development in the first half of the year, providing strong support for steady growth, stable employment and stable prices.
The summer grain harvest is good, and the grain production foundation is good throughout the year. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, this year’s summer grain output was 292.3 billion Jin, down 2.55 billion Jin from the previous year, down 0.9%, ranking the second highest in history and still being a bumper harvest season. The harvest of early rice is in sight. It is estimated that the area of early rice is more than 71 million mu, and the current harvest has exceeded 70%, showing a trend of increasing production. The growth of autumn grain crops is normal, the area of autumn grain increases steadily, and the growth is roughly the same as that of normal years. The soybean area increased slightly, and the compound planting area of soybean and corn was expanded to 20 million mu, an increase of 5 million mu over the previous year. The area of winter rape increased a lot, and the output reached a record high.
Industrial employment assistance was solidly promoted, and the results of poverty alleviation continued to be consolidated. By the end of June, about 65% of the monitored objects had eliminated the risk of returning to poverty, and the rest had implemented targeted assistance measures. The central government will promote the convergence of rural revitalization subsidy funds and strive to reach 60% of industrial development. The county-level consolidation and expansion of poverty alleviation achievements and rural revitalization projects are planned to start 216,000 projects annually, with a starting rate of 90%. In that year, a total of 46.92 billion yuan of micro-credit was distributed to the poverty-stricken population, supporting 1.062 million poverty-stricken households and preventing the monitoring objects from returning to poverty to develop production. By the end of June, the number of migrant workers out of poverty was 32.59 million, exceeding the annual target of 2.4 million.
The support of scientific and technological equipment has been continuously enhanced, and agricultural modernization has developed steadily. In the first half of the year, about 36.63 million mu of high-standard farmland was built, and the area of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation was about 8.38 million mu. Accelerate the implementation of seed industry revitalization, the national survey of agricultural germplasm resources entered the final stage, and major agricultural biological breeding projects were promoted in an orderly manner.
Rural industries have continued to grow, and channels for increasing farmers’ employment and income have been continuously broadened. In June, the added value of agricultural and sideline food processing industries above designated size increased by 2.2% year-on-year, and the purchasing managers’ index of national key leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization was 54.2%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. We will build 50 national modern agricultural industrial parks, 40 industrial clusters with advantages and characteristics, and 200 strong agricultural towns, so that more farmers can find jobs nearby. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of the year, the per capita disposable income of rural residents was 10,551 yuan, a real increase of 7.2%, which was 2.5 percentage points higher than that of urban residents.
Rural construction was promoted in an orderly manner, and rural reform continued to deepen. The living environment in rural areas continued to improve. The central government arranged 7.4 billion yuan to reward and supplement the implementation of the toilet revolution in the whole village, and arranged 3 billion yuan in the central budget to invest in supporting the infrastructure construction of rural living environment. The reform of key areas in rural areas was further promoted. After the second round of land contracting expired, the pilot project was extended for 30 years to achieve full coverage at the provincial level, and the pilot project of rural homestead reform continued to deepen. New types of agricultural business entities have been growing, with more than 2.234 million farmers’ cooperatives, 3.97 million family farms and 1.04 million agricultural socialized service organizations respectively.
Whether autumn grain can finally achieve a good harvest depends on disaster prevention and mitigation.
"It is not easy for summer grain to get a bumper harvest after a bad rain that has not happened for many years. After hard work, this result was won back and won back." Pan Wenbo, director of the Planting Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that in recent years, China’s annual wheat production and demand have been more than balanced, especially in the first four years, we have continuously increased wheat production, with an increase of 4.3 billion Jin in 2019, 1.5 billion Jin in 2020, 5.4 billion Jin in 2021 and 1.6 billion Jin in 2022. At present, the wheat stock is abundant, which can meet the consumption in the past year, and the wheat market price is basically stable.
This summer, some areas in the Huang-Huai-Hai region suffered from the "rotten rain" that has not happened for many years, with record-breaking high temperatures in many places in the north, and agricultural meteorological disasters were characterized by multi-point distribution and multiple disasters. According to the agricultural situation, since the beginning of this year, the cumulative affected area of crops nationwide has reached 63.1 million mu, an increase of more than 8 million mu year-on-year. According to the consultation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the meteorological department, agricultural disasters will be characterized by extreme weather, drought and flood, complexity and severity in the second half of the year. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will continue to base itself on flood prevention, drought resistance and disaster relief, take precautions and take the initiative to respond, strengthen disaster monitoring and dispatching, and minimize disaster losses.
The key to win a bumper harvest of grain throughout the year is autumn grain. "At present, the production situation of autumn grain is basically normal, but the key to achieving a good harvest in the end is disaster prevention and mitigation." Pan Wenbo said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Emergency Management Department and the China Meteorological Bureau jointly held a meeting, demanding that all efforts be made to fight against disasters and win a bumper harvest of autumn grain to ensure that the annual grain output remained above 1.3 trillion Jin.
The department made further arrangements for this, focusing on the following things: (1) to implement the area of late rice and late autumn crops; Implement disaster prevention and mitigation measures; Implement large-scale bill of lading production measures; Implement fine guidance services.
More efforts should be made to release rural consumption potential and expand effective investment.
In the first half of the year, the total supply of agricultural products in China was sufficient, the prices of major varieties rose and fell, and the overall fluctuation was normal. From January to June, the National Agricultural Products Wholesale Price 200 Index monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs averaged 128.28, up 0.31 points year-on-year.
"Looking forward to the second half of the year, the supply of agricultural products in China will continue to be abundant, and prices will remain generally stable." Han Liu, head of the Department of Market and Information Technology of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that in terms of production, early rice showed a trend of increasing production, the area of autumn grain increased steadily and grew well, the task of expanding soybean oil seeds landed, the production capacity of meat, eggs and milk was stable, the area of vegetables in the field increased, and the foundation of "rice bag" and "vegetable basket" was solid. In terms of inventory, the inventory of rice and wheat is at a historical high level, which can meet the demand of urban and rural residents for rations for about one year. In terms of consumption, the economy is expected to continue to improve, and the second half of the year is originally the peak season for agricultural products consumption, and the market demand will be better than the first half.
In the first half of the year, the retail sales of rural consumer goods increased by 8.4% year-on-year, which was 0.3 percentage points faster than that of cities and towns. At the same time, the consumption level of farmers is relatively low, and there is still great consumption potential. How to release the rural consumption potential more vigorously? The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will focus on three aspects:
Increase income and drive consumption. Strengthen the connection between production and marketing, so that agricultural products can be sold at high prices; Develop rural characteristic industries, so that more farmers can find jobs nearby; Strengthen skills training and guide farmers to go out to work with high quality.
Innovative supply stimulates consumption. Activate traditional consumption, encourage and support rural residents to buy green household appliances, green furniture, green building materials, etc., promote new energy vehicles that meet the characteristics of rural consumption, and continuously improve consumption quality. Cultivate new consumption, focus on developing rural leisure tourism, provide more green and high-quality agricultural products and services, and attract urban residents to spend their holidays and shopping in rural areas. Innovate consumption scenarios, develop rural e-commerce, let agricultural products go out of the village to the city, and industrial products go to the countryside smoothly.
Optimize the environment and promote consumption. Improve the market system, improve the cold chain logistics system of agricultural products storage and preservation, and smooth the logistics express network. Standardize the market order, strengthen the quality and safety supervision of agricultural products, carry out rural consumption activities with confidence, and improve the consumer rights protection network.
There is a huge space for investment in agriculture and rural areas, which is an important part of smoothing the urban and rural economic cycle. In view of the fact that the investment in fixed assets of the primary industry only increased by 0.1% in the first half of the year, Zeng Yande said that it should be noted that with the upgrading of the consumption structure of urban and rural residents, the consumption of meat, eggs and milk continues to increase, and the need to fill the shortcomings of agricultural and rural infrastructure, the investment space in agriculture and rural areas is broad. In the next step, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with relevant departments, will take effective measures to intensify its work and strive to expand effective investment in agriculture and rural areas. (Reporter Chang Qin)