Improve the development level of rural industries.
Promoting rural revitalization in an all-round way is an important task of building an agricultural power in the new era, and developing rural industries is an important foundation for rural revitalization in an all-round way. The Central Rural Work Conference held at the end of 2023 proposed "cultivating rural industries accurately and pragmatically". In 2024, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee emphasized "improving the development level of rural industries". In recent years, China has continuously strengthened the basic position of agriculture, based on characteristic resources, developed advantageous industries and promoted the high-quality development of rural industries. In this issue, invited experts will discuss relevant issues.
Rural industries step into the fast lane of development.
At present, what is the development status and trend of rural industries in China? What aspects should we focus on to improve the development level of rural industries and increase farmers’ income?
Zhang Zhaoxin (researcher, Rural Economic Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs): In order to promote rural economic growth, China has vigorously developed agriculture and related industries. From developing township enterprises, proposing and promoting agricultural industrialization management to promoting the integration and development of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries, we can see that the ideas of strengthening rural economy and promoting rural industrial development come down in one continuous line. With the implementation of rural revitalization strategy, rural industries have entered a period of accelerated development. In 2019, "Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Revitalization of Rural Industries" put forward six tasks: strengthening modern breeding industry, perfecting local characteristic industry, improving agricultural products processing and circulation industry, optimizing rural leisure tourism, cultivating new rural service industry and developing rural information industry. In 2024, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee emphasized "improving the development level of rural industries" and made arrangements for promoting the integration and development of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
Driven by factors such as market, policy and technology, rural industries have entered the fast lane of development, the modernization level of agricultural industrial chain supply chain has been continuously improved, the integration of agriculture, culture and tourism has been accelerated, and rural innovation and entrepreneurship are in full swing. In 2022, the added value of China’s agriculture and related industries exceeded 19 trillion yuan, and the operating income of agricultural products processing enterprises above designated size exceeded 19 trillion yuan. In 2023, the online retail sales of agricultural products was 0.59 trillion yuan.
At present, China’s rural industries show the trend of integration, clustering, greening and digitalization. First, the rural multi-format has developed rapidly. While the agricultural industry is accelerating its transformation and upgrading, the processing and circulation of agricultural products, rural tourism and leisure agriculture are developing rapidly, and all localities are also vigorously developing various folk handicraft industries to provide more employment opportunities for rural labor. Second, rural industries have achieved integrated development. Agriculture, rural tourism and characteristic industries are mutually integrated and promoted, and family farms, farmers’ professional cooperatives and various rural enterprises continue to grow and develop. Rural innovation and entrepreneurship have flourished as migrant farmers return home, college graduates and veterans return home, and urban industrial and commercial capital goes to the countryside. With the deepening of the reform of rural collective property rights system, a number of new rural collective economic organizations have become an important force to promote rural development. Third, rural industries have achieved cluster development. In recent years, all localities have made great efforts to develop modern agricultural industrial parks and industrial clusters, promote agricultural scale and professional layout, and accelerate the development of rural industrial clusters. In 2023, the construction of China’s modern agricultural parks was upgraded, and 50 national modern agricultural industrial parks, 40 industrial clusters with advantages and characteristics, 200 strong agricultural towns and 100 agricultural modernization demonstration zones were built. Fourth, the greening and digital transformation of rural industries have accelerated. With the in-depth implementation of the new development concept, clean production and low-carbon production modes such as water saving, fertilizer saving, medicine saving, energy saving and emission reduction have been widely promoted in rural areas, accelerating the green transformation of rural industries. At the same time, the level of rural informatization has been continuously improved.The pace of digital rural construction is accelerating, the exploration of smart agriculture is competing, and new formats of digital economy are constantly emerging. In 2023, the rural online retail sales reached 2.49 trillion yuan.
The Central Rural Work Conference held at the end of 2023 proposed "cultivating rural industries accurately and pragmatically". To implement the spirit of the central government, we should improve the development level of rural industries from the following aspects and enhance its role in promoting farmers’ income.
Promote the development of rural industries with industrial parks and industrial clusters as platforms. Building industrial clusters with advantages and characteristics is an important way to promote the overall revitalization of rural areas. In recent years, with the support of various localities and relevant departments, a number of industrial parks, such as modern agricultural industrial park, agricultural science and technology park, and demonstration park for the integration and development of the first, second and third industries, have accelerated their development and formed related industrial clusters, which have become important carriers for the agglomeration of rural elements. In the future, we should continue to strengthen the construction of platform carriers such as modern agricultural industrial parks, industrial clusters with advantages and characteristics, and towns with strong agricultural industries, and integrate policies, elements and centralized services, so as to promote the upgrading, quality improvement and efficiency improvement of rural industries through these platform carriers.
To improve the comprehensive carrying capacity of county towns and promote county overall planning. County is the main battlefield of rural industrial revitalization. It is necessary to coordinate new urbanization and rural comprehensive revitalization, improve the comprehensive carrying capacity and governance capacity of county towns, continuously enhance the driving and radiating role of county towns in rural areas, and promote the coordinated development of counties, towns and villages. Specifically, the county should improve the functions of product research and development, quality inspection, logistics and distribution, finance and insurance, strengthen the services of scientific and technological guidance and personnel training for rural production bases, improve the division of labor and cooperation, form an effective connection, and enhance the momentum of county economic development.
The key is to improve the mechanism of linking agriculture with agriculture, and give play to the function of rural industrial belt to promote employment and increase income. Promoting farmers’ income is the central task of "agriculture, countryside and farmers". On the one hand, we should continue to vigorously develop agricultural socialized services, improve the standardization level of farmers’ professional cooperatives, and enhance farmers’ self-development ability through service empowerment and organizational empowerment; On the other hand, encourage agriculture-related enterprises and farmers to achieve complementary advantages, division of labor and cooperation, improve the interest linkage mechanism, so that farmers can share more industrial value-added benefits. In addition, it is necessary to further improve the policy of supporting agriculture, link the support policy with increasing farmers’ income, and improve the enthusiasm and initiative of agriculture-related enterprises to jointly promote agriculture.
Relying on resource endowment to promote industry and increase income
What practical explorations have been made in various places in cultivating and expanding rural industries?
Lv Zhiwang (Research Fellow, National Institute of Agricultural and Rural Development, China Agricultural University): Industrial revitalization is the most important thing in the overall revitalization of rural areas. Many beneficial explorations have been made to cultivate and strengthen rural industries, and all localities have based on their own resource advantages, insisted on promoting agriculture through industry, quality and green, and promoted the value chain of industrial chain.
Relying on the characteristic resources of agriculture and rural areas, do a good job in the article of "local products" Around the advantages of agricultural products, the construction of modern agricultural industrial parks, industrial clusters with advantages and characteristics, strong agricultural towns, etc., promote standardized production and deep processing, strengthen brand building and marketing, and drive farmers to increase their income. In 2023, relevant departments focused on important agricultural products and featured agricultural products, supported the establishment of 21 agricultural industry standards in the field of agricultural product processing, and guided all localities to upgrade and build 1,600 agricultural product processing parks. According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in 2023, China will build 50 national modern agricultural industrial parks, 40 industrial clusters with advantages and characteristics, and 200 towns with strong agricultural industries.
For example, Jilin Province has promoted the construction of industrial clusters such as corn and rice, miscellaneous grains and beans, fruits and vegetables, and created a national modern agricultural industrial park to accelerate the integration and development of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Jingbian county, Yulin city, Shaanxi province promotes the development of rural industries with the construction of agricultural industrial parks. The construction of agricultural industrial park can effectively integrate resources, improve the intensive degree of production and operation, cultivate and expand the breeding and processing industries, and guide the transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture to more efficient characteristic industries. Longzhou Town, Jingbian County, relying on the superior natural landscape and the tradition of planting high-quality millet, has built a millet industrial park integrating agriculture and tourism through the joint construction of towns and villages. Farmers, farmers’ professional cooperatives and enterprises entering the park are respectively responsible for planting, harvesting and processing and sales of agricultural products. In addition to producing high-quality millet, the industrial chain also extends downstream, and processed products such as crispy rice and rice flour have formed brands and been recognized by the market.
Strengthening and improving rural industries cannot be separated from the support of social capital. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs compiles the annual Guidelines for Social Capital Investment in Agriculture and Rural Areas and guides local implementation. The Guidelines for Social Capital Investment in Agriculture and Rural Areas (2022) focuses on key areas of rural revitalization and encourages social capital to invest in modern breeding, rural enriching industries, agricultural product processing and circulation industries and other fields. In 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs predicted that in the next 5 to 10 years, the demand for agricultural and rural investment will be nearly 15 trillion yuan.
Qingfu Agricultural Commune in Changyi City, Shandong Province is a modern agricultural development complex jointly promoted by local leading enterprises, village collectives and several farmers’ professional cooperatives. With the support of the local government, the complex has invested hundreds of millions of yuan to transform tens of thousands of acres of saline-alkali land, and also invested more than 100 million yuan in production machinery and equipment, greatly improving the level of agricultural intensification. The complex makes full use of the advantages of grain and forage yield, expands flour processing, beef cattle breeding and slaughter processing, and effectively uses straw and cow dung to form circular agriculture. The village collective shares in the "four wasteland" and the impounded bay pond, and farmers share in the contracted land. Rural laborers can also enter the park to work, and their income has increased significantly.
To realize industrial revitalization, it is necessary to stimulate rural endogenous power, and the reform of rural collective property rights system promoted by China in recent years is one of the important starting points. Sanya City, Hainan Province, as a national experimental area for rural reform, has continuously deepened the reform of rural collective property rights system, made great efforts to build rural leading industries and promote the development of collective economy by integrating and revitalizing collective resources. Yacheng Village, Yazhou District, combined with the natural advantages of planting fruits and vegetables in four seasons, developed greenhouse vegetables and winter melons and vegetables, and the economic benefits were significantly improved. The village integrates scattered idle land, builds a vegetable planting base, and promotes the scale and specialization of agricultural production and management in various ways such as independent operation or collective assets, builds a characteristic vegetable brand, and also drives the employment of farmers in the village.
Industrial revitalization was not built in a day. On the whole, there are still some obstacles to development that need to be removed. First, in view of the constraints of land and funds, we can revitalize the idle asset resources of rural collectives and incite social capital through institutional mechanism innovation. Second, on the problem of solving the shortage of talents, we will continue to encourage returning talents to innovate and start businesses, and strive to cultivate leaders in rural industrial revitalization. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs implemented the "Touyan" project to cultivate rural industry revitalization leaders, and constantly consolidated the talent base for rural industry revitalization. Third, continuously explore and optimize the interest linkage mechanism, expand employment opportunities, and let farmers share the fruits of development. At the same time, further cultivate and build brands, give play to the demonstration effect, and radiate to drive the development of rural industries.
Rural innovation and entrepreneurship promote efficient allocation of factors
What is the effect of promoting rural innovation and entrepreneurship? How to further improve the vitality of rural innovation and entrepreneurship?
Wang Chunchun (Secretary of the Party Committee of Nanjing Agricultural University): In recent years, China’s rural innovation and entrepreneurship have flourished, which has effectively promoted the revitalization of rural industries and increased farmers’ income. The number of entrepreneurs returning to their hometowns has been rising, and a number of "new farmers" who have feelings, know technology, are good at management and know how to manage have emerged, and entrepreneurs with higher education have gradually become entrepreneurs in the fields of integrated development of the first, second and third industries, rural e-commerce, and high-end agricultural products breeding. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the added value of agriculture and related industries reached 19,569.2 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for 16.24% of the GDP, and the total amount and proportion increased compared with the previous year.
Innovation and entrepreneurship in rural areas is conducive to the efficient allocation of various elements and the effective integration of industrial chain, innovation chain and talent chain. In recent years, policies such as "Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Promoting Rural Industry Revitalization" and "Opinions on Deepening the Cultivation Action of Rural Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leaders" have been promulgated to promote the implementation of rural employment and entrepreneurship promotion actions, clarify the cultivation priorities, strengthen policy support, strengthen entrepreneurship training, optimize entrepreneurship services, etc., and make specific arrangements for relevant support measures. With the support of policies, all localities have made great efforts to promote rural innovation and entrepreneurship, actively carried out grassroots practice, and explored modes such as characteristic industry-driven, industrial integration and innovation-driven, capable people returning to the countryside-driven, and leading enterprises-driven, which greatly enriched the practice of rural industry development. These models are the manifestations of the integration of industrial chain, innovation chain and talent chain in different regions, which can be summarized as follows.
First, the industrial chain will drive innovation chain and the talent chain. Based on different resource endowments and industrial bases, all localities take the park as the carrier to promote industrial integration and the optimization and upgrading of the whole industrial chain, guide innovative resources and talents to gather in the industrial park, form a number of products and germplasm resources with independent intellectual property rights, and accelerate the application of new varieties, new technologies and new equipment. Industrial parks cooperate with scientific research institutes, build industrial technology research institutes, carry out technical research, promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and industrial development effectively drives scientific and technological innovation and personnel training.
The second is to promote the industrial chain and innovation chain with the talent chain. Through the cultivation of agricultural talents, it will inject vitality into the development of rural industries. In 2023, the leaders of rural industrial revitalization cultivated the "Touyan" project, which further tilted to the key counties for national rural revitalization, and cultivated about 18,000 "Touyan" people, effectively promoting rural innovation and entrepreneurship. Driven by innovative and entrepreneurial talents, all localities rely on characteristic agricultural resources, make rational use of modern elements such as science and technology, face market demand, cultivate and develop regional public brands of agricultural products with local characteristics, and constantly improve the vitality and innovation ability of rural industries. At the same time, sports events are used to stimulate college students’ enthusiasm for returning to their hometowns to participate in rural innovation and entrepreneurship, and related events pay more and more attention to the combination of rural revitalization.
Third, innovation chain incited the industrial chain and talent chain. Many innovative subjects, such as scientific research institutes, take the initiative to meet the needs of the industry, and optimize personnel training through the integration of production and education. Taking the cooperation between Nanjing Agricultural University and xinghua city, Jiangsu Province as an example, the two sides set up an agricultural science and technology platform to accurately cultivate "new farmers" who meet the needs of the industry, helping xinghua city to achieve remarkable results in advantageous industries such as rice and river crabs. In recent years, some agriculture-related universities have actively promoted talent training modes such as science and technology academies, served the development of agriculture and rural areas, and trained a number of high-quality rural innovative and entrepreneurial talents.
China’s rural innovation and entrepreneurship has made remarkable progress, but the comparative benefit of agriculture is low, and the integration of industrial demand with scientific and technological innovation and personnel training needs to be improved. In order to further improve the vitality of rural innovation and entrepreneurship, on the one hand, we should continue to strengthen our understanding of the importance of rural innovation and entrepreneurship and give long-term and stable policy support; On the other hand, we should improve the system and mechanism of rural innovation and entrepreneurship, further break through the barriers of Industry-University-Research, and give play to the role of universities in building a platform for the integration of industrial chain, innovation chain and talent chain, so as to promote the effective combination of talents, science and technology and industry in the agricultural and rural areas.
Inject new kinetic energy into the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside
What is the current development of new rural industries and new formats?
Jia Wei (researcher, Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences): Rural industries are rich in connotation and diverse in types. Relying on the characteristic resources of agriculture and rural areas, all localities develop various functions of agriculture, tap the diversified values of rural areas, and promote the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries. New industries and formats, such as rural leisure tourism and rural e-commerce, have achieved rapid development with the support of a series of favorable policies, helped promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, and effectively promoted agricultural efficiency, rural beauty and farmers’ income.
China has implemented leisure agriculture and rural tourism quality projects, cultivated beautiful leisure villages and key rural tourism villages, and established demonstration counties of leisure agriculture, etc., and rural leisure tourism has developed rapidly. The data shows that in 2022, the business income of rural leisure tourism exceeded 700 billion yuan, with more than 11 million employees. Rural leisure tourism promoted the development of about 9 million farmers.
Leisure agriculture, based on agricultural production, rural landscape, farm life and rural culture, develops various functions of agriculture and rural areas and provides services such as leisure sightseeing, farm participation and farm experience. In 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs identified 60 counties (cities, districts) as national key leisure agriculture counties, and recommended 256 villages as beautiful leisure villages in China.
All localities have vigorously developed rural leisure tourism, and rural tourism has a strong recovery momentum. The White Paper on the Revitalization of Ctrip Rural Tourism (2023) shows that in 2023, the supply of villagers’ lodging in Ctrip Platform Township created the highest growth in five years. In 2023, the comprehensive income of leisure agriculture in Jiangsu Province was 107.78 billion yuan, and the number of tourists received reached 410 million, up by 18.83% and 16.67% respectively. In 2023, Liaoning Province made great efforts to promote the development of new formats such as leisure agriculture, focusing on promoting 8 beautiful leisure villages and 23 fine scenic spots in China. Leisure agriculture and rural tourism received 53.55 million tourists, up 43% year-on-year. Langfang City, Hebei Province has built a leisure agriculture industrial cluster around the goal of building the first agricultural leisure space in Beijing and Tianjin, with about 30,000 employees. Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province, cultivates pastoral cultural creation, farming experience and villagers’ lodging, creates immersive and experiential consumption scenes such as Qili Poetry Township, and has new rural leisure landmarks such as "Sanjiang Lane Cultural Creation Industry Belt" and "Huarui Hometown Cultural Experience Belt". The development of leisure agriculture has injected new kinetic energy into rural revitalization. Hejiayan Village, Huatian Township, Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing City, revitalized idle resources, embedded rural lodging, rural tourism, rural entertainment and other formats into farmers, and built farmhouse restaurants, high-end homestays, unmanned convenience stores, cafes, etc. to create a new compound rural format.
In 2024, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee proposed to implement the high-quality development project of rural e-commerce, promote the construction of county-level e-commerce live broadcast bases, and develop online sales of rural local products. In recent years, rural e-commerce is full of vitality. With the improvement of rural network coverage and infrastructure construction, rural e-commerce has developed rapidly and the online sales of agricultural products have increased. In 2023, the rural online retail sales reached 2.49 trillion yuan, and the online retail sales of agricultural products reached 0.59 trillion yuan.
Rural e-commerce infrastructure has been continuously improved. The 52nd Statistical Report on Internet Development in China shows that by June 2023, the Internet penetration rate in rural areas of China was 60.5%, and the number of rural netizens reached 301 million. The development of agricultural products e-commerce effectively helps local economic development. For example, Dangshan County, Anhui Province seized the opportunity to create national e-commerce in rural comprehensive demonstration counties, vigorously supported local e-commerce brands, and laid a good brand of "internet plus Fruit" by means of "e-commerce+live broadcast".
While the new industries and formats in rural areas have achieved development results, we should also see that the product structure of rural leisure tourism is still single, the level of software and hardware facilities construction is relatively low, and the infrastructure construction such as rural e-commerce logistics needs to be further improved. New industries and new formats integrate marketing operations, warehousing and logistics, talent cultivation, financial support and other links, and it is difficult to update and upgrade in rural areas. On the basis of cultivating and developing new industries and new formats according to local conditions, we can continue to strengthen a package of policy support such as finance, land, finance and insurance. Enhance the market competitiveness with science and technology empowerment, integrate science and technology, digital technology and other factors into the development of new industries and formats in rural areas, and pay attention to both talent introduction and education to enhance the sustainable operation ability of new industries and formats. (This article Source: Economic Daily)