Tang Jianjun: vigorously promoting talent empowerment for the construction of an agricultural powerhouse

2023-04-26

Agriculture is a fundamental and strategic industry that is closely related to national economy and people's livelihood. Building an agricultural powerhouse is an indispensable and important part of the socialist modernization of a strong country. The quality of building an agricultural powerhouse determines the quality of building a socialist modern country comprehensively. Recently, Tang Jianjun, associate professor from the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, talked about the above issues in an interview with China Daily.

 

Tang said, "Ensuring stable and secure supply of grain and important agricultural products is the top priority for building an agricultural powerhouse, and efforts need to be made from the supply side, demand side, and international cooperation."

 

Tang believes that to accelerate the construction of an agricultural powerhouse, it is necessary to improve the leadership system and work mechanism, focus on building a talent team in rural areas, and vigorously promote talent empowerment for the construction of an agricultural powerhouse.

 

China Daily: In the report of the 20th CPC National Congress, important plans were made to accelerate the construction of an agricultural powerhouse, requiring the basic realization of agricultural modernization by 2035 and the construction of an agricultural powerhouse by the middle of the 21st century. How should we understand the meaning of an agricultural powerhouse?

 

Tang: The "powerhouse" is mainly reflected in four aspects: strong supply guarantee, strong science and technology equipment, strong operating system, and strong industrial resilience. First, it is necessary to ensure that cultivated land is mainly used for the production of grain and other agricultural products such as cotton, oil, sugar, vegetables, as well as forage production, to achieve "basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute food security".

 

Secondly, an agricultural powerhouse is characterized by its water conservancy facilities that ensure stable yields in droughts and floods, advanced and adaptable machinery and equipment for agriculture, intelligent and efficient modern farming facilities, as well as self-reliance in crop technology and control over seed sources.

 

In addition, it is necessary to have a sound agricultural social service system, achieve moderate-scale agricultural operation, and achieve organic connection between small farmers and modern agriculture development.

 

Finally, becoming an agricultural powerhouse means that we can achieve integrated development of industries, accurately identify agricultural system risks, and do well in monitoring, warning, and control. Industrial chain and supply chain have risk resistance capabilities.

 

China Daily: Strong supply guarantee is the fundamental symbol of building an agricultural powerhouse. How can we ensure stable and secure supply of grain and important agricultural products from the supply side, demand side, and international cooperation?

 

Tang: On the supply side, we must firmly grasp the characteristics of "big country, small farmers", accelerate the development of agricultural social services, and promote the effective connection between small farmers and modern agriculture.

 

We should implement the "hiding grain in land, hiding grain in technology" strategy, unswervingly transform the mode of agricultural development, shift the focus from quantity to equal emphasis on quality and efficiency, and pay attention to agricultural technology innovation and ecological environment protection, and promote the construction of a modern agricultural industrial system.

 

On the demand side, reducing food waste, adjusting the structure and quantity of food consumption, not only can save raw materials, but also can reduce the intensity of land use, water resources, fertilizer and pesticide input, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which is an important way to consolidate food security.

 

In addition, international cooperation, as an important aspect of consolidating the foundation of food security, should insist on the dual emphasis of "importing in" and "going out", make full use of two markets and two resources, and alleviate domestic resource constraints.

 

China Daily: Talent is the driving force and guarantee for promoting rural revitalization and accelerating the construction of an agricultural powerhouse. How can we improve the leadership system and work mechanism for agricultural development and empower talent?

 

Tang: To improve the leadership system and work mechanism for agricultural development, we need to strengthen the construction of rural grassroots organizations with the CPC as the core, and mobilize the people and members of the Party to participate in the practice of rural revitalization.

 

We should focus on the leading role of capable and wealthy farmers, and leverage the excellent village Party secretaries to encourage Party members at the grassroots level to take the lead in establishing cooperatives and family farms, and better promote the high-quality development of collective economy in villages.

 

Talent is the most important resource. To build an agricultural powerhouse, we need to vigorously cultivate local talents, guide urban talents to go to the countryside, and promote professional talents to serve rural areas, providing strong talent support for accelerating the construction of an agricultural powerhouse.

 

To achieve this, we should support and strengthen the team of family farm owners, provide training for them, and consolidate and enhance their production and operation capacity through support and service means such as guaranteeing family farm land use, increasing credit support for new agricultural business entities, and increasing fiscal subsidies for agricultural insurance premiums, promoting the moderate-scale development of agriculture. We should also accelerate the training of leading figures in agricultural social service organizations to meet the service needs of farmers and form a characteristic Chinese social service system.

 

China Daily: Building an agricultural powerhouse includes both the development of productive forces and the transformation of production relations. How can we start from the above two aspects to accelerate the construction of an agricultural powerhouse?

 

Tang: Technology, as the primary productive force, should give full play to the advantages of the new national system, promote deep cooperation between science and technology enterprises, establish a more closely linked interest mechanism, encourage enterprises to aggregate capital through mergers, restructuring, joint ventures, and shareholding, guide the development of promising agricultural enterprises to go public and finance, realize product complementarity and economies of scale, and vigorously improve China's agricultural technology level.

In terms of the reform of production relations, we need to work solidly on all aspects related to the extension of the contract period for another 30 years, to ensure that the majority of farmers can maintain their original contracting rights and smoothly renew their contracts. We should also clarify the distribution rights of collective assets for farmers and activate the use rights of collective assets and resources. We should steadily and cautiously promote the pilot reform of the rural homestead system and enable the vast majority of farmers to share more benefits in the land system reform.