The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Finance announced on the 3rd the “Policy for Strengthening Agriculture and Benefiting Agriculture in 2018”, which specifically expounded the policies of the eight key agricultural areas such as direct subsidies for farmers, support for the development of new-type agricultural management entities, and support for agricultural restructuring.
The direct subsidy for farmers includes land fertility protection subsidies, agricultural machinery purchase subsidies, producer subsidies, and cotton target price subsidies. For example, the scope of subsidies for the national agricultural machinery purchase subsidies of the central government funds ranges from 15 major categories to 42 subcategories of 137 items, and subsidies for open implements within the subsidy range are implemented.
Supporting the development of new types of agricultural operations include the development of new professional farmers, the development of farmers’ cooperatives and family farms, the socialization of agricultural production, and the construction of agricultural credit guarantee systems. For example, for the cultivation of new-type professional farmers, a professional peasant system has been established in an all-round way, with the main content of upgrading production skills and management levels, and training 1 million new professional farmers.
There are also many powerful policies to support the adjustment of agricultural structure, including the pilot project of the arable land rotation system, the reform of grain feed, the construction of high-quality and high-quality demonstration bases, and the development of dominant industries with dominant characteristics. For example, the central government’s support for the cultivating crop rotation system was extended to 24 million mu of experimental land, plus 600 million mu of local autonomous development, reaching 30 million mu. Rotation pilots were carried out in Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi.
In addition, the financial priorities for strengthening agriculture and benefiting farmers include supporting the development of rural industrial integration, supporting green and efficient technology extension services, supporting ecological protection of agricultural resources and the prevention and control of non-point source pollution, supporting agricultural disaster prevention and relief, and major county incentive policies.
