The rising cost of agricultural production year after year cannot be ignored

Introduction: "after China's accession to the WTO, China's agriculture will be greatly impacted, and the international competitiveness of agriculture will face a severe test." Industry insiders agree that: to improve the international competitiveness of China's agriculture, we must firmly grasp two aspects: first, we must make every effort to reduce the cost of agricultural production, and strive to improve agricultural labor productivity; second, we must vigorously adjust the agricultural structure, improve the varieties of agricultural products, and gradually improve the quality of agricultural products However, it is regrettable that these two aspects are exactly the two "weak points" of China's agriculture at present The cost of agricultural production has been rising year by year since the 90s With the gradual establishment and improvement of the national support and protection system for agriculture, the agricultural investment has been increasing year by year At the same time, the structure of agricultural factor investment has also changed The replacement of capital for labor has accelerated significantly, which has led to the increase of agricultural production cost and the decrease of agricultural profit rate Taking Xianyang City, the only national commodity grain base in Northwest China as an example, from 1990 to 1995, the total expenditure of agricultural production increased from 2.011 billion yuan to 7.482 billion yuan, with an annual increase rate of 30.05%; from 1995 to 2000, the total expenditure of agricultural production increased from 7.482 billion yuan to 12.708 billion yuan, with an annual increase rate of 19.3% In the same period, the annual growth rate of farmers' income in the city was 10.22%, and the growth rate of expenses was much higher than that of farmers' income In 2001, the production cost per mu of wheat in Xianyang city was 255.03 yuan, an increase of 8.89% compared with 234.21 yuan in the previous year, and an increase of 13.2% compared with 1999 In terms of items, the material cost per mu of wheat in 2001 was 141.8 yuan, an increase of 4.8% over the previous year, including 25.91 yuan for seeds, 5.40 yuan for pesticides and 23.99 yuan for irrigation and drainage, an increase of 40.51%, 20.27% and 41.54% over the previous year The working price per mu was 83.34 yuan, an increase of 10.69% over the previous year's 75.35 yuan Accordingly, the cost of wheat production in Shaanxi Province in 2001 was 255.03 yuan, an increase of 8.89% over the previous year, including 141.48 yuan per mu, an increase of 4.8% over the previous year, and 83.34 yuan per mu for work, an increase of 10.61% over the previous year In addition to the main reason that the price of agricultural means of production stops falling and rises year by year, the continuous increase of agricultural material cost is also closely related to the continuous drought in the main grain producing areas and the sharp increase of irrigation and drainage costs in recent years The continuous increase of agricultural production cost has also seriously restricted the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of farmers in "developing agriculture by science and technology" In recent years, many farmers are generally reluctant to invest in science and technology in agricultural production, which is manifested in the reluctance to buy chemical fertilizer, to use applicable technology, to grow new food varieties, etc To these problems, people often attribute it to the backward concept of farmers, the insufficient promotion of the government, the failure of agricultural science and technology services, etc But in fact, in recent years, with the implementation of the strategy of "invigorating the country through science and education", many localities often organize agricultural technicians to visit villages and households, and vigorously promote and popularize the applicable agricultural technology through lectures, consultation, training and other forms; many localities are subsidized by the government to promote new varieties and technologies of agricultural production, but they are still not widely promoted Why on earth are farmers not interested in "developing agriculture through science and technology"? According to the survey, the root cause of this problem is: farmers increase investment but not income
Taking Sanyuan County of Xianyang City as an example, farmers planted one mu of high-quality special wheat "Wanmai 38" with agricultural applicable technology last year The costs are as follows: 16 yuan for seed, 3 yuan for seed coating, 60-70 yuan for balanced fertilization and detection, 30 yuan for mulching, 25 yuan for straw returning, 40-60 yuan for fertilizer, 7 yuan for columbine, 50-60 yuan for irrigation water , 10 yuan for pesticide, 30-40 yuan for harvesting, 20 yuan for haulage, and 316 yuan for the above items In addition, the agricultural tax on wheat per mu and the expenses of the three modernizations and five systems are about 60 yuan, and the labor cost is 100-120 yuan In this way, using agricultural technology to grow a mu of high-quality wheat, the total expenses are about 480 yuan However, the higher yield of "Wanmai 38" Wheat in Sanyuan county last year was 1000 Jin per mu According to the price estimate that the high-quality wheat was 10% higher than the market price of wheat, the per mu yield of 1000 Jin could only earn about 500-510 yuan Compared with each other, farmers used new technology, new varieties and increased material input in grain production, but the income and input were seriously out of balance, out of proportion In this way, farmers are reluctant to use chemical fertilizers, new technologies, and new varieties in food production In recent years, why does the cost of agricultural production rise year after year? First, the price of agricultural means of production has risen Since the 1990s, the state has raised the purchase price of agricultural products several times, but every year when the purchase price of agricultural products increases, the price of agricultural means of production also rises in an all-round way, and the cost of agricultural production rises The benefits brought by the increase of the purchase price of agricultural products to farmers are offset by the increased agricultural production cost The second reason is the change of input structure of agricultural elements Since the 1990s, because of the increase of agricultural investment, the substitution of capital for labor has accelerated significantly, resulting in the increase of agricultural production costs Third, because of the contradiction between small production and large market Due to the scattered and small-scale management pattern of agriculture in China, coupled with the general low scientific and cultural quality of farmers, the efficiency of agricultural application technology is not high, and the production cost is increased Fourth, the marginal cost of land investment is rising With the continuous increase of population and the decrease of cultivated land area, in order to further develop agricultural production, on the one hand, it is necessary to develop marginal land with high cost, on the other hand, it is necessary to vigorously transform medium and low yield fields, and constantly increase the material and technical input to medium and low yield fields, so as to increase the marginal cost of land investment and agricultural production cost The fifth reason is that many new agricultural varieties and new technologies are of high cost and low efficiency At present, a lot of new varieties and technologies are applied to agriculture which are popularized in rural areas of our country Although they are helpful to improve the scientific and technological content of agricultural products, but because of the high cost of these new varieties and technologies, the cost of agricultural production is increased The sixth reason is that farmers have a heavy burden of taxes and fees In recent years, although from the central government to the local government, we have vigorously managed the "random collection of fees, random fund-raising and random apportionment" in rural areas, due to various kinds of fees paid by different governments and ingenious names, indirectly increasing the cost of agricultural production As the cost of agricultural production in China has been rising year by year, the price of main agricultural products in China has generally exceeded the international market level, and the international competitiveness is low After China's accession to the WTO, even if the country has the financial resources to support agricultural products to raise prices again, the rules of the WTO do not allow it Therefore, it is an urgent task to reduce the cost of agricultural production and improve the quality of agricultural products.