The United States is the most developed agricultural country in the world, the only country in the world where the annual per capita grain output exceeds 1 ton, and the largest grain exporter. In addition to the unique natural conditions, the tradition of "building the country by agriculture" and a complete agricultural support and protection system are important guarantees for promoting the sustained and stable development of American agriculture.
I. Characteristics of American agriculture
(A) the world's leading level of agricultural modernization and agricultural productivity
With the development of industry, the proportion of agriculture in the American economy has gradually declined, but the government has adopted the policy of supporting and protecting agriculture, which makes American agriculture still have the strongest competitiveness in the world. The main products with the highest output in the world are soybeans, grains, poultry, pork and beef, and milk. In 2007, the total export of agricultural products in the United States reached $77 billion, and export income accounted for a quarter of all cash income of agricultural products.
(2) Based on highly commercialized family farms.
1998 promulgated the Homestead Act, which laid the foundation for American family farms. At present, there are 2.04 million farms in China, with an average scale of 193.4 hectares. There are more than 2 million agricultural laborers, accounting for about 2% of the total labor force in China. The number of small farms exceeds 90%, accounting for 70% of the total agricultural assets. At present, the number of "company farms" is rising, about 70 thousand. Although the number is small, its area and sales account for a large proportion of American farms.
Agricultural production is highly regionalized and integrated
19 14 years, American agriculture realized planting specialization to a great extent. Realizing the integration of agricultural production and marketing "from field to table" The agricultural system in the United States is called "agro-industrial complex", and the number of employed people accounts for 17% of the national labor force, which is much higher than the labor force that agriculture itself can absorb.
The American Agricultural Association is a spontaneous organization of farmers, which was founded in 19 19 and has a history of nearly 100 years. At present, there are 6 million members, mainly farmers (80% of individual farmers in the country participate in the association) and small producers or individuals related to or interested in agriculture. The main duties of the Agricultural Association are to collect the opinions and suggestions of its members through associations all over the country, hold an annual meeting every June 5438+ 10, and formulate corresponding policies that represent the wishes of most farmers, such as agricultural taxation, environmental protection, government investment, etc. Lobbying Congress on behalf of farmers, trying to turn farmers' suggestions into policy support of the federal government. The association is a non-governmental department, without government funding, and its daily expenses are maintained by membership fees.
Second, the agricultural support and protection system in the United States.
As a policy system, agricultural protection system originated in the United States in the early 1930s. At present, the agricultural support and protection policy system in the United States mainly includes the following aspects:
Income support system
Direct subsidies. It is the income support provided to producers according to historical unit output and planting area. Agricultural products covered include wheat, feed grain, rice, upland cotton, oilseeds and peanuts. Farmers who enjoy direct subsidies have the right to decide what crops to plant. Subsidies have nothing to do with farmers' planting plans, and each farm can get up to $40,000 in direct subsidies every year.
Countercyclical subsidies. Refers to the income support provided to producers when the effective price is lower than the target price. Covered agricultural products are the same as direct subsidies. The target price is determined by national laws and regulations, and the effective price refers to the sum of the direct subsidies obtained by producers plus the market price or the higher income obtained by the trading loan plan. Each farm can get up to $65,000 in countercyclical subsidies every year.
National dairy market loss subsidy. Used as an income safety net for dairy producers. If the monthly price of a certain grade of milk is lower than the determined price, you can get a direct monthly subsidy. Each dairy farm can have up to 2.4 million pounds of milk per year (equivalent to 135 cows' milk production) and can enjoy this subsidy.
Special disaster relief assistance. It is used to provide partial economic compensation to producers in the case of bad weather, delayed disaster or unfavorable economic situation. In the year when the plan was launched, it accounted for 10 in the past 20 years.
Transaction assistance loans and loan difference subsidies. Wide coverage. Allow producers to repay at the market price when the market price is lower than the loan principal and interest, thus bringing a kind of income called "transaction loan income" to producers. If you don't want to join the transaction assistance loan program, producers can get another direct subsidy, namely the loan deficit subsidy.
Crop and income insurance. The government provides large-scale premium subsidies to institutions engaged in agricultural insurance, so that producers generally participate in agricultural insurance at lower rates. When the output or income per unit area of producers is lower than the average level, they are provided with loss subsidies.
(B) the price support system
The current price support system in the United States is only applicable to a few agricultural products such as sugar, tobacco, milk and dairy products, mainly including the following four types:
Agricultural product loan scheme. Producers use the agricultural products that have not been harvested as collateral to obtain loans from the government agricultural credit company to maintain the normal production of agriculture. When the market price is higher than the target price, farmers can sell agricultural products at the market price and pay the principal and interest in cash. If the market price is lower than the target price, farmers can hand over their agricultural products to agricultural credit companies.
Government procurement. It is used to strictly control the supply of milk sources in the market and ensure that the price of raw milk used to produce butter, cheese or skim milk powder is consistent with the price of bottled milk supported by the government to support the market price of dairy products.
Tariff and tax rate quota. Provide price support for agricultural products by restricting the import of low-priced products. The average import tariff rate of agricultural products in the United States is only 12%, which is the lowest among all WTO members. However, the United States imposes high import tariffs on dairy products, sweeteners and tobacco. Tax rate quotas are mainly applicable to commodities such as peanuts, tobacco, beef, dairy products, sugar and cotton.
Export subsidies. Refers to a series of institutional measures formulated by the US government to encourage the export of agricultural products, such as reducing the price of agricultural products exported by the United States through price subsidies and expanding export demand plans. Provide credit guarantee for exporters to expand the export scale of American agricultural products.
(3) Credit support system
American agricultural credit system is divided into national credit system and commercial credit system. The national credit system is subordinate to the federal government, including the National Agricultural Credit Administration and agricultural credit institutions. It has a strong policy investment and financing function, mainly providing long-term, medium-term and short-term loans and production loans for farmers. Agricultural credit companies under the US Department of Agriculture mainly provide short-term loans to farmers with unsalable agricultural products as collateral to support the prices of agricultural products and thus stabilize the income of agricultural producers. The government uses this financial means to intervene and regulate the sales and production of agricultural products, which provides very convenient conditions and means for farmers to raise and use funds.
(4) Other supporting systems
Such as "trade orders" and "environmental plans". The former is suitable for dairy products and some fruits and vegetables to create a good trading environment, while the latter is to encourage producers to comply with relevant resource protection requirements in order to obtain various policy subsidies. Another example is that the government provides financial support to build a large-scale wholesale market for agricultural products and reduce the transaction cost of agricultural products.
Third, the problems in American agriculture.
American agricultural labor productivity is very high. While developing steadily, it also exposes some problems and shortcomings worthy of attention. First, energy consumption is high and energy utilization rate is low. Modern agriculture in the United States is a typical "energy-intensive agriculture". The average American consumes about 1 ton of gasoline a year. It not only consumes a lot of non-renewable energy, but also has a low energy utilization rate. Second, agriculture is highly dependent on the international market. The United States exports about 1/5 of agricultural products. Third, a large number of grains are used to make ethanol, which will increase the pressure on the balance of supply and demand of world agricultural products. Fourth, the lack of variety diversity in agricultural production increases the risk of biological diseases. Fifth, agricultural land and farmers are still decreasing. Due to the influence of agricultural welfare and taxes, the agricultural land in the United States is also decreasing, some young people are unwilling to engage in agricultural production, and the trend of farmers' aging is serious.
As the most developed agriculture in the world, the United States has incomparable natural conditions and other objective advantages, but its development ideas and concepts, as well as its support and protection for agriculture, are worth learning and learning from.
(a) to further strengthen the support and protection of agriculture, establish and improve the system and mechanism to ensure the development of agriculture.
Since the reform and opening up, China's agricultural support and protection policies have been continuously strengthened, but compared with mature market economy countries such as the United States, China's agricultural support and protection level is still very low, and the support and protection mechanism is still far from perfect. First of all, the total domestic support for agriculture is low. Secondly, the supporting structure is unreasonable. Third, there are many subsidies and high costs. Fourth, a sound agricultural support and protection policy system has not yet been formed. According to the goal of "forming a new pattern of urban and rural social and economic development integration" put forward by the 17th National Congress, it is necessary to further adjust the national income distribution pattern, establish an input guarantee mechanism to promote modern agricultural construction, and accelerate the establishment of a stable growth mechanism for agricultural input. We will continue to implement and increase various direct subsidies to farmers and improve the comprehensive direct subsidy system for agricultural materials. Actively study and improve the way of subsidies, and direct subsidies to farmers should be as concise and efficient as possible. It is necessary to change the practice of relying solely on direct government relief and actively pilot natural disaster subsidies that combine agricultural insurance with disaster relief.
(2) Increase investment in agriculture and further improve the construction of agricultural infrastructure.
The core of agricultural support and protection is input support. In the United States, there is basically no difference between cities and rural areas. A very important symbol is the equality between urban and rural areas in enjoying social public services. In order to promote the sustainable development of agriculture, the American government invests in the construction and maintenance of large-scale water conservancy and other infrastructure every year. For water conservancy and hydropower projects, the investment in flood control and environment is generally borne by the federal government and does not need to be repaid. Investment in irrigation only requires the recovery of principal, while investment in power generation and urban water supply requires the recovery of principal and interest.
The basic conditions of agricultural production in China are weak, and the development of rural social undertakings is backward. Strengthening the construction of agricultural infrastructure focusing on water conservancy and speeding up the development of rural social undertakings will be a long-term and important task for agricultural development in China. In accordance with the requirements of coordinating urban and rural economic development, new funds for education, health, culture and other undertakings and incremental investment in fixed assets should be mainly used in rural areas, and the proportion of government land transfer income used in rural areas should be gradually increased. Drawing lessons from the experience of the United States, according to the different nature of the project, we will combine direct government subsidies with credit investment, and at the same time increase investment integration. We will make great efforts to do a good job in farmland water conservancy construction such as strengthening dangerous reservoirs and supporting large and medium-sized canal systems, and strengthen the management of small and medium-sized rivers. Accelerate the improvement of cultivated land quality and build high-standard farmland with high and stable yield. Strengthen the construction of agricultural information infrastructure, establish a smooth, sensitive and fast information network system, so that farmers can make full use of social information resources, solve the problems in the whole process before, during and after delivery, and promote agricultural development. Vigorously promote the extension of urban basic service facilities to rural areas, and strive to form a network of public transportation, water supply and power supply, radio and television, environmental protection and ecological construction connecting urban and rural areas.
(3) Establish and improve agricultural production risk prevention and insurance mechanism.
The American government attaches great importance to agricultural insurance, especially agricultural insurance, and implements low cost and high subsidy for agricultural insurance. From the experience of the United States and other developed countries in the world, it is very necessary to establish and improve the agricultural insurance system and avoid agricultural risks by implementing the agricultural insurance system.
The establishment and improvement of agricultural risk prevention mechanism will help reduce farmers' losses in sudden natural disasters. Therefore, it is suggested that the state should first formulate a disaster relief system. For natural disasters caused by non-human factors, the government should give farmers a certain proportion (such as 60%) of the average harvest in previous years to maintain their normal lives and put them into production in the coming year. Secondly, various disaster insurance systems can be implemented. The government can implement various forms of subsidies, making agricultural insurance a policy insurance different from general commercial insurance, and minimizing farmers' investment risks.
(d) Promoting ecological civilization and developing sustainable agriculture.
The United States Department of Agriculture has implemented ecological protection subsidy programs such as land fallow, soil and water conservation, wetland protection, grassland protection, wildlife habitat protection, and environmental quality incentives. And these funds will be distributed to farmers in the form of cash subsidies and technical assistance or used for various ecological protection subsidy projects that farmers voluntarily participate in, so that farmers can directly benefit. For a long time, we have taken many detours in economic construction and gained economic benefits at the expense of the environment. We have learned a painful lesson, especially for the sustainable development of agriculture. The report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the idea of "building ecological civilization", which basically formed the industrial structure, growth mode and consumption mode of saving resources and protecting the ecological environment. It is suggested to learn from the experience of the United States, continue to focus on the construction of key ecological projects, actively promote rural energy construction, and vigorously promote the circular economy model. At the same time, study and formulate the subsidy policy for agricultural ecological protection in line with China's national conditions, give full play to the role of agricultural cooperative organizations, mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers, apply modern science and technology, protect, cultivate and make full use of natural resources, prevent and reduce environmental pollution, form a virtuous circle of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and by-fishing, and maintain the stable development of large agriculture.
(5) Accelerate the progress of agricultural science and technology and improve the content of agricultural science and technology.
The American government has always regarded agricultural education, research and technology popularization as its important responsibilities, and formed a unique "trinity" system. Namely: (1) State Agricultural College (the so-called "land-grant college" established in the 9th century1) undertakes three tasks of education, research and popularization at the same time; (2) the annual scientific research promotion plan is applied from the grassroots level, and the services provided by the promotion station should meet the needs of agricultural production as much as possible; (3) Promotion funds should be shared by the Federation, states and counties. American agricultural science research funds mainly come from public and private systems, which complement each other. The former focuses on basic research and applied research, while the latter focuses on new product development and applied research.
At present, the contribution rate of agricultural science and technology progress in China is only 49%, far below the average level of 70-80% in developed countries, and only 3.43% of the rural labor force has a technical secondary school education or above. In order to meet the requirements of agricultural development in the 2 1 century and accelerate the process of agricultural modernization, it is necessary to increase investment in science and technology, vigorously promote the pace of agricultural technological innovation, reform the system and mechanism that is divorced from agricultural scientific research and extension in China, and actively innovate to closely combine agriculture and education. Increase investment in basic agricultural scientific research, focus on improving the construction of a number of basic agricultural scientific research facilities, and ensure that agriculture has sufficient technical reserves. Strengthen the popularization and application of agricultural science and technology, gradually form a new agricultural technology popularization system that combines state support with market guidance, and combines paid services with free services, actively promote agricultural mechanization and agricultural informatization, improve the level of agricultural machinery and equipment, and improve the agricultural information collection and release system. Strengthen farmers' education and training to improve the quality of modern farmers. To meet the needs of market competition, we should speed up the cultivation of modern agricultural operators with strong market awareness, high production skills and certain management capabilities. Further improve the environment for farmers to go out to work, earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers, accelerate the development of rural vocational and technical education and rural adult education, organize and mobilize social forces to participate extensively in farmers' transfer employment training, and enhance the employability of rural labor.
(6) improve the degree of agricultural organization and establish a socialized agricultural service system.
As the most extensive agricultural organization in the United States, agricultural cooperatives not only provide farmers with various information services, but also become one of the important forces for the government to formulate agricultural policies on behalf of farmers, and play an important role in promoting the development of American agricultural economy and reducing the cost of government social management. It is necessary to explore the forms of farmers' cooperative organizations suitable for the characteristics of China's agriculture and rural development, and improve the competitiveness and economic benefits of small producers in the ever-changing big market. Special attention should also be paid to the development of community cooperative economic organizations that provide comprehensive services for farmers. Only in this way can we promote the development of modern agriculture. At the same time, vigorously support the construction of agricultural products circulation market, and establish a market system with agricultural products futures market, professional market and cold chain logistics distribution as the main contents.
(seven) to speed up the process of agricultural legislation and ensure the development of agriculture.
In the past century, the United States Congress has passed a large number of laws on agriculture, forming a relatively complete legal system to guide the development of agriculture and rural areas. In recent years, the government of China has made major adjustments to agricultural policies in macro-control and issued a series of policies and measures to strengthen and support agriculture. Under the background of marketization and internationalization, the outline of the national agricultural support policy system adapted to the current agricultural and rural development has taken shape. We believe that bringing agricultural domestic support into the legal track is the premise of maintaining the continuity and effectiveness of agricultural domestic support policies. Clearly defining the policy objectives, budget quota, operating procedures, division of labor and legal responsibilities in the form of law, and making it as open as possible and accepting social supervision are conducive to improving the efficiency of government agricultural investment and promoting the development of modern agriculture. At the same time, starting from the actual situation of small-scale agricultural operation in China, we should try our best to adopt simple and easy methods, make full use of various organizational resources, reduce management costs and establish an operable agricultural support system.