The collision between Dutch and Japanese agriculture shows how we can improve the quality of agricultural products?

The collision between Dutch and Japanese agriculture shows how we can improve the quality of agricultural products?

The establishment of modern, intensive and socialized agriculture will make agriculture an internationally competitive industry, so that agricultural labor productivity will catch up with the average level of the society, so that the per capita income of rural residents will catch up with the level of urban residents, and it will achieve a comprehensive well-off in 2020. The urgent need is also a necessary condition for crossing the middle income trap. After more than 30 years of rapid industrialization and urbanization, various material conditions for accelerating agricultural modernization are now in place. China's economic and social development can provide higher-income employment opportunities for the transfer of agricultural surplus labor to non-agricultural industries, and has a strong supply of agricultural production materials and huge urban capital. What is missing is only an institutional mechanism. To accelerate the pace of agricultural modernization, we must proceed from the reality of China and learn from foreign experience. Among them, agriculture in the Netherlands and Japan have taken different paths, leading to different results. As a positive and negative case, it is worthy of our serious study, comparison, reflection and reference.

First, Dutch agriculture is a large-scale social production with cooperatives as the main body, and Japanese agriculture is a small production with farmers as the main body.

The agricultural conditions in the Netherlands are not good, the climate is cold and humid, the illumination time is small, the per capita cultivated land is only 1.3 mu, 27% of the cultivated land and 60% of the population are below sea level, relying on the 2,400-kilometer strong damp-proof levee built by the predecessors. Protect the cultivated land. Therefore, they cherish the land very much and regard the development of socialized benefits agriculture as the main direction. Of the 1.9 million hectares of farmland in the country, 57% grow grain and flowers, and 40% are grasslands. In total, there were only 250,000 agricultural laborers, and 73,000 farms and ranches were established, including 18,900 dairy farms, 16,800 livestock farms and 111,000 farming farms. The plantation, animal husbandry, processing and sales operations were integrated. In the breeding sector, family management is the mainstay. In the processing and sales links, cooperatives are the main business. All families participate in one or several cooperatives according to their own breeds. Dutch dairy products are famous. Dairy cows are generally family-based and join dairy cooperatives. In addition to the milk purchased by the dairy farms in accordance with the contract, the dairy cooperatives also distribute dividends to the members according to the number of shares and the operation status. The cooperatives and the members form a community of interests. Everyone has a common commodity brand to jointly safeguard the quality of the products and the brand reputation. Probably because of the money made by flowers, Dutch farmers used flowers such as tulip as the main product. Flower planting also has a professional division of labor, and some families only grow one species for decades. The flower cooperative consisting of more than 3,000 flower farmers has established a global flower wholesale market with an area equivalent to 12 football fields. It starts auction at 5 am every day and can enter European city retail stores around 9:00. Flower sales account for 80% of the European market. Although agriculture has the characteristics of decentralized labor and integration with natural processes, in the Netherlands, the degree of organization is very high, which is an important reason for their international competitiveness.

In contrast, Japan has more than 2 million agricultural business entities in the country, which are basically scattered small-scale production by farmers. Although there are financial cooperation among farmers, on the whole, the division of labor and organization of agriculture is relatively low, which determines that labor productivity is low and agriculture completely loses international competitiveness. The price of rice is more than 50 yuan per kilogram, and it is the world's largest importer of agricultural products.

Second, Dutch agriculture is a highly profitable industry, but Japanese agriculture can only rely on government subsidies to live.

The socialized large-scale agriculture based on professional division of labor has improved the labor productivity and economic benefits of Dutch agriculture. The Dutch agricultural labor force accounts for 2% of the total social labor force, while the agricultural added value accounts for 4% of GDP and exports account for 25% of total exports. The national agricultural labor output value is more than 40,000 euros, and the average labor export is 33,000 US dollars. The industrial labor productivity and farmers' income are higher than the secondary and tertiary industries. In the Netherlands, farmers are a truly decent profession. Agriculture has become a cash cow that makes a lot of money, pays large taxes and exports a lot, and has become a pillar industry of the national economy. In contrast to Japan, agriculture has become a heavy burden for the national economy. In 2014, the added value of Japanese agriculture was 6 trillion yen, the government subsidy for agriculture was 6 trillion yen, and more than 2 million agricultural business entities created a zero a year. Fortunately, Japan’s industrial profitability is relatively strong, and there is not much rural population. Otherwise, the government cannot afford it.

Third, the Netherlands has higher requirements for the qualification of agricultural labor, and Japanese agriculture has become an old-age industry.

Dutch agriculture is a combination of resource-intensive and knowledge-intensive, technology-intensive industries, flower and vegetable breeding and cultivation, breeding and breeding of improved dairy cows, beef cattle, and food processing technology and equipment. Higher standards are also imposed on the qualifications of the labor force engaged in agricultural production and management. Only those who have obtained the Agricultural University Diploma or Green Certificate are eligible to farm and raise cattle. Even if the inheritance of the private land of the family is inherited, if the green certificate is not obtained, the inheritance right of the operation is cancelled. The national agricultural education system is divided into three levels: high school and low level. Primary education trains skilled workers, secondary education trains agronomists, and higher education trains researchers. Farm management is a compulsory basic course for all practitioners. A sound education system and strict qualification management system have enabled farmers to have higher quality and provide manpower guarantee for agriculture to become an internationally competitive industry. In contrast, in Japan, there were 2.09 million agricultural workers in 2015, with an average age of 65.8 years. After the elderly have withdrawn from agriculture, young people are reluctant to farm, and the agricultural labor force has decreased by 20% in the past five years. The agricultural labor force accounts for 4% of the total social labor force, and the agricultural added value accounts for only 1% of GDP. Due to the shortage of agricultural labor, the area of ​​abandoned land for farming reached 424,000 hectares. The decline of Japanese agriculture is in stark contrast to the vitality of Dutch agriculture.

4. The Netherlands is committed to the development of high value-added export agriculture, and Japan is striving to protect its agricultural products market .

The land area of ​​the Netherlands is small, the area of ​​cultivated land is only 1.6% of China's, and the agricultural labor force is only 0.1% of China's. In 2015, Dutch agricultural exports reached US$82.4 billion. Since 1989, net exports have been ranked second in the world, second only to the United States. The Netherlands imports some food and feed to meet the needs of domestic food and animal husbandry development. In other words, the Netherlands starts from the basic national conditions with low per capita land resources, and imports agricultural products that occupy more land and water resources. After transformation and appreciation, it becomes labor, technology, and knowledge-intensive agricultural products for export, improving the economic benefits of foreign trade. . In order to make agricultural products enter the international market, the Netherlands asked quality supervision experts from the United States and Europe to help establish quality standards, and domestic standards are higher than international standards, and strict inspection and management, thus gaining the trust of foreign consumers.

In contrast, in Japan, due to the lack of international competitiveness of agriculture, the state has set up such barriers to the import of agricultural products to protect the domestic agricultural product market. The result of closing the market has protected backwardness. At present, the self-sufficiency rate of Japanese food is only 39%. Due to the rigid demand for agricultural products, in the end, it has to rely on imports, and the proportion of imports will continue to increase. According to the evaluation of agricultural competitiveness by relevant international institutions, the competitiveness index of Dutch agriculture is 0.261, and that of Japan is -0.914. Japanese agriculture has become a typical case of failure.

Looking at the lessons of Dutch and Japanese agriculture, what inspiration should we get?

First, on the basis of family land contracting, we should take the road of socialized production with cooperatives as the main business. The experience of the development of agricultural cooperatives in the Netherlands proves that it helps to achieve the integration of production, sales and marketing, and to do things that cannot be done by a single family, so that farmers can share the profits of planting and breeding, deep processing of agricultural products and product marketing; Helping to adopt advanced science and technology and large-scale agricultural machinery to improve production efficiency; help to create and maintain agricultural product brands, improve brand credibility and market share; help to introduce small-scale farmers into professional and socialized The production system shares the profits brought by large-scale operations. Cooperatives can take many forms. Shareholding cooperation, land shareholding, and corporate management are the creation of Chinese farmers. By establishing a modern property rights system and a distribution system according to work, cooperatives can avoid big pots and egalitarianism. The second is to attract high-quality labor to engage in agricultural operations. This is through the transfer of land management rights, the development of intensive, beneficial agriculture, so that engaged in agricultural operations to obtain higher income than working outside the home. At present, China's agricultural labor force has a similar aging trend in Japan and must be highly valued. The third is to strengthen the agricultural scientific research and technical training system, vigorously cultivate new varieties of agricultural products, and strive to make the agricultural labor force master advanced cultivation, breeding and processing techniques. It is not enough for China to rely mainly on the guidance of agricultural technicians. Farmers must be workers with agricultural technology and knowledge. The fourth is to actively expand agricultural exports and establish open agriculture. China's agricultural labor force is more than 900 times that of the Netherlands. In 2015, China's agricultural products import and export was 187.56 billion US dollars, of which exports were 70.68 billion US dollars, 11.7 billion US dollars less than the Netherlands, and imports were 116.88 billion US dollars, with a deficit of 46.20 billion US dollars. We should learn from the Dutch experience, give full play to the advantages of China's abundant labor resources, and strive to expand agricultural exports. By exporting labor, technology, and knowledge-intensive agricultural products, importing some resource-intensive agricultural products, and implementing the strategy of changing labor for land, we can force us to improve the quality of agricultural products and obtain the comparative benefits of foreign trade in agricultural products.

(Original title: Improving China's agricultural international competitiveness: what can be learned from the Netherlands)