Zhang Haipeng and Zhang Yanlong: Developing Agricultural New Quality Productive Forces Pursuant to Local Conditions [1]
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized the need to firmly grasp the primary task of high-quality development and develop new quality productive forces by adapting measures to local conditions. The 2024 Central Rural Work Conference proposed developing new quality productive forces in agriculture according to local conditions. To strengthen the nation, we must first strengthen agriculture; only when agriculture is strong can the nation be powerful. Looking across world history, every "agricultural revolution" catalyzed by a leap in productive forces has provided the foundational conditions for economic takeoff and national strength. To build a great modern socialist country in all respects, it is both necessary and inevitable that our country progresses from a large agricultural nation to an agricultural powerhouse [1]. Achieving this leap is inseparable from the development of new quality productive forces in agriculture.
Agriculture is a vital carrier and fertile ground for the development of new quality productive forces. New quality productive forces in agriculture refer to advanced productive forces generated within the agricultural sector through revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. Their essential characteristics are high technology, high efficiency, and high quality. The basic path for developing these forces lies in the technological revolution and industrial change. In recent years, various regions have adopted a series of innovative measures to promote continuous agricultural technological innovation, leading to the rapid emergence of new industries, new business forms, and new models. The development of China’s agricultural productive forces has reached a critical stage of transitioning from quantity to quality. At the same time, developing new quality productive forces in agriculture must follow its own inherent laws; it cannot be achieved overnight. We must adapt measures to local conditions, advance steadily, and persist over the long term. Based on our national conditions and agricultural realities [2], the current development of new quality productive forces in agriculture requires upholding one bottom line, managing two sets of relationships, and achieving three goals.
Upholding One Bottom Line
In developing new quality productive forces in agriculture, we must uphold the bottom line of ensuring food security.
Agriculture is a comprehensive industrial sector carrying multiple missions; ensuring a stable and secure supply of grain and important agricultural products is always the top priority. Grain production is the foundation of the entire agricultural sector. Without stable grain production, there can be no talk of new quality productive forces in agriculture. Therefore, developing these forces must never deviate from or relax focus on grain production, nor should it weaken comprehensive agricultural production capacity. We must place enhancing the supply guarantee capacity for grain and other important products in a more prominent position. The strategy of supporting national food security through science and technology must be truly implemented. We must utilize next-generation information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to deeply embed new technologies into the entire process of grain production, reducing potential risks to supply, continuously tapping the potential for increased yields, and ensuring stable and abundant harvests.
Ensuring food security through new quality productive forces is reflected not only in the quantity of grain but also in the improvement of quality and total factor productivity [3], providing new thinking and methods for food security. Currently, China's grain production faces challenges such as tight constraints on arable land resources, an aging agricultural workforce, and the impact of extreme climates. Developing new quality productive forces can increase unit yields and reduce resource waste and ecological loss through intelligent, precision-oriented, and green agricultural technologies, thereby achieving stability and sustainability. For example, the Northeast region has implemented the strategy of "storing grain in the ground and in technology" [4], relying on advanced technologies like cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) to promote conservation tillage, effectively improving soil fertility and yields. Rice-growing regions in the South have developed integrated rice-fish farming models, effectively reducing non-point source pollution and achieving a win-win for grain production and ecological protection. Supporting national food security with new quality productive forces is not an overnight task; it requires multi-party assistance and sustained effort, with a focus on enhancing comprehensive production capacity and accelerating the transformation of traditional agriculture toward modernization to ensure the "Chinese rice bowl" is held firmly and held well.
Managing Two Sets of Relationships
First, manage the relationship between fostering new drivers of growth and updating old ones. Adjusting and optimizing the agricultural industrial structure is a vital measure for achieving high-quality agricultural development and advancing agricultural modernization; it is also an essential requirement for developing new quality productive forces. In the agricultural economic system, new and old drivers are interdependent. To promote the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure, we must coordinate the fostering of new drivers with the updating of old ones. Developing new quality productive forces requires both breaking through inherent production structures to cultivate new drivers and utilizing new technologies to transform traditional agriculture. Through the coordination of new and old drivers, we can create an inexhaustible source for high-quality development.
China’s vast territory and diverse local conditions mean there is no single path for developing new quality productive forces. Whether upgrading traditional industries, expanding emerging industries, or cultivating future industries, we must seek truth from facts and adapt measures to local conditions, integrating closely with local resource endowments, industrial foundations, and research conditions. In leading modern agriculture with new quality productive forces, we must be selective—knowing what not to do in order to effectively achieve what must be done.
Second, manage the relationship between protecting smallholder farmers and developing modern agriculture. "A large country with small-scale farming" is our basic national and agricultural reality. Smallholder family management will remain the primary mode of agricultural operation for a long time. Achieving agricultural modernization is impossible without the modernization of smallholders; introducing modern production factors to transform smallholders is the only path forward. Smallholders naturally have a weak risk tolerance and conservative technological tendencies, making it difficult for them to integrate with modern production factors or deep-scale modern agriculture. Developing new quality productive forces concerns not only efficiency but also the modernization of smallholders and the increase of farmers' income. This transformation must take the protection of smallholders' basic interests as a vital prerequisite.
To promote the effective connection between smallholders and modern agriculture, China has recently improved support policies and socialized services [5], gradually bringing smallholders onto the track of modern development. Practice has shown that promoting organized development—allowing smallholders to participate in diverse new types of operating entities (such as professional cooperatives, leading enterprises, and family farms) through agricultural industrialization entities—can better integrate smallholders with modern production methods. This allows them to share the benefits brought by new technologies, industries, and models. As this process involves diverse stakeholders and complex interests, we must further innovate industrial organization models and improve benefit-linking and distribution mechanisms to achieve symbiotic win-win results for smallholders and new operating entities.
Achieving Three Goals
First, strengthen collaborative research among agricultural science and technology forces to comprehensively improve innovation capacity. Technological innovation is the foundation of new quality productive forces. We must drive industrial innovation through technological innovation, particularly using disruptive and frontier technologies to generate new industries and drivers.
In recent years, China has achieved breakthroughs in agricultural core technologies, supporting land productivity and resource utilization. However, the overall efficiency of the innovation system is not yet high, and a significant gap remains compared to world-advanced levels, with several "bottleneck" [6] problems in core technologies. This stems from the fact that research forces are scattered, making it difficult to form a synergy for comprehensive projects. To solidify the foundation of new quality productive forces, we must strengthen collaborative research. We should leverage the advantages of the new whole-of-nation system [7], coordinating innovation resources to build a well-structured, collaborative, and moderately competitive innovation system. We must deepen the integration of industry, academia, and research, organizing research institutes, universities, and enterprises to work toward the same goals. By focusing on national strategic needs and industrial urgency, we must accelerate breakthroughs in crop breeding, livestock and poultry germplasm, and high-end agricultural machinery to achieve self-reliance in agricultural science and technology.
Second, accelerate the large-scale application of agricultural scientific achievements. Revolutionary technologies only become new quality productive forces when they are applied in actual production. Although China ranks first in the world in agricultural research papers and patent applications, the conversion rate remains insufficient. We must improve the agricultural technology extension service system. Through digital empowerment, we can blend new technologies and management concepts with digital tools to extend help to rural areas via remote guidance or direct management. We should promote the deep integration of the innovation, supply, industrial, and value chains. By utilizing county-level demonstration bases and "Science and Technology Backyards" [8], we can bridge the "last mile" of technology extension. We should also leverage the role of new operating entities in leading smallholders, building a policy system that supports technology adoption among smallholder farmers.
Third, promote a comprehensive green transition in agriculture and establish a green, low-carbon modern industrial system. High-quality development requires a resource-saving and environment-friendly society. Traditional "high-input, high-output" methods involving excessive water and fertilizer run counter to new quality productive forces. As "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" [9] become hard constraints on economic development, the task of carbon neutrality in agriculture is urgent. This requires forming "green productive forces." By optimizing the combination of labor, land, pesticides, fertilizers, and water, we can establish a green, low-carbon industrial system. We should utilize digital and intelligent tools to innovatively allocate production factors for a "green leap" while integrating blockchain, big data, and IoT into the agricultural chain. We must actively advance the construction of National Agricultural Green Development Pilot Zones to provide experience for a comprehensive green transition in agriculture.
(The authors, Zhang Haipeng and Zhang Yanlong, are respectively Vice Director/Research Fellow and Associate Research Fellow at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Source: Guangming Daily (January 21, 2025, Page 11)