(A) the income status of farmers in China
From 1996, the per capita net income of farmers increased by 9% compared with the previous year, while from 1997, it dropped sharply year by year: from 1997 to 2000, the net income of farmers increased by 4.6, 4.3, 4.0 and 2. 1 percentage points respectively, but Due to the industrial characteristics of agriculture, it is much more difficult for rural areas to reach a well-off level than towns. Statistics show that the ratio of urban and rural savings is 8: 2. In 2000, the proportion of urban and rural consumption was about 3:/kloc-0:, and the consumption of 900 million farmers only accounted for 38% of the total retail sales of social goods. 1997, the per capita net income of urban and rural residents was 5 160 yuan and 2,090 yuan respectively, with a ratio of 2.47: 1. By 2000, these figures were 6280 yuan and 2253 yuan respectively, with a ratio of 2.78: 1. Not only is the income of farmers growing slowly, but the burden on farmers is also heavy. On average, farmers only pay 9 times as much as urban residents in taxes, and 30 times as much as urban residents if various expenses are added. At present, the Engel coefficient in rural areas is 48%. To achieve a well-off level, the average urban and rural areas should be below 40%, and the main event is still in the countryside.
(B) related factors affecting farmers' income
1. Increasing farmers' income is the main source of farmers' income, so it is necessary for us to seriously analyze the problem of increasing farmers' income, so as to find an effective way to increase farmers' income. At present, the main factors affecting farmers' income in China are:
1. The high cost and low price of agricultural products limit farmers' income. The unreasonable agricultural structure leads to the relative surplus of agricultural products, and the increase of farmers' income is limited after the price of agricultural products narrows. 60% of China's agricultural income comes from planting. After 1996, the supply and demand of agricultural products market changed greatly, resulting in lower prices. 1997- 1999 During the three years, the prices of bulk agricultural products in China dropped by 24.5 percentage points, and many major agricultural provinces had bumper harvests year after year, but the prices of other agricultural products generally fell except for some grain ordered and purchased at the national order price. It is really difficult for farmers to increase production without increasing income. By 2000, due to changes in market supply and demand and price fluctuations, the growth rate of farmers' income had dropped by 65,438 0.5 percentage points. In this year, the net income of farmers' families alone decreased by 27.4% compared with 65,438+0,995.
2. Unreasonable agricultural management structure prevents farmers from increasing their income. The growth of farmers' income is closely related to the income composition, which is subject to the production and operation structure. The unreasonable structure of agricultural production and management in China leads to low level of agricultural products and many escape orders. The unreasonable agricultural production structure is manifested in the unreasonable industrial structure, product structure and organizational structure. China's production structure dominated by farmers is highly similar, and the product varieties are generally the same in a large area. Small-scale production or small-scale farmers can only turn the rest to the market if they meet their own needs. In addition, the fierce competition in the agricultural products market has led to a continuous decline in prices and a decline in farmers' income growth. This shows that the unreasonable agricultural management structure has hindered the increase of farmers' income.
The burden of farmers is still very heavy. The reform of rural economic system has changed the pattern of interest distribution among the state, the collective and the peasants. Agricultural tax, collective accumulation and rural public expenditure were all passed on to farmers by collective organizations. At the same time, there are various agricultural charges outside the system, which have been repeatedly banned. County and township governments and village committees have asymmetric financial rights and responsibilities, unrestrained consumption, bloated institutions and long queues. As the saying goes, "some money should not be collected and some things should not be done." For example, in Jianli County, Hubei Province, meals accounted for 86% of fiscal expenditure in 2002, and a red urban and rural finance office had 105 people; The financial expenditure of Gongtang Town is 944 people, with an annual expenditure of 1 100 million yuan. Like these, you have to rely on fees to support it. The high operation of farmers' burden not only becomes an important factor to reduce farmers' income, but also hinders the operation of measures to increase farmers' income.
When the problem of increasing farmers' income is solved, farmers' income will be solved easily.
2. In addition to increasing farmers' income, farmers' cultural quality is generally low, which is one of the main reasons that restrict the further growth of farmers' income. With the gradual deepening of China's economic system reform, the proportion of market regulation is increasing, and the uncertain factors in agricultural production are increasing, which is tantamount to adding insult to injury to farmers who are scattered in one household and have low cultural quality, increasing their business risks and making it difficult for them to make a more accurate judgment on a large number of market supply and demand information. As a result, agricultural production tends to converge, and the supply of the same variety of agricultural products has increased substantially in a certain period of time. For example, in the case that domestic demand is not increasing much and products cannot be exported in large quantities, farmers, in addition, with the rapid development of science and technology, a large number of new varieties and technologies have appeared in agricultural production, which requires farmers to strengthen their study of this science and technology and apply it to production and operation, while farmers with low cultural quality are at a loss, so it is difficult to choose new varieties and technologies that are advanced and applicable and have large market demand space for production and operation, and quickly transform them into real productivity.
Third, the degree of peasant organization is low. Under the condition of market economy, the competitiveness of market subjects is directly proportional to the degree of organization. Since the reform, the production and operation activities of farmers in China are still based on farmers, and the land operated by each farmer is very limited. According to the calculation of three people in each household, the land operated by each household is about 7 mu. It is impossible to raise farmers' income to the level of developed countries or moderately developed countries on 2.3 mu of land per capita, and it is impossible to realize agricultural modernization on 2.3 mu of land per capita. In addition, farmers' production and operation behavior is too scattered, and they are still in a state of "fighting for each other" in production and operation. The coordination and organization of farmers' business behavior are very poor, even in some places, which makes farmers' business behavior very blind and difficult to form an advantage in market competition, further affecting the further improvement of farmers' income.
4. The basic national conditions of China are a large population, little arable land and a high shortage of land resources. At present, the per capita arable land in China is only 1.2 mu, and the per capita contracted arable land is more than 7 mu. Due to the uneven population distribution, the per capita arable land in 1/3 provinces and cities is insufficient 1 mu, which makes the scale of farmers' operation too small, even if the land has great production potential, it is difficult to bring considerable income to farmers. At the same time, because the scale of operation is too small and the production cost of agricultural products is too high, it also restricts farmers' income.
The government's subsidies and support for agriculture are not enough. Compared with industry and tertiary industry, agriculture has its own characteristics, that is, the agricultural production cycle is long, and it is greatly influenced by natural factors, and so on. This makes farmers engaged in agricultural production and management face both market risks and natural risks. The ability of farmers scattered in one household to resist these two risks is very weak, which also increases the uncertain factors in farmers' production and operation, and further affects the further improvement of farmers' income. Especially since the founding of New China, the government's agricultural policy is not subsidies, but extraction and accumulation from agriculture to support industrial development. The implementation of this policy has hindered the development of agriculture itself. Although after the reform and opening up, with the rapid development of China's economy and the substantial improvement of comprehensive national strength, the situation of agricultural subsidy industry has changed greatly, but the state's subsidies and support for agriculture still lag far behind developed countries and still cannot meet the requirements of agriculture's own development.
The intransitive verb system and institutional constraints.
First of all, the strategy of "digging up agriculture to supplement work" and the dual structure of urban and rural areas have seriously restricted agricultural development and farmers' income. According to statistics, from 1954 to 1978, the state obtained a huge sum of 510 billion yuan from farmers through scissors difference. From 1978 to 199 1 year, the absolute amount of scissors difference is more than 1000 billion yuan every year. In the 1990s, the scissors gap was still widening, which was a burden on agriculture and farmers caused by the unequal exchange of industrial and agricultural products. Stranger still, on the one hand, agricultural surplus keeps flowing to industries and cities; On the other hand, the urban-rural dual structure and strict household registration system fix the expanding agricultural labor force on extremely limited cultivated land, making it difficult to obtain non-agricultural income.
Secondly, it is the contradiction between small-scale peasant production and big market that restricts the development of rural economy and the improvement of farmers' income. Since the reform and opening up, the household contract responsibility system has been widely implemented in rural areas. This family-based business model is suitable for the characteristics of agricultural production and the requirements of different productivity levels, which greatly promotes the development of agriculture in China. However, this kind of agricultural family management is still a small-scale operation in essence, and it is still at the traditional agricultural level in terms of scale, means and mode of operation. On the one hand, these disadvantages of family management in China lead to insufficient economic benefits of small-scale operation of farmers, difficult to improve labor productivity and high production costs; On the other hand, farmers are too scattered to understand the market, enter the market and avoid market risks. Faced with the fierce and changeable market, farmers are often at a loss and are at a disadvantage in market competition, which restricts the development of agricultural economy and the improvement of farmers' income to a certain extent.
Third, the rural administrative system and taxes and fees are unreasonable, resulting in an excessive burden on farmers. China's township institutions are bloated, there are too many village-level cadres, and the management costs are too high. At present, there are 48,000 township governments, 800,000 villagers' committees and 5.2 million villagers' groups in China, and there are more than130,000 cadres (not including teachers) below the county level. The huge expenditure is beyond the affordability of farmers. In addition, the taxes and fees are unreasonable, the taxes are too high and the fees are too high. Farmers with low incomes have to raise funds to run compulsory education and bear the responsibilities that should be borne by the state, which undoubtedly increases the burden on farmers.
It can be seen that the problem of farmers' income is complicated, and a better solution can not be solved by a few simple policies or measures, nor can the national government strengthen its attention to agriculture. According to China's current agricultural situation and basic national conditions, it needs to carefully analyze the above-mentioned factors that restrict farmers' income, and then enter the countryside to explore agricultural problems and find solutions. It is a process of finding problems, studying problems, discussing problems and solving problems, and there may be other steps in this process!
(C) the importance of increasing farmers' income
1. Increasing farmers' income is the need to realize the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way.
Increasing farmers' income is the need to open up rural market, expand domestic demand and promote the rapid development of national economy.
3. Increasing farmers' income is the need to properly solve the "three rural issues" and expand the investment in reproduction.
Increasing farmers' income is the need to maintain rural social stability. Economic development, social progress and national prosperity are inseparable from social stability. Most of China's population lives in rural areas, and rural stability is the foundation of national stability, while increasing farmers' income and improving farmers' lives are the fundamental guarantee of rural stability.
5. Increasing farmers' income is the need of practicing Theory of Three Represents. Only by increasing farmers' income and improving their living standards can we narrow the gap between the rich and the poor and implement the requirements of representing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. Otherwise, our party and government will lose the support of farmers, it will be difficult to consolidate our party's mass base and ruling position, and it will be difficult for the cause of reform, opening up and socialist modernization to proceed smoothly.
(D) Policy analysis of increasing farmers' income
1. Increasing support and protection for agriculture is the key. The basic position of agriculture in the national economy makes all countries put agriculture under the protection of the government. Especially after China's entry into WTO, the government needs to implement protection and support policies, including agricultural product price support, subsidy policy, financial credit policy and agricultural insurance system, so that farmers can increase their interests from preferential policies. It is true that the prices of agricultural products in China are close to or higher than those in the world market. However, due to the low productivity and high cost of agricultural labor force in China, in order to ensure farmers' income increase, we should appropriately raise and adjust the prices of agricultural products, at the same time limit the price increase of agricultural means of production, give effective subsidy policies to both sides, promote farmers' production and income increase, and ensure that the income increase year by year. At present, the pattern that national income distribution is not conducive to farmers has not been fundamentally reversed. We should gradually narrow the scissors gap between industrial and agricultural products by establishing price protection policies and other measures to shape the relationship between new agriculture with equal development of industry and agriculture and the national economy. Today, when China's industrialization is in the middle stage, economic development should implement a strategic shift from "absorbing agriculture" to "feeding agriculture back", consolidate the basic position of agriculture, support rural economic development, and increase investment in agriculture year by year. Governments at all levels should ensure that the annual growth level of financial funds for supporting agriculture is higher than that of the previous year, so as to lay a solid foundation for improving agricultural production conditions, enhancing the ability to resist natural disasters and realizing long-term and stable growth of farmers' income.
2. Adjustment of agricultural structure is a necessary condition. At present, the unreasonable agricultural structure in China is mainly manifested as follows: first, the regional structure is similar, repeated production in various regions, and low-level competition; Second, the structure of agricultural products is unreasonable, the quality of products is poor and they lack competitiveness; Third, the production organization is unreasonable, scattered, small in scale and high in cost. To solve the above problems, first, give play to comparative advantages, highlight regional characteristics and solve regional structural problems. All localities should focus on domestic and foreign markets, choose superior planting and focus on developing aquaculture according to local resource endowment, and realize regional layout, specialized division of labor, large-scale production and socialized services. Transform regional advantages into economic advantages and then into economic benefits. Different regions will give full play to their respective advantages and benefit from each other's markets, so that more farmers can increase their income. Second, optimize the structure of agricultural products, increase the proportion of high-quality products and solve the structural problems of agricultural products. With the improvement of people's quality of life, consumers demand higher and higher quality of agricultural products. The concept of modern agricultural product quality is not only physical and biological quality, but also includes the significance of production environment, production process, nutrition and hygiene. There are many pollution-free, healthy, safe and enjoyable agricultural and sideline products in income elasticity of demand. Vigorously develop famous, excellent, special and new varieties, improve the proportion of high-quality products, scientific and technological content and added value, while stabilizing the comprehensive grain production capacity, gradually cultivate animal husbandry, melon and fruit industry, tourism and agricultural and sideline products processing industry into pillar industries of agricultural economy, and make farmers' income leap to a new level. Third, take the road of agricultural enterprise and solve the problem of unreasonable organizational structure of production and operation. The household contract system has greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of farmers. After more than 20 years of operation, the outstanding problem is that the private ownership of agricultural land farmers can not solve the high cost and inefficiency brought by farmers' decentralized management, and it is even more difficult to resist the risks brought by the big market. Exploring a new mode of production organization should be agricultural enterprise management, including agricultural production enterprises, processing enterprises and circulation enterprises. This can improve the commercialization, scale, specialization and socialization of agricultural products, narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and solve the problem of low agricultural labor productivity. Agricultural enterprise is a process from joint operation or entrusted operation of farmers to cooperative operation, and finally realizes corporate operation. This process needs the cooperation of the government in agricultural investment and financing, land circulation and social security system. Only in this way can we fundamentally solve the problem of increasing farmers' income in the future.
Improving farmers' quality is the key to further increase farmers' income. Practice has proved that in the field of income distribution, the higher the education level, the higher the income. Because high-quality workers and low-quality workers can provide more high-quality labor for the society at the same time, thus obtaining higher income. The quality of workers is related to their education level. For farmers, improving their quality and skills through education and training will change their employment and income. According to the analysis of American economist D. Gale Johnson, the income of farmers in China will increase by 3.6%-5.5% for every extra year of education. For example, if the education level of employees in the primary industry reaches the level of urban population, the income gap between urban and rural residents will be reduced by 15-20 percentage points, and farmers' income will be greatly increased. Indeed, those farmers in China who have received high school education, whether working at home or engaging in production and business activities in other industries, have higher business results and benefits than farmers who have only received junior high school or primary school education. To this end, we must take all measures and do everything possible to improve the quality of farmers. First, strengthen rural basic education. About 900 million of China's nearly 654.38+03 billion people live in rural areas, and the quality of rural basic education directly affects the cultural quality of farmers. However, the present situation of rural basic education in China is not optimistic. Although great improvement has been made through the efforts of governments at all levels, there is still a big gap compared with the national requirements for improving the quality of farmers. Therefore, the central and provincial governments should increase their support for rural basic education, promote the development of rural basic education, and enable some primary and middle school students who have dropped out of school or dropped out of school because of poverty to complete basic education. Second, vigorously develop vocational and technical education and improve farmers' production skills. At present, the current situation of rural basic education in China and the low income level of farmers make it difficult for many farmers' children to enter higher schools for further study after completing basic education, but to enter the society and join the labor force. In view of this situation, we should consider increasing the proportion of vocational and technical education in the process of basic education, so that students majoring in agriculture and forestry can learn some vocational skills in the basic education stage and lay a certain foundation for finding a job in the future. At the same time, education administrative departments at all levels should adjust measures to local conditions, combine agricultural production and farmers' actual needs, take serving agriculture and farmers as the purpose, vigorously develop rural vocational and technical education and training, and help farmers solve some practical difficulties encountered in production and operation.
4. Developing labor economy and reforming household registration management are the only way. The purpose of developing labor economy is the employment and output of surplus labor, which can increase farmers' wage income and maximize labor utility. When increasing production limits the space for farmers to increase their income, developing labor economy and reforming household registration management have become the inevitable ways for farmers to increase their income. In 2002, farmers' income increased by 4% over the previous year, mainly because 654.38+0.3 billion farmers were engaged in secondary and tertiary industries, among which 94 million farmers went to cities to work, with a total income of about 527.8 billion yuan and a per capita income of 5,592 yuan. The low agricultural labor productivity in China is the fundamental reason for the slow growth of farmers' income. Starting from the long-term goal of agricultural modernization, we should still take the road of rural industrialization and urbanization. The government should formulate policies and measures for agricultural population transfer and urbanization in stages. First of all, we should reform and continue the household registration management system of urban population in the planned economy period, remove the barriers that restrict farmers from entering cities to protect urban prosperity, and gradually realize the integrated management of urban and rural household registration; Secondly, provide employment opportunities, expand farmers' employment channels, eliminate discrimination against farmers' employment, and realize the transformation of farmers' identity; Finally, by vigorously establishing township enterprises to develop rural secondary and tertiary industries, the surplus labor force will be transferred to agricultural products deep processing enterprises. The data show that the deep processing of agricultural products in developed countries accounts for about 80% of the total, while China only accounts for 10-20%. The ratio of their output value before, during and after delivery is 2: 65,438+0: 7, while China is just the opposite, 7: 65,438+0: 2. It can be seen that there is still a lot of room for the transformation value of agricultural products in China. Most township enterprises should combine agricultural industrialization, take agricultural products as raw materials, improve the level of deep processing, and increase farmers' income by increasing added value.
5. Actively promote the reform of rural taxes and fees, and effectively reduce the burden on farmers. The policy of tax and fee reform implemented by the Party in rural areas is a radical solution to reduce the burden on farmers, and it is the third major reform in rural areas of China after the land reform and the household contract responsibility system. Governments at all levels and competent departments should fully understand the importance, complexity and arduousness of this work, and conscientiously implement the central government's principles and policies to reduce the burden on farmers. It is necessary to further strengthen special governance, supervision and inspection, straighten out the interests of the state, collectives and farmers according to law, stop all kinds of arbitrary charges, fund-raising and apportionment, and seriously investigate and deal with cases of violation of law and discipline that increase the burden on farmers. Through the implementation of the policy of changing fees into taxes, the burden on farmers will be truly brought into the track of standardized and legal management. At the same time, we must make up our minds to streamline township institutions, reduce the number of township administrators, reduce management costs, and reduce the burden on farmers from the source.
6. Accelerate the process of urbanization and realize the effective transfer of rural surplus labor and rural population. With the acceleration of China's modernization process, the level of urbanization will be further improved, which will provide a broad space for rural surplus labor and rural population to turn to towns with advanced technology and high labor productivity, thus promoting agricultural scale operation, improving agricultural labor productivity and further increasing farmers' income. First of all, governments at all levels should strengthen urbanization, especially urban infrastructure construction, to meet the needs of the transfer of rural surplus labor to cities. After the rural surplus labor force is transferred to the city, it needs housing, transportation, schooling for children, medical care, social security, entertainment and other production and living services. Some of these services can be solved by market-oriented operation, while children's schooling and social security can only be solved by effective government investment. Therefore, governments at all levels should take corresponding measures to speed up the process of urbanization according to the actual situation, such as building satellite cities around big cities, speeding up the construction of small and medium-sized cities and improving urban functions. Secondly, we should comply with the requirements of urbanization law and take relevant measures, from artificially restricting farmers from entering cities in the past, to allowing farmers to settle in cities, and then to encouraging farmers to enter cities. This not only needs to change the incorrect understanding in the past, but also needs to abandon some practices that restrict farmers from entering cities in practice, lower the threshold for farmers to settle in cities, and provide convenience for farmers to enter cities. For example, the dual household registration management system should be revised and abolished to eliminate the difference in national treatment between agricultural registered permanent residence and non-agricultural registered permanent residence. Farmers who have worked in cities for a certain number of years, have a fixed residence and a stable income are allowed to apply for becoming urban residents, and enjoy the same treatment as urban residents in terms of children's schooling and social security. Cancel measures that restrict urban development, such as increasing urban capacity fees for urban settlement or population transfer between cities. Thirdly, under the premise of optimizing economic layout and upgrading industrial structure, the government will vigorously develop labor-intensive industries and tertiary industries to provide suitable jobs for farmers entering cities. Only in this way can farmers truly integrate into the city, adapt to the new environment, quickly change their roles and seek survival and development in the city. Finally, the process of urbanization should adapt to the level of economic development and market development, step by step, take a diversified urbanization road that conforms to China's national conditions and the coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns, gradually form a reasonable urban system, and improve the level of urbanization, which is not only conducive to the transfer of rural population, but also provides a broad market and lasting impetus for economic development.
7. Increasing government investment is the foundation. The main investors in China's agriculture are the state, collectives and farmers. Under the current household contract responsibility system, the collective generally lacks the necessary accumulation, and most of the funds of rural grassroots organizations come from farmers. After the net income of farmers offsets the burden, there is no income at all, and the investment ability of this subject can be ignored. Strive to increase the proportion of state finance in agricultural investment. According to the requirements of the Agricultural Law, the annual growth rate of the state finance in the total agricultural investment should be higher than the growth rate of the recurrent revenue of the state finance, and the proportion of agricultural investment should be increased from the current 8% to more than 10% in 2005. In terms of investment increment, we should first improve rural and agricultural infrastructure, raise the level of capital formation and fixed assets accumulation, and create a good foundation and external environment for agricultural development and farmers' income increase; Secondly, to improve the international competitiveness and quality and safety of agricultural products, we should also pay attention to agricultural ecological protection and rural employment structure adjustment; Third, increase investment in science and technology, do a good job in the transformation and popularization of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, organically combine production structure with market demand, and let farmers increase their income from increased investment.
Combining all the effective methods or measures, I think the problems concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers can be solved, but we should realize that it can be solved well, which does not mean that it will receive immediate results. It will take a long time to completely solve the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. After all, there are many restrictive factors, and now it is facing a severe form after China's entry into WTO. This requires us to persistently implement the "three rural" policies.