The biggest gap in rural areas The fundamental purpose of implementing the western development is to accelerate the economic and social development in the western region and gradually narrow the gap between the east and the west. Duan Yingbi, deputy director of the Central Financial and Economic Leading Group Office, believes that the gap between the east and the west is manifested in many aspects, but the biggest gap is between the east and the west. After tackling poverty, the vast majority of the poor people in China have basically solved the problem of food and clothing, and the rest are mainly distributed in rural areas in the west. The agricultural development in western China should attract more attention. Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, cited such a set of figures: 1999. In the western region, the income of urban residents in three provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities is higher than the national average, another three are higher than the national average by 90%, and the rest are higher than the national average by 75%. However, in the same period, the per capita income of farmers in western China 12 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities was lower than the national average, and the per capita income of farmers in 7 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities was less than two thirds of the national average. He believes that the most fundamental reason for the economic backwardness of the whole western region is that the rural development in the western region is more backward and the farmers in the western region are poorer. Therefore, to implement the strategy of developing the western region, agriculture and rural economy in the western region must develop faster, and the income of farmers in the western region must be greatly increased. Du Ying, director of the Industrial Policy and Regulation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, further demonstrated that in recent years, the income of farmers in China has increased at a low speed. If we continue to divide farmers into different business types, the income of non-agricultural part-time households will increase, while the income of pure farmers and agricultural part-time households will not increase much or even decrease; In terms of regions, the income gap between farmers in the eastern and central and western regions has widened; From the perspective of income grouping, the income of a few high-income families is increasing, while the income of most low-income families is not increasing much or even decreasing. These situations show that the central and western regions are the real difficulties for farmers to increase their income. The surrounding environment has changed the development of western agriculture, and it is facing a new background and new situation. The western region and enterprises preparing to enter the western region should be fully aware of the changed environment. Duan Yingbi said that the pattern of supply and demand of agricultural products has undergone fundamental changes. The development of western agriculture can no longer only pursue output and quantity, but must consider sales, face the market, and combine local natural advantages with market demand. In many places in the west, characteristic agriculture is booming, and its advantages are incomparable in other places. The township enterprises in the east have developed under the condition of short economy, and if the township enterprises in the west take the extension of the east to expand Zhang Zhilu, they will certainly encounter market problems. Han Jun, Minister of Rural Affairs of the State Council Development Research Center, believes that China will soon join the WTO, and international competition will become increasingly domestic. At present, some large foreign juice processing enterprises have landed on our beach. Our leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization should have a world vision and be prepared to participate in international competition. Liang Xue, director of the Comprehensive Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, raised this issue from another angle. He feels that the western region has distinct natural regional economic characteristics. Taking the 400 mm isorainfall line as the boundary, the western region can be divided into two regions: arid and semi-arid region and humid and semi-humid region. The water resources, light and heat resources and natural vegetation in these two areas are different, and the industries suitable for development are also different. To develop western agriculture, we must deeply understand and fully respect the natural and economic laws of the western region. We can neither destroy the ecological environment in order to solve the survival problem, nor simply emphasize the importance of the ecological environment and ignore the survival problem of farmers. The western region has many unique advantages, but the lack of water in the northwest and land in the southwest is the biggest constraint. Experts say that because of this, the agricultural development in the western region should proceed from the local actual situation and sustainable development strategy, do a good job in structural adjustment, find a way to develop large-scale agriculture, and allocate limited resources to the most effective projects. Qu Dongyu, director of the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, analyzed that Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang in western China are rich in light resources, with large temperature difference between day and night and cool in summer, which are suitable for the growth and development of fruit trees, vegetables and flowers; Because the land price and labor cost in the west are relatively low, its fruits, vegetables and flowers have strong price advantages compared with other domestic producing areas and similar products abroad, which is conducive to opening up domestic and foreign markets. Taking vegetables as an example, our production capacity and technical level are in step with the world, and the gap is mainly in the whole process of quality control. Where is the low per capita income of farmers in the western region? According to the statistics of 1999, the per capita net income of farmers in the west is even 6 percentage points higher than that in the eastern provinces and cities. Such a set of figures is more telling: among the per capita net income of farmers in China, labor income accounts for 28.5%, farmers in eastern coastal provinces and cities account for 46.5%, and farmers in western regions only account for 19.2%. This shows that the poverty of farmers in the west is mainly due to the underdevelopment of rural non-agricultural industries and the low proportion of rural labor transferring to cities. Through the above analysis, Chen Xiwen draws the conclusion that it is an urgent task for rural development in the western region to actively promote the adjustment of agricultural and rural economic structure and strive to expand farmers' employment space. In the western development, special attention should be paid to the development of private small and medium-sized enterprises in order to create more employment opportunities. The development of agriculture in the western region, to change the situation of simply providing low-priced raw materials, can not be separated from agricultural industrialization management, can not be separated from industrialized leading enterprises. During the meeting, Li Ding, deputy director of the Agricultural Industrialization Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, went to Xi 'an Zhongfu Enterprise Group engaged in seedling grass industry and Haisheng Fruit Industry Co., Ltd. engaged in apple juice processing, and saw that they were supported by science and technology and operated in a market-oriented way, and felt that there was great hope for agricultural development in the western region. Chatting with entrepreneurs, he found some controversial issues in the theoretical circle, such as the interest relationship between enterprises and farmers, which entrepreneurs handled very well in practice. Tang, director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Finance and Economics, pointed out that in order to realize the leap-forward development of agriculture in China, efforts must be made to promote scientific and technological innovation, financing innovation and organizational innovation. We should not only continue to rely on "guerrillas", but also form a group of "regular troops". While continuing to strengthen the household contract management foundation of farmers and developing various forms of market intermediary organizations, we should strive to cultivate a number of agricultural enterprises or companies with strong risk resistance and use modern production factors such as capital, technology, management and information to fundamentally enhance the international competitiveness of China's agriculture as soon as possible.