News Network (Reporter Liu Jinming) Recently, Hubei Provincial Department of Education issued a notice (Hubei Education Letter [2016] No. 34) and unveiled the results of“The Excellent Transformation Projects of Scientific and Technical Achievements Made in the Higher Education Institutions of Hubei Province” and “The Excellent Research Achievements for Policy Advisory Services Made by the Think Tank of the Higher Education Institutions of Hubei Province”. The report of decision-making consultation “Study on the system innovation and policy adjustment of strengthening the agricultural support” made by the team led by Prof. Chen Chibo was selected as one of the Top Ten Excellent Research Achievements for Policy Advisory Services Made by the Think Tank of the Higher Education Institutions of Hubei Province.
Prof. Chen is a second-grade professor, doctoral supervisor and famous teacher in Hubei province who enjoys the special allowance awarded by the State Council. Since 1980s, Prof. Chen has been dedicated himself to the research of “Three Agricultural Issues”. The awarded achievement was made from the major project “Study on the system innovation and policy adjustment of strengthening the agricultural support”, which was sponsored by National Social Science Fund. It mainly discusses five aspects: (1) systematic review and construction of the system for objective of agricultural support system (2) institutional innovation of agricultural support system; (3) evaluation of agricultural support policy; (4) security mechanism of agricultural support system; and (5) suggestions on the policy of improving the efficiency of agricultural support. The research interprets seven points: (1) the orientation of the objective of agricultural support: to stable the agricultural production, to increase the income of the farmers, to realize agricultural sustainable development and to make the agricultural products more competitive; (2) the framework of agricultural support system: financial support system, agricultural subsidy support system, food-price support system and the support system of agro-ecological subsidy; (3)the practical problems of agricultural support: misunderstanding, policy loopholes, deviation implementation and supervision failure; (4) the dilemmas in the implementation of the policies of agricultural subsidy: the high cost of implementation, the diminishing of policy effects and the divergence of the intention of policy; (5) the mode of food-price support: the cooperation between multiple parts; (6) the mechanism of agro-ecological subsidy: the subject, object, mode and standard of agro-ecological subsidy; and (7)the security mechanism of the implementation of agricultural support system: incentive mechanism of the subject, coordination mechanism of policy coordination, evaluation mechanism of performance, supervision mechanism of implementation. It puts forward five suggestions:(1) to increase the agricultural input; (2) to perfect the policies of agricultural support; (3) to optimize the food-price support policy; (4)to legalize the agro-ecological subsidy; and (5)to improve the security mechanism of agricultural support system.
The research, oriented with targeted support subject, builds a framework of agricultural support system and policy analysis in the logic order of the review of the status quo, the reflection of the issues, the reconstruction of the system, the coordination of the policies and the design of the mechanism. The research systematically analyzes the status quo of China’s agricultural support, recognizes the needs of modern agricultural support and clarifies the direction of modern agricultural support. It also dissects the influences of the scale, the structure, the orientation, the mode of agricultural support on the development of modern agriculture in order to reasonably allocate the agricultural support resources and improve the efficiency of agricultural support. Also, this research suggests that we should, based on the targeted agricultural support subject, make a system innovation and policy adjustment in agricultural input support system, agricultural subsidy system, price support system of agricultural products and agro-ecological subsidy support system. The research also covers the construction of incentive mechanism of the subject, coordination mechanism of policy, evaluation mechanism of performance and supervision mechanism of implementation. The research has a significant academic value in enriching the theory of agricultural support and development and updating the agricultural support system.
The research was highly appreciated by national and local chiefs of the party and the government when a serial of research achievements of the project has been submitted to the State Council, Office of Countryside Comprehensive Reform of the State Council, Ministry of Finance, Hubei Provincial Party Committee, Hubei Provincial People's Government, Financial Office (Agricultural Office) of Hubei Province. The national and local officials, including the then Vice-premier Hui Liangyu, the deputy directors Du Ying and Mu Hong from National Development and Reform Commission, the then Vice-governor of Hubei province Zhao Bin, the then Vice Secretary of party committee of Hubei province Zhang Chang'er, have all made the comment that the research serves as a think tank in the decision making of government.