Insurance Xiaobian helps you to answer, and more questions can be answered online.
The United States is the most developed agricultural country in the world, the only country in the world with an annual per capita grain output of more than 1 ton, and the largest grain exporter. In addition to its unique natural conditions, the tradition of "building the country by agriculture" and a complete agricultural support and protection system are important guarantees for promoting the sustained and stable development of American agriculture.
1. Characteristics of American agriculture
(1) World-leading agricultural modernization and agricultural productivity
With the development of industry, the proportion of agriculture in the American economy has gradually declined, but the government has adopted policies to support and protect agriculture, which makes American agriculture still have the strongest competitiveness in the world. The main products with the highest output in the world are soybeans, grains, poultry, pork and beef, and milk. In 27, the total export of agricultural products in the United States reached $77 billion, and export income accounted for a quarter of all cash income of agricultural products.
(2) Based on highly commercialized family farms, the Homestead Act enacted in
laid the foundation for American family farms. At present, there are 2.4 million farms in China, with an average size of 193.4 hectares. There are more than 2 million agricultural laborers, accounting for about 2% of the total labor force in China. The number of small farms exceeds 9%, accounting for 7% of the total agricultural assets. At present, the number of "company farms" is rising, about 7 thousand. Although the number is small, its area and sales account for a large proportion of American farms.
(3) Agricultural production is highly regionalized and integrated
In p>1914, American agriculture realized planting specialization to a great extent. Agricultural production and marketing realize the integration of "from field to table" The agricultural system in the United States is called "agro-industrial complex", and the number of employees accounts for 17% of the national labor force, which is much higher than the labor force that agriculture itself can absorb.
American Agricultural Association is a spontaneous organization of farmers, which was founded in 1919 and has a history of nearly 1 years. At present, there are 6 million members, mainly farmers (8% of individual farmers in the country participate in the association) and small producers or individuals related to or interested in agriculture. The main duties of the Agricultural Association are: to collect the opinions and suggestions of its members through associations all over the country, to hold an annual meeting in January every year, to formulate corresponding policies that represent the wishes of most farmers, such as agricultural taxation, environmental protection, government investment, etc., to lobby Congress on behalf of farmers, and to strive to make farmers' suggestions become policy support of the federal government. The association is a non-governmental department, without government funding, and its daily expenses are maintained by membership dues.
ii. American agricultural support and protection system
As a policy system, the agricultural protection system originated in the United States in the early 193s. At present, the agricultural support and protection policy system in the United States mainly includes the following aspects:
(1) income support system
direct subsidies. It is the income support provided to producers according to the historical unit yield and planting area. The agricultural products covered include wheat, feed grain, rice, upland cotton, oilseeds and peanuts. Farmers who enjoy direct subsidies have the right to decide what crops to plant independently. The subsidies have nothing to do with farmers' planting plans, and each farm can get a direct subsidy of up to 4, US dollars per year.
countercyclical subsidies. Refers to the income support provided to producers when the effective price is lower than the target price. Covered agricultural products are the same as direct subsidies. The target price is determined by national laws and regulations, and the effective price refers to the sum of the direct subsidy received by the producer plus the market price or the higher income obtained by the trading loan plan. Each farm can get a countercyclical subsidy of up to $65, per year.
national dairy market loss subsidy. Used as an income safety net for dairy producers. If the monthly price of a certain grade of milk is lower than the determined price, direct subsidies can be obtained monthly. Each dairy can enjoy this subsidy for up to 2.4 million pounds of milk per year (equivalent to the milk production of 135 cows).
special disaster assistance. Used to provide partial economic compensation to producers in case of bad weather, delayed disaster or unfavorable economic situation. The year when the plan was launched accounted for 1 of the past 2 years.
transaction assistance loans and loan shortfall subsidies. Coverage is wide. Allow producers to repay at the market price when the market price is lower than the loan principal and interest, thus bringing a benefit called "transaction loan income" to producers. If you don't want to join the transaction assistance loan program, producers can get another direct subsidy, namely the loan deficit subsidy.
crop and income insurance. The government provides large-scale premium subsidies to institutions engaged in agricultural insurance, so that producers can generally participate in agricultural insurance at a lower rate. When the per unit area yield or income of producers is lower than the average level, they are provided with loss subsidies.
(II) Price Support System
The price support system currently implemented in the United States is only applicable to a few agricultural products such as sugar, tobacco, milk and dairy products, mainly including the following four types:
Agricultural product loan plan. The producer takes the agricultural products that have not been harvested as collateral and obtains a loan from the government agricultural credit company to maintain the normal production of agriculture. When the market price is higher than the target price, the farmer can sell the agricultural products at the market price and pay the principal and interest in cash. If the market price is lower than the target price, the farmer can hand over the agricultural products to the agricultural credit company.
government procurement. It is used to strictly control the milk supply in the market and ensure that the price of raw milk used to produce butter, cheese or skim milk powder is consistent with the government-supported price of bottled milk to support the market price of dairy products.
tariff and tax rate quota. Provide price support for agricultural products by restricting the import of low-priced products. The average import tariff rate of agricultural products in the United States is only 12%, which is the lowest among all members of the World Trade Organization. However, the United States has higher import tariffs on dairy products, sweeteners and tobacco. Tax rate quotas are mainly applicable to peanuts, tobacco, beef, dairy products, sugar, cotton and other commodities.
export subsidies. Refers to a series of institutional measures formulated by the U.S. government to encourage the export of agricultural products, such as reducing the price of agricultural products exported by the United States through price subsidies and expanding the export demand plan. Provide credit guarantee for exporters to expand the export scale of American agricultural products.
(III) Credit Support System
The agricultural credit system in the United States is divided into national credit system and commercial credit system. The national credit system is subordinate to the federal government, including the National Agricultural Credit Administration and agricultural credit institutions. It has strong policy investment and financing functions, mainly providing farmers with long-term, medium-term and short-term loans and production loans. The Agricultural Products Credit Company of the United States Department of Agriculture mainly provides farmers with short-term loans with unsalable agricultural products as collateral to support the prices of agricultural products, so as to stabilize the income of agricultural producers. Using this financial means, the government intervenes and regulates the sales and production of agricultural products, providing farmers with very convenient conditions and means to raise and use funds.
(4) Other supporting systems
such as "trading orders" and "environmental plans". The former is suitable for dairy products and certain fruits and vegetables to create a good trading environment, while the latter is to encourage producers to comply with relevant resource protection requirements in order to obtain various policy subsidies. Another example is that the government provides financial support to build a large-scale agricultural product wholesale market and reduce the transaction cost of agricultural products.
Third, the problems in American agriculture
American agriculture has a high labor productivity, and while it is developing steadily, it also exposes some problems and shortcomings that deserve attention. First, it consumes a lot of energy and the energy utilization rate is low. Modern agriculture in the United States is a typical "energy-intensive agriculture". The food consumed by each person in the United States in a year is about 1 ton of gasoline. Not only does it consume a lot of non-renewable energy, but the utilization rate of energy is also very low. Second, agriculture is highly dependent on the international market. About one-fifth of American agricultural products are exported. Third, a large number of grains used to make ethanol will increase the pressure on the balance between supply and demand of agricultural products in the world. Fourth, agricultural production lacks diversity in varieties, which increases the risk of biological diseases. Fifth, agricultural land and farmers are still decreasing. Due to the influence of agricultural benefits and taxes, the agricultural land in the United States is also decreasing, some young people are unwilling to engage in agricultural production, and the trend of farmers' aging is serious.
As the most developed American agriculture in the world, we can't compare its natural conditions and other objective advantages, but its development ideas and concepts, as well as its support and protection for agriculture, are worth learning and learning from.
(1) Further strengthen the support and protection of agriculture, and establish and improve the system and mechanism for ensuring agricultural development
Since the reform and opening up, China's agricultural support and protection policies have been continuously strengthened, but compared with mature market economy countries such as the United States, China's agricultural support and protection level is still very low, and the support and protection mechanism is still far from perfect. First of all, the total domestic support for agriculture is low. Secondly, the support structure is not reasonable. Third, there are many subsidies and high costs. Fourth, we have not yet formed a perfect agricultural support and protection policy system. According to the goal of "forming a new pattern of integration of urban and rural social and economic development" put forward by the 17th National Congress, we must further adjust the pattern of national income distribution, establish an input guarantee mechanism to promote modern agricultural construction, and accelerate the establishment of a stable growth mechanism for agricultural input. We will continue to implement and increase various direct subsidies to farmers and improve the comprehensive direct subsidy system for agricultural materials. Actively study and improve subsidy methods, and direct subsidies to farmers should be as concise and efficient as possible. It is necessary to change the practice of relying solely on direct government relief and actively pilot natural disaster subsidies that combine agricultural insurance with disaster relief.
(II) Increase agricultural investment and further improve agricultural infrastructure construction
The core of agricultural support and protection is input support. In the United States, there is basically no difference between urban and rural areas. A very important sign is the equality of urban and rural areas in enjoying social public services. In order to promote the sustainable development of agriculture, the American government invests in the construction and maintenance of large-scale water conservancy and other infrastructure every year. For water conservancy and hydropower projects, the investment in flood control and environment is generally borne by the federal government and is not required to be repaid. The investment in irrigation only requires the recovery of principal, while the investment in power generation and urban water supply requires the recovery of principal and interest.
the basic conditions of agricultural production in China are weak, and the development of rural social undertakings is backward. Strengthening the construction of agricultural infrastructure focusing on water conservancy and accelerating the development of rural social undertakings will be an important task for China's agricultural development for a long time to come. In accordance with the requirements of coordinating urban and rural economic development, the newly-increased funds for education, health, culture and other undertakings and the incremental investment in fixed assets should be mainly used in rural areas, and the proportion of government land transfer income used in rural areas should be gradually increased. Drawing lessons from the experience of the United States, we should combine direct government subsidies with credit investment according to the different nature of the project, and at the same time increase investment integration. We will make great efforts to do a good job in farmland water conservancy construction such as strengthening dangerous reservoirs and supporting large and medium-sized canal systems, and strengthen the management of small and medium-sized rivers. Accelerate the improvement of cultivated land quality and build high-standard farmland with high yield and stable yield. Strengthen the construction of agricultural information infrastructure, establish a smooth, sensitive and fast information network system, so that farmers can make full use of social information resources, solve problems in the whole process before, during and after delivery, and promote agricultural development. Vigorously promote the extension of urban basic service facilities to rural areas, and strive to form a network of public transportation, water supply and power supply, radio and television, environmental protection and ecological construction that connects urban and rural areas.
(3) Establish and improve the risk prevention and insurance mechanism for agricultural production
The US government attaches great importance to agricultural insurance, especially the insurance for the breeding industry, and implements low fees and high subsidies for agricultural insurance. From the experience of the United States and other developed countries in the world, it is very necessary to establish and improve the agricultural insurance system and avoid agricultural risks by implementing the agricultural insurance system.
the establishment and improvement of agricultural risk prevention mechanism will help reduce the losses of farmers in sudden natural disasters. Therefore, it is suggested that the state should first formulate a disaster relief system. For natural disasters caused by non-human factors, the government should give farmers a certain proportion (such as 6%) of the average harvest in previous years, so as to maintain the normal life of farmers and reinvest in production in the coming year. Secondly, a variety of disaster insurance systems can be implemented. The government can implement various forms of subsidies, making agricultural insurance a policy insurance different from general commercial insurance, and minimizing farmers' investment risks.
(4) Promoting ecological civilization and developing sustainable agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture has implemented the ecological protection subsidy scheme for land fallow, soil and water conservation, wetland protection, grassland conservation, wildlife habitat protection and environmental quality incentives, and distributed these funds to farmers in the form of cash subsidies and technical assistance, or used them for various ecological protection subsidy projects that farmers voluntarily participated in, thus directly benefiting farmers. For a long time, we have gone through many detours in economic construction and gained economic benefits at the expense of the environment. We have learned a painful lesson, especially for the sustainable development of agriculture. The report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the idea of "building ecological civilization", which basically formed the industrial structure, growth mode and consumption mode of saving resources and protecting the ecological environment. It is suggested that we should learn from the experience of the United States, continue to do a good job in the construction of key ecological projects, actively promote rural energy construction, and vigorously promote the circular economy model. At the same time, we should study and formulate agricultural ecological protection subsidy policies in line with China's national conditions, give full play to the role of agricultural cooperative organizations, mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers, apply modern science and technology, protect, cultivate and make full use of natural resources, prevent and reduce environmental pollution, form a virtuous circle of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and by-fishing, and maintain the stable development of large agriculture.
(5) Accelerate the progress of agricultural science and technology and improve the scientific and technological content of agriculture
The American government has always regarded agricultural education, research and technology popularization as its important duties, and formed a unique "trinity" system. Namely: (1) The state agricultural college (the so-called "land-grant college" established in the 19th century) undertakes three tasks of education, research and extension at the same time; (2) The annual research and extension plan is applied from the grassroots, and the service provided by the extension station should meet the needs of agricultural production as much as possible; (3) Promotion funds shall be shared by the Federation, states and counties. American agricultural science research funds mainly come from public and private systems, which complement each other. The former focuses on basic research and applied research, while the latter focuses on new product development and applied research.
at present, the contribution rate of agricultural science and technology progress in China is only 49%, which is much lower than the average level of 7-8% in developed countries, and only 3.43% of the rural labor force has a technical secondary school education or above. In order to meet the requirements of agricultural development in the 21st century and accelerate the process of agricultural modernization, it is necessary to increase investment in science and technology, vigorously promote the pace of agricultural technological innovation, reform the system and mechanism that is divorced from agricultural scientific research and extension in China at present, and actively innovate to make agriculture and education closely integrated. Increase investment in agricultural basic scientific research, focus on improving the construction of a number of agricultural basic scientific research facilities, and ensure that agriculture has sufficient technical reserves. Strengthen the popularization and application of agricultural science and technology, gradually form a new agricultural technology popularization system that combines state support with market guidance, and combines paid services with free services, actively promote agricultural mechanization and agricultural informatization, improve the level of agricultural machinery and equipment, and improve the system of agricultural information collection and release. Strengthen farmers' education and training to improve the quality of modern farmers. Adapt to the needs of market competition, accelerate the cultivation has a strong market sense.