Develop Agricultural New Quality Productive Forces According to Local Conditions

General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed that we must firmly grasp the primary task of high-quality development and develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions. The 2024 Central Conference on Rural Work proposed developing agricultural new quality productive forces according to local conditions. A strong country must first strengthen agriculture; only when agriculture is strong can the country be strong. Throughout world history, each "agricultural revolution" spurred by a leap in productive forces has provided the basic conditions for economic take-off and national strength. To build a great modern socialist country in all respects, it is necessary and inevitable that China transitions from a large agricultural country to a strong agricultural country, and achieving this leap cannot be done without developing agricultural new quality productive forces.

习近平总书记强调，要牢牢把握高质量发展这个首要任务，因地制宜发展新质生产力。2024年中央农村工作会议提出，因地制宜发展农业新质生产力。强国必先强农，农强方能国强。纵观世界发展史，以生产力飞跃催生的历次“农业革命”，无一不为经济腾飞和国家强大提供了基础条件。全面建成社会主义现代化强国，必须也必然要求我国由农业大国走向农业强国，实现这一跨越离不开发展农业新质生产力。

Agriculture is an important carrier and fertile ground for developing new quality productive forces. Agricultural new quality productive forces are advanced productive forces in the agricultural sector that are engendered by revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, 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 to develop agricultural new quality productive forces is through technological revolution and industrial transformation. In recent years, localities have adopted a series of innovative measures to promote continuous innovation in agricultural technology, with new industries, new business forms, and new models emerging rapidly. China's agricultural productive forces are now at a critical stage of transitioning from quantity to quality. At the same time, developing agricultural new quality productive forces must follow its own laws; it cannot be accomplished overnight but must be carried out according to local conditions, steadily and persistently. Based on China's national conditions and agricultural realities, developing agricultural new quality productive forces currently requires holding one bottom line, properly handling two relationships, and achieving three goals.

农业是发展新质生产力的重要载体和沃土。农业新质生产力，就是在农业领域由技术革命性突破、生产要素创新性配置、产业深度转型升级而催生出的先进生产力，本质特征是高技术、高效能和高质量。发展农业新质生产力的基本途径是科技革命和产业变革。近年来，各地通过一系列创新性举措，推动农业技术不断创新，新产业新业态新模式快速涌现，我国农业生产力的发展已处在由量向质转变的关键阶段。与此同时，发展农业新质生产力也要遵循自身规律，不能一蹴而就，必须因地制宜，稳扎稳打，久久为功。立足我国国情农情，当前发展农业新质生产力需要守住一个底线，把握好两个关系，实现三个目标。

**Holding One Bottom Line**

守住一个底线

Developing agricultural new quality productive forces must hold the bottom line of ensuring food security.

发展农业新质生产力，必须守住保障粮食安全这个底线。

Agriculture is a comprehensive industrial sector bearing multiple missions, and ensuring the stable and safe supply of grain and important agricultural products is always the top priority. Grain production is the foundation of all agriculture; without stable grain production, agricultural new quality productive forces are impossible. Therefore, developing agricultural new quality productive forces must not depart from or relax grain production, still less weaken the comprehensive agricultural production capacity. We must give greater prominence to enhancing the capacity to guarantee the supply of grain and other important agricultural products, implement the national food security strategy through science and technology in concrete terms, use new-generation information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to deeply embed new technologies into the entire grain production process, reduce potential risks to agricultural product supply, continuously tap the potential for grain yield increase, and ensure stable and bumper grain harvests.

农业是一个综合性的产业部门，承载着多重使命，保障粮食和重要农产品安全稳定供给始终是头等大事。粮食生产是整个农业的根基，没有稳定的粮食生产，农业新质生产力就无从谈起。因此，发展农业新质生产力，绝不能脱离或放松粮食生产，更不能削弱农业综合生产能力。必须把增强粮食等重要农产品供给保障能力摆在更加突出位置，把科技支撑国家粮食安全战略真正落实到位，运用大数据、人工智能等新一代信息技术，推动新技术深度嵌入粮食生产全过程，降低影响农产品供给的潜在风险，不断挖掘粮食增产潜力，确保粮食稳产丰产。

Using agricultural new quality productive forces to guarantee food security is reflected not only in sufficient quantity of grain production but also in promoting the quality of grain production and the improvement of total factor productivity, which provides new ideas and methods for ensuring food security. At present, the main problems facing China's grain production include tight constraints on cultivated land resources, an aging agricultural labor force, and the impact of extreme weather. Developing agricultural new quality productive forces can increase yield per unit area, reduce resource waste and ecological damage through intelligent, precise, and green agricultural technologies, thereby achieving stability and sustainability in grain production. For example, the Northeast region implements the strategy of "storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology," [1]1 The strategy of "storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology" is a Chinese food security strategy that combines land conservation and technological innovation to ensure stable grain production. using advanced technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things to promote conservation tillage, effectively improving soil fertility and grain yield; the southern rice-growing areas develop integrated rice-fishery farming models, effectively reducing agricultural non-point source pollution and achieving a win-win for grain production and ecological protection. Supporting national food security with agricultural new quality productive forces is not an overnight task; it requires multi-faceted assistance and sustained effort, with the focus on enhancing comprehensive agricultural production capacity, accelerating the modernization transformation of traditional agriculture, and firmly, reliably, and well holding "China's rice bowl." [2]2 "China's rice bowl" is a metaphor for China's ability to feed itself through domestic grain production.

以农业新质生产力保障粮食安全，不仅体现在粮食生产数量的充足上，而且体现在促进粮食生产质量和全要素生产率的提升，这为确保粮食安全提供了新的思路和方法。当前，我国粮食生产面临的主要问题包括耕地资源紧约束、农业劳动力老龄化以及极端气候冲击等。发展农业新质生产力，能够通过智能化、精准化、绿色化的农业技术，提高单位面积产量，减少资源浪费与生态损耗，从而实现粮食生产的稳定性和可持续性。例如，东北地区通过实施“藏粮于地、藏粮于技”战略，依托云计算、物联网等先进技术，推广保护性耕作，有效提高土壤肥力和粮食产量；南方稻作区通过发展稻渔综合种养模式，有效减少农业面源污染，实现粮食生产与生态保护双赢。以农业新质生产力支撑国家粮食安全并非一朝一夕之功，需多方助力、持续发力，重点是增强农业综合生产能力，加快传统农业现代化转型，把“中国饭碗”端稳端牢端好。

**Properly Handling Two Relationships**

把握好两对关系

First, properly handle the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers. Adjusting and optimizing the agricultural industrial structure is an important measure for achieving high-quality agricultural development and advancing agricultural modernization, and it is also an essential requirement for developing agricultural new quality productive forces. In the agricultural economic system, new and old drivers are interdependent. To promote the transformation and upgrading of the agricultural industrial structure, we must coordinate the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers. Developing agricultural new quality productive forces requires both emphasis on breaking inherent production structures, broadening the boundaries of the agricultural industry, and cultivating new drivers for the development of agricultural productive forces, and also attention to using new technologies and methods to transform traditional agriculture and renew old drivers for traditional agricultural development. Through the coordination and joint support of new and old drivers, we can form an inexhaustible source for promoting high-quality agricultural development.

一是把握好培育新动能和更新旧动能的关系。调整和优化农业产业结构，是实现农业高质量发展、推进农业现代化的重要举措，也是发展农业新质生产力的本质要求。在农业经济体系中新旧动能相互依存，推动农业产业结构转型升级，必须统筹好培育新动能和更新旧动能的关系。发展农业新质生产力，既要重视突破固有生产结构、拓宽农业产业边界、实现农业生产力发展的新动能培育，也不能忽视运用新技术、新方式改造传统农业，促进传统农业发展的旧动能更新。通过新旧动能相互配合、共同助力，形成促进农业高质量发展的不竭源泉。

China has a vast territory with vastly different local conditions and varying resource endowments, which determines that the path for developing agricultural new quality productive forces is not singular. Whether focusing on promoting the upgrading of traditional industries, coordinating the expansion of emerging industries, or diligently cultivating future industries, we must seek truth from facts and adapt to local conditions, closely combining local resource endowments, industrial foundations, and scientific research conditions. Using agricultural new quality productive forces to lead the development of modern agriculture requires making choices and knowing what not to do in order to achieve results and truly obtain practical outcomes.

我国地域辽阔，各地情况千差万别，资源禀赋各不相同，决定了发展农业新质生产力的路径并不唯一。不论是着力促进传统产业升级，还是统筹推进新兴产业壮大，或是潜心耕耘未来产业培育，都必须实事求是、因地制宜，紧密结合本地资源禀赋、产业基础、科研条件等开展。以农业新质生产力引领现代农业的发展，要有所选择、有所不为，才能有所作为、真正取得实效。

Second, properly handle the relationship between protecting smallholder farmers and developing modern agriculture. "A large country with small farmers" [3]3 "A large country with small farmers" (大国小农) characterizes China's agricultural situation: a large country where family-based small-scale farming remains dominant. is China's basic national and agricultural condition; smallholder family operations will remain the main mode of agricultural operation for a long time to come. Achieving agricultural modernization cannot be separated from the modernization of smallholder farmers, and introducing modern production factors to transform smallholder farmers is the necessary path to achieve this goal. Smallholder farmers are naturally characterized by weak risk tolerance and conservative technology tendencies, making it difficult for them to combine with modern production factors and therefore hard to deeply integrate into the modern agricultural development process. Developing agricultural new quality productive forces concerns not only the improvement of agricultural production efficiency but also the modernization of smallholder farmers and the increase of farmers' incomes. Developing agricultural new quality productive forces and promoting the transformation of agricultural production methods must prioritize protecting the basic interests of smallholder farmers as an important prerequisite.

二是把握好保护小农户与发展现代农业的关系。“大国小农”是我国的基本国情农情，小农户家庭经营在今后很长一段时间内仍将是农业的主要经营方式。实现农业现代化离不开小农户的现代化，引入现代生产要素改造小农户是实现这一目标的必由之路。小农户天然具有风险承受力弱、技术倾向保守等特点，不易与现代生产要素相结合，因而难以深度融入现代农业发展进程。发展农业新质生产力不仅关系农业生产效率的提升，也关系小农户的现代化和农民收入的提高。发展农业新质生产力，推动农业生产方式转变，必须把保障小农户基本利益作为重要前提。

To promote the effective connection between smallholder farmers and the development of modern agriculture, China has in recent years continuously improved support policies for smallholder farmers, strengthened socialized services for them, and gradually brought smallholder farmers onto the track of modern agricultural development. Through practical exploration, promoting the organized development of smallholder farmers—enabling them to deeply participate through agricultural industrialization consortia [4]4 Agricultural industrialization consortia (农业产业化联合体) are organizational forms integrating leading enterprises, farmer cooperatives, and family farms to promote industrial upgrading and shared benefits. in the diverse new-type business entity structure formed by specialized farmer cooperatives, leading enterprises, and family farms—can better facilitate the organic integration of smallholder farmers with modern agricultural production methods, allowing them to share to a large extent the benefits brought by new agricultural technologies, new industries, new business forms, and new models. Using agricultural new quality productive forces to promote modern agricultural development involves more diverse stakeholders and more complex interest relationships; we must further innovate agricultural industry organization models, improve interest linkage and distribution mechanisms, and achieve symbiotic win-win between smallholder farmers and new-type business entities.

为推动小农户与发展现代农业的有效衔接，近年来我国通过不断完善针对小农户的扶持政策，加强面向小农户的社会化服务，逐步把小农户引入现代农业发展轨道。经过实践探索，推动小农户的组织化发展，让小农户通过农业产业化联合体深度参与由农民专业合作社、龙头企业、家庭农场等形成的多元新型经营主体架构中，可以较好地推动小农户与现代农业生产方式有机结合，使其在较大程度上分享农业新技术新产业新业态新模式所带来的收益。以农业新质生产力推动现代农业发展，涉及的利益主体更多元、利益关系更复杂，必须进一步创新农业产业组织模式，完善利益联结分配机制，实现小农户与新型经营主体共生共赢。

**Achieving Three Goals**

实现三个目标

First, strengthen collaborative research on agricultural science and technology to comprehensively enhance the level and capability of agricultural science and technology innovation. The foundation for cultivating and developing agricultural new quality productive forces is scientific and technological innovation. We must promote industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation, especially using disruptive technologies and cutting-edge technologies to generate new industries, new models, and new drivers, and to develop new quality productive forces.

首先，加强农业科技力量协同攻关，全面提升农业科技创新能力和水平。培育和发展农业新质生产力的基础是科技创新。要以科技创新推动产业创新，特别是以颠覆性技术和前沿技术催生新产业、新模式、新动能，发展新质生产力。

In recent years, China has achieved a series of major breakthroughs in basic and applied research in agricultural science and technology, as well as in key core technology breakthroughs, providing important support for improving land output rates, agricultural resource utilization rates, and labor productivity. Scientific and technological innovation has become the primary driving force for agricultural modernization. However, the overall effectiveness of the agricultural science and technology innovation system is not high; there is still a considerable gap between China's agricultural science and technology level and the world's advanced level, and there are many "bottleneck" problems in key core technologies. At root, China's agricultural science and technology innovation research forces are still relatively scattered, making it difficult to form synergy and support the research and development of common comprehensive agricultural science and technology projects. To lay a solid scientific and technological foundation for developing agricultural new quality productive forces, we must strengthen collaborative research on agricultural science and technology forces. We should give full play to the advantages of the new nationwide system for mobilizing resources, [5]5 The new nationwide system for mobilizing resources (新型举国体制) is a Chinese concept for centralized coordination of resources to achieve strategic scientific and technological breakthroughs. coordinate various agricultural innovation resources and forces, enhance the systematic organization level and systematic research capability of agricultural science and technology, and build a tiered, division-of-labor, appropriately competitive agricultural science and technology innovation system. Deepen the integration of industry, academia, and research, more effectively organize research institutions, universities, agricultural science and technology enterprises, etc., and promote all innovation entities to work in the same direction, share resources, complement advantages, and collaborate in innovation. Further improve the organization and management mechanism for agricultural research projects, centered on major national strategic needs and guided by industrial urgency, accelerate breakthroughs in key core technologies, and concentrate efforts on overcoming bottlenecks such as crop breeding, livestock and poultry germplasm resources, and high-end agricultural machinery manufacturing, to achieve self-reliance and self-strengthening in agricultural science and technology.

近年来，我国在农业科技基础和应用研究、关键核心技术攻关等方面取得一系列重大突破，为提高耕地产出率、农业资源利用率、劳动生产率等提供了重要支撑，科技创新已成为农业现代化的首要驱动力量。但农业科技创新体系整体效能不高，农业科技水平同世界先进水平还存在较大差距，存在不少关键核心技术“卡脖子”难题。追根溯源，是我国农业科技创新研究力量还比较分散，难以形成合力，难以支撑共性综合农业科技项目的研发。打牢发展农业新质生产力的科技基础，必须加强农业科技力量协同攻关。应充分发挥新型举国体制优势，统筹各类农业创新资源和力量，提升农业科技系统化组织水平和体系化攻关能力，构建梯次分明、分工协作、适度竞争的农业科技创新体系。深化产学研融合，把科研机构、大学、农业科技企业等更加有效地组织起来，推动各类创新主体同向发力、资源共享、优势互补、协同创新。进一步完善农业科研项目组织管理机制，围绕国家重大战略需要，以产业急需为导向，加快关键核心技术攻关，集中力量攻克作物育种、畜禽种源、高端农机制造等瓶颈，实现农业科技自立自强。

Second, accelerate the large-scale promotion and application of agricultural science and technology achievements to increase the contribution rate of advanced technology to agricultural economic development. Only when revolutionary technologies achieve practical results in actual agricultural production can agricultural new quality productive forces truly form. Although the number of agricultural science and technology papers published and the number of agricultural invention patent applications by China have both ranked first in the world, the conversion rate of agricultural science and technology achievements is still not high enough, and the mechanism for the conversion and application of agricultural science and technology achievements is not yet perfect. To solve these problems, we need to improve the agricultural science and technology extension service system, use digital empowerment to build new channels for agricultural technology conversion, deeply integrate new technologies developed by research units, schools, and enterprises with advanced management concepts at home and abroad and digital technology, achieve the extension and coverage of scientific and technological achievements to rural areas through remote guidance or direct management, improve agricultural production efficiency, and promote comprehensive agricultural upgrading. Follow the laws of industrial development and market demand, promote the deep integration of agricultural innovation chain, supply chain, industrial chain, and value chain, and enhance the quality and efficiency of the agricultural industry. Strengthen the management of agricultural science and technology achievements, innovate the management system and mechanism for agricultural science and technology achievements, strengthen the protection of scientific and technological achievements, and continuously increase the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements. Carry out large-scale application demonstration activities of new technologies, new products, and new scenarios, cultivate backbone talents in agricultural technology extension, and use county-level agricultural science and technology demonstration bases and village-level "science and technology backyards" [6]6 "Science and technology backyards" (科技小院) are grassroots innovation platforms where researchers and students work directly with farmers to promote agricultural technology adoption. to open up the "last mile" of scientific and technological achievement conversion and technical service extension. Give full play to the driving role of new-type agricultural business entities in driving smallholder farmers in science and technology, build a policy system that supports and serves smallholder farmers' adoption of science and technology, and achieve effective connection between smallholder farmers and agricultural science and technology achievements.

其次，加快农业科技成果大面积推广应用，提高先进技术对农业经济发展的贡献率。只有革命性技术在实际农业生产中发挥实效，才能真正形成农业新质生产力。尽管我国农业科技论文发文数量、农业发明专利申请量均已跃居世界第一，但农业科技成果转化率还不够高，农业科技成果转化应用的机制尚不完善。解决这些问题，需要健全农业科技推广服务体系，通过数字化赋能，构建新型农业技术转化途径，将科研单位、学校及企业研发出的新技术及国内外先进管理理念与数字技术深度融合，通过远程指导或直接管理，实现科技成果向农村延伸覆盖，提高农业生产效率，促进农业全面升级。顺应产业发展规律及市场需求，推动农业创新链、供应链、产业链和价值链深度融合，促进农业产业提质增效。加强农业科技成果管理，创新农业科技成果管理体制机制，强化科技成果保护，不断提高科技成果转化率。开展新技术新产品新场景大规模应用示范活动，培育农技推广骨干人才，借助县域农业科技示范基地、乡村“科技小院”等，打通科技成果转化和技术服务推广的“最后一公里”。发挥新型农业经营主体对小农户的科技带动作用，构建支持和服务小农户科技采纳的政策体系，实现小农户与农业科技成果有效对接。

Finally, promote the comprehensive green transformation of agriculture and gradually establish a green and low-carbon modern agricultural industrial system. High-quality development requires building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society, and the intensive, reduced-input, and sustainable development of agriculture is an important part of this. The traditional agricultural production mode of "heavy fertilizer and heavy water" and "high input, high output" runs counter to the requirements of developing new quality productive forces. Moreover, as "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" become hard constraints on economic development, the task of carbon neutrality in the agricultural system is also very arduous and important, and the low-carbon transformation of agriculture is urgent. This requires agriculture to accelerate transformation and upgrading to form green productive forces. Taking the development of agricultural new quality productive forces as a breakthrough, through new industries, new business forms, new models, and new technologies, promote the optimal combination of agricultural input factors such as labor, land, pesticides, fertilizers, and water, advance the rational protection of cultivated land resources, efficient use of agricultural water, and reduction of pesticides and fertilizers, and gradually establish a green and low-carbon modern agricultural industrial system. Emphasize the innovative allocation of agricultural production factors through digitalization and intelligence to achieve a green leap in factor combination, while accelerating the integration of blockchain, big data, the Internet of Things, etc., with the agricultural industrial chain. Actively promote the construction of national agricultural green development pilot zones, summarize experience, widely promote, and continuously advance the comprehensive green transformation of agriculture.

最后，推动农业全面绿色转型，逐步建立绿色低碳的现代农业产业体系。高质量发展要求建设资源节约型和环境友好型社会，农业的集约化、减量化、可持续发展是其中的重要环节。传统的“大肥大水”“大进大出”的农业生产方式，同发展新质生产力要求是背道而驰的。而且随着“碳达峰、碳中和”成为经济发展的硬约束，农业系统的碳中和任务也十分艰巨和重要，农业低碳转型迫在眉睫，这就要求农业加快转型升级，形成绿色生产力。以发展农业新质生产力为突破口，通过新产业、新业态、新模式及新技术，促进劳动力、土地、农药、化肥、水等农业投入要素优化组合，推进耕地资源合理保护、农业用水高效利用、农药及化肥减量化，逐步建立起绿色低碳的现代化农业产业体系。重视通过数字化、智能化对农业生产要素进行创新性配置，实现要素组合的绿色跃升，同时加快区块链、大数据、物联网等与农业产业链的融合。积极推进国家农业绿色发展先行区建设，总结经验，广泛推广，持续推进农业全面绿色转型。

(The authors: Zhang Haipeng and Zhang Yanlong, respectively Deputy Director and Researcher of the Institute of Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Associate Researcher of the Institute of Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

（作者：张海鹏 张延龙，分别系中国社会科学院农村发展研究所副所长、研究员，中国社会科学院农村发展研究所副研究员）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧