The Connotation and Path of Agricultural Modernization with Chinese Characteristics

Advancing agricultural modernization is a major task in building a modern socialist country in all respects and an inevitable requirement for achieving high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, "Without agricultural and rural modernization, there can be no modernization of the entire country" and "Building an agricultural powerhouse fundamentally requires achieving agricultural modernization." These important expositions profoundly clarify the status and role of agricultural modernization in the overall context of Chinese-path modernization, systematically answer major theoretical and practical questions such as why and how to advance agricultural modernization in the New Era, and provide fundamental guidance for developing modern agriculture and building an agricultural powerhouse.

推进农业现代化是全面建设社会主义现代化国家的重大任务，是实现高质量发展的必然要求。习近平总书记指出，“没有农业农村现代化，就没有整个国家现代化”“建设农业强国，基本要求是实现农业现代化”。这些重要论述深刻阐明了中国式现代化建设全局中农业现代化的地位和作用，系统回答了新时代为什么要推进农业现代化、如何推进农业现代化等重大理论和实践问题，为发展现代农业、建设农业强国提供了根本遵循。

Deeply understanding the Chinese characteristics of agricultural modernization

深刻认识农业现代化的中国特色

On a global scale, agricultural modernization exhibits certain common features, but there is no universally applicable standard or model for advancing it. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "The agricultural powerhouse we aim to build and the agricultural modernization we seek to achieve have both the common characteristics of foreign general modern agricultural powerhouses and Chinese characteristics based on our own national conditions." On the basis of long-term exploration and practice since the founding of New China, especially since reform and opening up, and through theoretical and practical innovation breakthroughs since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have blazed a path of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. This path has rich connotations.

从世界范围来看，农业现代化呈现一定的共同特征，但推进农业现代化并没有普遍适用的标准和模式。习近平总书记强调，“我们要建设的农业强国、实现的农业现代化，既有国外一般现代化农业强国的共同特征，更有基于自己国情的中国特色”。在新中国成立以来特别是改革开放以来的长期探索和实践基础上，经过党的十八大以来在理论和实践上的创新突破，我们走出一条具有中国特色的农业现代化道路。这条道路具有丰富的内涵。

Relying on the two-tier management system. No development model can be separated from its corresponding institutions. The basic management system for advancing agricultural modernization in China is the two-tier management system that combines unified and separate management on the basis of household contract management. In practice, this system has demonstrated strong adaptability and developmental capacity, playing a key role in the entire rural institutional system over the long term. Over the past 40-plus years, China's rural reform has deepened continuously, and the two-tier management system has also been constantly innovated and improved, with the forms of realization and methods of combination for "unified" and "separate" management becoming more diversified. The two-tier management system combining unified and separate management conforms to China's national and agricultural conditions, possesses the fundamental institutional advantage of liberating and developing rural productive forces, and serves as an important foundation for accelerating agricultural modernization.

依托双层经营体制。任何一种发展模式都离不开对应的制度。我国推进农业现代化的基本经营制度，是以家庭承包经营为基础、统分结合的双层经营体制。从实践看，这一制度有着超强的适应性和发展性，在整个农村制度体系中长期发挥着关键作用。过去40多年来，我国农村改革持续深入，双层经营体制也在不断创新和完善，“统”与“分”的实现形式和结合方式更加多元化。统分结合的双层经营体制符合我国国情农情，具有解放和发展农村生产力的基础性制度优势，是加快推进农业现代化的重要依托。

Always adhering to the principal position of peasants. For whom and relying on whom are fundamental questions concerning the driving force and goals of agricultural modernization. A notable feature of China's agricultural modernization is the emphasis on the principal position of peasants, respect for their will, and the consistent priority of safeguarding peasant interests. In practice, by taking upholding the principal position of peasants and enhancing their well-being as the starting point and goal of all rural work, and by using whether peasants support or oppose policies as the basis for formulating Party policies on rural work, the initiative, creativity, and enthusiasm of the vast numbers of peasants have been fully mobilized. Peasants have become participants, supporters, and beneficiaries in promoting agricultural modernization. Thus, China's agricultural modernization has gained the most solid foundation and the deepest strength.

始终坚持农民主体地位。为了谁、依靠谁，是关系农业现代化动力和目标的基本问题。我国推进农业现代化的一个显著特征，是突出农民主体地位、尊重农民意愿，始终把保障农民利益放在第一位。从实践看，正是将坚持农民主体地位、增进农民福祉作为农村一切工作的出发点和落脚点，把农民拥护不拥护、支持不支持作为制定党的农村政策的依据，充分调动广大农民的积极性、主动性、创造性，农民成为推动农业现代化的参与者、支持者和受益者，我国农业现代化由此具备了最坚实的根基、最深厚的力量。

Synergy between an effective market and a competent government. The practical process of China's agricultural modernization has also been a process where the government and the market each play their proper roles and work together. During the improvement of the policy system and the market system, the relationship between government and market has been continuously coordinated and optimized. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the advancement of major reforms such as the formation mechanism of agricultural product prices and the rural collective property rights system, along with the continuous improvement of the policy system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting peasants, and enriching them, have effectively activated markets, factors, and entities, becoming a driving force behind the accelerated development of agricultural modernization. At the same time, the rural market system has been continuously improved; the agricultural product circulation system, the price and market regulation mechanism for agricultural products have been steadily refined; market-oriented allocation reform of factors has been progressively advanced; and market operational efficiency has been enhanced, promoting the accelerated transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture to modern agriculture.

有效市场和有为政府协同。我国农业现代化的实践过程，也是一个政府和市场各就其位、共同推动的过程。在政策体系和市场体系完善过程中，政府和市场关系不断协同优化。特别是党的十八大以来，农产品价格形成机制、农村集体产权制度等重大改革的推进，强农惠农富农政策体系的不断完善，有效激活了市场、要素和主体，成为农业现代化加快发展的动力源泉。同时，农村市场体系不断完善，农产品流通体制、农产品价格和市场调控机制不断健全，要素市场化配置改革逐步推进，市场运行效率不断提高，推动了传统农业向现代农业加快转型升级。

Long-term coexistence of "large" and "small" management forms. Household management based on smallholder peasants is the main form of agricultural management in China and a reality that agricultural development must face over the long term. In advancing agricultural modernization, China has not adopted a single model of large-scale management and large machinery operation. Instead, it adheres to the principle that the scale of agricultural management should be large where appropriate and small where appropriate, neither blindly pursuing large scale nor rigidly clinging to small scale. At the same time, it coordinates "large" and "small" by enabling smallholders to become organically linked with the development of modern agriculture through the driving role of scaled management entities. In practice, large-scale agricultural production and management has its advantages, and small-scale has its adaptability; each plays a different but important role in advancing agricultural modernization.

“大”与“小”经营形态长期并存。以小农户为主的家庭经营是我国农业经营的主要形式，也是农业发展必须长期面对的现实。在推进农业现代化过程中，我国没有采取单一的大规模经营、大机械作业模式，而是坚持农业经营规模宜大则大、宜小则小，既不盲目追求大规模，也不固守小规模，同时把“大”和“小”统筹起来，通过规模经营主体的带动，小农户也能够与现代农业发展有机衔接。从实践看，农业生产经营规模大有大的优势、小有小的适应性，在推进农业现代化中各自发挥着不同的重要作用。

Integration of cultural heritage and green development. China possesses a long-standing agricultural civilization, whose concepts such as "harmony between man and nature" [1]1 "Harmony between man and nature" (天人合一, tian ren he yi) is a classical Chinese philosophical concept emphasizing the unity and harmony between human beings and the natural cosmos. are highly consistent with today's advocated concepts of harmony and low carbon. In advancing agricultural modernization, we adhere to the historical foundation of farming civilization and the contemporary requirement of harmony between man and nature, deeply implement the project of inheriting and protecting farming culture, continuously promote the comprehensive green transformation of agricultural development, and the empowering role of farming culture has become increasingly evident. The level of green agricultural development has significantly improved, and new business forms and models integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism have continuously emerged. The inheritance and development of excellent farming culture provides rich nourishment for China's advancement of agricultural modernization.

文化传承与绿色发展相融合。我国拥有悠久的农耕文明，其所蕴含的“天人合一”等理念，与今天所提倡的和谐、低碳等理念高度契合。在推进农业现代化过程中，我们坚持立足农耕文明的历史底蕴、人与自然和谐共生的时代要求，深入实施农耕文化传承保护工程，不断推进农业发展全面绿色转型，农耕文化的赋能作用不断显现，农业绿色发展水平显著提高，农文旅融合新业态新模式不断涌现。优秀农耕文化的传承发展，为我国推进农业现代化提供了丰厚滋养。

Accurately grasping the construction requirements of agricultural modernization

准确把握农业现代化的建设要求

Currently, the internal and external environment for the development of agriculture, rural areas, and peasants in China is undergoing profound changes, presenting many new trends and characteristics, which place new demands on advancing agricultural modernization.

当前我国“三农”发展的内外部环境正在发生深刻变化，呈现许多新趋势新特征，对推进农业现代化提出新要求。

Greater emphasis on cultivating new quality productive forces in agriculture. New quality productive forces are advanced productive forces characterized by innovation playing the leading role, breaking away from traditional economic growth models and paths of productive force development. China's traditional agricultural development has long relied mainly on accumulated experience and material factor inputs from generation to generation. Due to slow technological progress and a lack of capital accumulation, it often exhibits relatively low production efficiency. Advancing agricultural modernization is essentially a deep-seated transformation of the agricultural development paradigm. A comprehensive increase in total factor productivity in agriculture cannot be achieved without cultivating new quality productive forces characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality. Looking at the history of global agricultural development, major technological breakthroughs brought about by each scientific and technological revolution have greatly promoted the development of agricultural productive forces, bringing about a qualitative leap in the process of agricultural modernization. Currently, a new round of agricultural science and technology revolution characterized by biotechnology and information technology is gestating major breakthroughs. To accelerate agricultural modernization, it is necessary to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces in agriculture to lead the development of modern agriculture.

更加注重培育农业新质生产力。新质生产力是创新起主导作用，摆脱传统经济增长方式、生产力发展路径的先进生产力质态。我国传统农业发展长期以来主要依赖世代积累的经验和物质要素投入，由于技术进步缓慢、缺乏资本积累等，往往呈现生产效率比较低的状态。推进农业现代化，本质上是对农业发展范式的深层次变革。全面提升农业全要素生产率，离不开培育以高技术、高效能、高质量为特征的新质生产力。纵观全球农业发展史，每一次科技革命带来的重大技术突破，都极大推动了农业生产力的发展，给农业现代化进程带来质的飞跃。当前，以生物技术和信息技术等为特征的新一轮农业科技革命正在孕育重大突破，加快推进农业现代化，必须加快培育农业新质生产力，引领现代农业发展。

Greater emphasis on deepening reform to enhance endogenous driving forces. Modernization can proceed more smoothly and sustainably only if it possesses endogenous driving forces that continuously push it forward. China's agricultural support policy system has been continuously improved, and agricultural investment has grown steadily, greatly improving agricultural production conditions and promoting sustained agricultural development. However, the endogenous driving mechanism for agricultural modernization is still not well-established. Under the new circumstances, to resolve the various contradictions and problems facing China's agricultural development and to accelerate agricultural modernization, it is necessary not only to stabilize and enhance the effectiveness of support policies but also, more importantly, to strengthen endogenous development impetus through deepening reform. Reforms in key areas and crucial links should be advanced with greater determination and intensity, while also paying attention to the coordination, dovetailing, and systemic integration of reforms, continuously improving the systematic, holistic, and coordinated nature of reforms.

更加注重深化改革增强内生动力。现代化只有具备不断向前拓展的内生动力，进程才会更加顺利、更可持续。我国农业支持政策体系不断完善，农业投入稳定增长，极大地改善了农业生产条件，促进了农业持续发展，但农业现代化的内生动力机制依然不健全。新形势下，解决好我国农业发展面临的各种矛盾和问题，加快推进农业现代化，既需要稳定提升支持政策效能，更需要通过深化改革增强发展内生动力。要以更大决心和力度推进重点领域和关键环节改革，同时注重改革的协同配套和系统集成，不断提高改革的系统性、整体性和协同性。

Greater emphasis on smoothing the industrial-urban-rural cycle. China's modernization is a "parallel" process where industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization proceed simultaneously. In practice, industrialization and agricultural modernization are interdependent, and urbanization and agricultural modernization can proceed in parallel without conflict. In the coming period, as China's new-type industrialization deepens, urbanization transitions to a period of stable development, and informatization provides widespread empowerment, advancing agricultural modernization should focus on smoothing the industrial-urban-rural cycle. In particular, it is necessary to apply advanced technology, modern equipment, and management concepts more deeply to the construction of agricultural industry chains. At the same time, by promoting the urbanization of agricultural transfer populations, more space will be created for appropriately scaled agricultural management. This will facilitate the orderly flow and optimal allocation of resource factors between industrial and agricultural sectors and between urban and rural areas, ensuring smooth connections among production, distribution, circulation, and consumption, thereby continuously improving agricultural labor productivity.

更加注重畅通工农城乡循环。我国现代化是工业化、信息化、城镇化、农业现代化叠加发展的“并联式”过程。从实践看，工业化与农业现代化存在依存关系，城镇化与农业现代化也可以并行不悖。未来一个时期，我国新型工业化深入推进，城镇化转向稳定发展期，信息化广泛赋能，推进农业现代化要着力畅通工农城乡循环，特别是将先进技术、现代装备、管理理念等更加深入地应用到农业产业链建设中，同时通过推动农业转移人口市民化，为农业适度规模经营腾出更大空间，促进资源要素在工农部门之间、城乡之间有序流动和优化配置，实现生产、分配、流通、消费各环节衔接畅通，不断提高农业劳动生产率。

Greater emphasis on promoting green and low-carbon agricultural development. Green is the background color of agriculture; ecology is its foundation. Promoting green agricultural development is a profound revolution in the agricultural development outlook, bearing on national food security, resource security, and ecological security, as well as the well-being of contemporary people and the sustainable development of future generations. The further agricultural modernization advances, the more urgent the need to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model. Currently, the supply-demand situation of agricultural products in China is undergoing profound changes. It is necessary to accelerate the change in the inertial thinking of solely pursuing output growth, to run the concept of green development through the entire process of agricultural production, to accelerate innovation in development models, integrated technologies, and institutional mechanisms, to develop resource-saving and environment-friendly agriculture, to improve resource utilization rates and land productivity, and to promote the organic unity of increasing supply, raising income, and protecting ecology.

更加注重促进农业绿色低碳发展。绿色是农业的底色、生态是农业的底盘。推进农业绿色发展是农业发展观的一场深刻革命，事关国家食物安全、资源安全和生态安全，事关当代人福祉和子孙后代永续发展。农业现代化越往前推进，加快转变农业发展方式的要求就越紧迫。当前我国农产品供求态势正在发生深刻变化，必须加快改变追求产量增长的惯性思维，把绿色发展理念贯穿农业生产全过程，加快促进发展模式创新、集成技术创新和体制机制创新，发展资源节约型、环境友好型农业，提高资源利用率和土地产出率，促进增加供给、提高收入、保护生态的有机统一。

Greater emphasis on maintaining agricultural industry security. Under open conditions, advancing agricultural modernization in China should not and cannot be conducted within a closed system. The reality of a large population with little land and enormous supply-demand scale also determines that relying entirely on domestic production for self-sufficiency in all agricultural products is neither possible nor realistic. Advancing agricultural modernization requires balancing open development and industrial security, further promoting a high level of agricultural openness to the outside world, and actively and prudently utilizing international agricultural product markets and foreign agricultural resources. At the same time, it should be noted that in recent years, factors such as rising trade protectionism and intensified geopolitical conflicts have intertwined, posing significant challenges to the safe operation of global agricultural supply chains. Advancing agricultural openness must therefore grasp the intensity and pace, enhance risk prevention and control capabilities, and improve the resilience of agricultural industry chains and supply chains.

更加注重维护农业产业安全。在开放条件下，我国推进农业现代化不应该也不可能在一个封闭体系中进行。我国人多地少、供需规模超大的现实，也决定完全依靠国内实现所有农产品的自给自足既不可能也不现实。推进农业现代化，需要统筹好开放发展和产业安全的关系，进一步推动农业高水平对外开放，积极稳妥利用国际农产品市场和国外农业资源。同时也要看到，近年来贸易保护主义抬头、地缘政治冲突加剧等叠加交织，全球农产品供应链安全运行面临较大挑战，推进农业对外开放必须把握好力度和节奏，增强风险防控能力，提升农业产业链供应链韧性。

Solidly advancing key measures for agricultural modernization

扎实推进农业现代化的关键举措

Overall, agricultural modernization is the deep foundation of Chinese-path modernization and determines its quality. On the new journey, we must anchor the goal of building an agricultural powerhouse and steadfastly follow the path of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. This is a complex systematic project, and key focus points must be identified to continuously advance agricultural modernization.

总体来看，农业现代化是中国式现代化的深厚基础，决定着中国式现代化的成色。新征程上，要锚定建设农业强国目标，坚持走中国特色农业现代化道路。这是一项复杂的系统工程，要找准关键着力点，推动农业现代化建设不断向前发展。

Comprehensively consolidating the foundation for food security. Ensuring the stable and secure supply of grain and important agricultural products has always been the top priority in building an agricultural powerhouse. No matter what stage of agricultural modernization construction we reach, ensuring national food security is a bottom line that must be firmly guarded. It is necessary to deeply implement the strategy of storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology [2]2 "Storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology" (藏粮于地、藏粮于技, cang liang yu di, cang liang yu ji) is a strategic guideline that calls for protecting and improving arable land fertility while advancing agricultural technology to ensure long-term food security., laying a solid foundation in facilities, technology, equipment, policy, and institutions. We must comprehensively strengthen the protection and construction of arable land, enable peasants to use the best technology to produce the best grain, use more complete mechanisms to ensure peasants are willing to grow grain and can earn money, and continuously improve comprehensive grain production capacity. In response to the people's diverse food consumption and nutritional health needs, we should broaden the scope of agricultural production space, comprehensively and through multiple channels develop food resources, build a diversified food supply system, and ensure the effective supply of various types of food.

全方位夯实粮食安全根基。保障粮食和重要农产品稳定安全供给始终是建设农业强国的头等大事。我国农业现代化建设不管进展到哪一步，保障国家粮食安全都是必须牢牢守住的底线。要深入落实藏粮于地、藏粮于技战略，打牢设施基础、技术基础、装备基础、政策基础、制度基础，全面加强耕地保护和建设，让农民用最好的技术种出最好的粮食，用更加完善的机制保障农民愿种粮、有钱挣，不断提高粮食综合生产能力。顺应人民群众多元化食物消费和营养健康需求，拓宽农业生产空间领域，全方位、多途径开发食物资源，构建多元化食物供给体系，保障各类食物有效供给。

Developing new quality productive forces in agriculture according to local conditions. The diversity of China's spatial resource endowments and the differences in regional development levels determine that cultivating new quality productive forces in agriculture cannot follow a single model or standard; it must adhere to adapting measures to local conditions and making targeted efforts. The key is to leverage the leading role of scientific and technological innovation, promote coordinated research in agricultural science and technology, strengthen the source supply of technological innovation, and strive for greater breakthroughs in areas such as underlying technologies, core germplasm resources, key agricultural machinery and equipment, and synthetic drugs. At the same time, focusing on the actual needs of agricultural development, we should promote the deep integration of agricultural scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, accelerate the large-scale application of scientific and technological achievements, and transform more agricultural research results into practical productive forces.

因地制宜发展农业新质生产力。我国空间资源禀赋的多样性、区域发展水平的差异性，决定培育农业新质生产力不可能是一个模式、一个标准，必须坚持因地制宜、精准发力。其中，关键要发挥好科技创新的引领作用，推进农业科技力量协同攻关，强化科技创新源头供给，力争在底盘技术、核心种源、关键农机装备、合成药物等领域取得更大突破。同时聚焦农业发展现实需求，推动农业科技创新与产业创新深度融合，加快科技成果大面积推广应用，使更多的农业科研成果转化为现实生产力。

Striving to build a modern rural industrial system. The purpose of advancing agricultural modernization is to build agriculture into a large modern industry. This requires not only the agglomeration of various advanced production factors toward agriculture but also a systematic reshaping of the entire agricultural industrial system. To this end, we should do a good job in the "local specialties" initiative [3]3 "Local specialties" (土特产, tu te chan) refers to a policy approach encouraging the development of distinctive local products (agricultural, handicraft, etc.) based on local resource advantages., focus on raising the level of integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas, develop and expand processing and distribution industries, leisure tourism, and rural service industries, promote the coordination of grain, cash crops, and feed, the simultaneous development of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries, the integration of production, processing, and marketing, and the integrated development of agriculture, culture, and tourism. We should build a modern rural industrial system with a more open structure, more complete industrial composition, more diverse industrial functions, stronger overall resource utilization, and a more sustainable development model.

着力构建现代乡村产业体系。推进农业现代化，目的是把农业建成现代化大产业。这既需要推动各类先进生产要素向农业集聚，更需要对整个农业产业体系进行系统重塑。为此，要做好“土特产”文章，着力提升农村一二三产业融合发展水平，发展壮大加工流通业、休闲旅游业、乡村服务业等，促进粮经饲统筹、农林牧渔并举、产加销贯通、农文旅融合发展，建设体系结构更加开放、产业构成更加完整、产业功能更为多样、资源利用整体性更强、发展模式更可持续的现代乡村产业体系。

Improving the institutional mechanisms for market-oriented allocation of factors. Advancing agricultural modernization involves many reform tasks, and promoting innovative allocation of urban and rural factors is an important entry point. Under the background of integrated urban-rural development, optimizing the allocation of urban and rural factors requires properly grasping the relationship between people and land. Based on the social mobility of urban and rural labor and talent and development needs, we should optimize the allocation of land resources. To this end, it is necessary to consolidate and improve the basic rural management system, orderly carry out the pilot project of extending the second round of land contracts for another 30 years after expiration, stabilize and improve rural land contractual relations, explore methods for the voluntary and compensated withdrawal of peasants' "three rights" [4]4 "Three rights" (三权, san quan) refers to the three rights in the rural land system: land ownership (collective), land contract rights (peasant households), and land management rights (transferred to other operators). The "voluntary and compensated withdrawal" mechanism allows peasants to relinquish these rights under certain conditions., effectively guarantee the reasonable land use needs of new-type agricultural management entities and service entities, and promote appropriately scaled agricultural management.

完善要素市场化配置体制机制。推进农业现代化涉及诸多改革任务，推进城乡要素创新性配置是重要切入点。在城乡融合发展背景下，优化城乡要素配置，关键要把握好人和地的关系，立足城乡劳动力、人才社会性流动以及发展需求，优化土地资源配置。为此，要巩固和完善农村基本经营制度，有序推进第二轮土地承包到期后再延长30年试点，稳定和完善农村土地承包关系，探索农民“三权”自愿有偿退出办法，有效保障新型农业经营主体和服务主体合理用地需求，促进农业适度规模经营。

(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics and Technological Economics, China Academy of Macroeconomic Research)

（作者系中国宏观经济研究院产业经济与技术经济研究所研究员）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧