Consolidate the foundation to meet the needs of agriculture and rural areas, upgrade agriculture | infrastructure | demand
Agricultural and rural infrastructure is an important material foundation for building a strong agricultural country and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. It plays an important role in enhancing food supply capacity, driving the development of basic industries, and facilitating urban-rural economic circulation. Currently, China is continuously increasing investment in this area, accelerating the pace of agricultural and rural infrastructure construction, and gradually improving production and living conditions. However, there are still some shortcomings and weak links in the construction of related infrastructure, which need to be addressed from the supply side.
When natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems undergo changes, the spatial layout of agricultural and rural infrastructure will also change accordingly, in order to maximize the role of infrastructure in resisting natural disasters and boosting industrial development. For example, timely adding drainage ditches or adjusting the position of drainage ditches based on changes in the water system can prevent waterlogging; Expanding tractor roads and introducing large agricultural machinery into the fields can further improve agricultural production efficiency. In practice, due to changes in the spatial layout of agricultural and rural infrastructure involving the occupation of arable land, these measures are difficult to implement. Based on this background, even if a large amount of funding is invested in infrastructure, it cannot guarantee its precise and effective functionality.
Of course, there are some villages that can handle the coordination of interests in the process of infrastructure supply. For example, some villages have innovated agricultural production and operation methods, fully leveraging the collective role through forms such as joint cultivation and planting, agricultural co operation, and combining small fields with large fields. They adjust the spatial layout of infrastructure in a timely manner according to environmental changes, and enhance the resilience of infrastructure. Some villages have introduced business entities and established agricultural cooperatives, achieving the goal of adjusting the spatial layout of infrastructure through the dual efforts of the market and organization. In the future, it is necessary to explore diversified governance methods and improve the supply capacity of agricultural and rural infrastructure.
The supply of agricultural and rural infrastructure should adapt to local realities. Integrating regional environmental knowledge with modern science and technology is a prerequisite for developing efficient and sustainable infrastructure. If it does not meet local needs, infrastructure may be idle or abandoned, and the supply level will be discounted. Therefore, for the specific type of infrastructure to be supplied, such as whether to build sand and gravel roads or cement roads, local authorities should be given greater autonomy to improve the effectiveness and targeting of infrastructure supply, ensuring that the supplied infrastructure meets local production and living needs and can be efficiently used. This kind of infrastructure supply is valuable.
The supply of agricultural and rural infrastructure also needs to meet the constantly upgrading demand. In addition to traditional infrastructure such as agricultural water conservancy, rural roads, water supply, and power supply, there is a growing demand for new types of infrastructure such as agricultural digital infrastructure, agricultural product storage and preservation cold chain logistics facilities, and charging infrastructure. For the supply of new infrastructure, more business entities can be introduced, especially state-owned enterprises, which can tap into their potential in providing new infrastructure to better support high-quality agricultural development and effectively meet the needs of farmers for a better life.
The supply of agricultural and rural infrastructure is a problem of rational resource allocation, but ultimately it is a performance issue. The goal of supply is to obtain a predetermined quantity and quality of agricultural and rural infrastructure with minimal input, while also taking into account the fairness of infrastructure supply. Among them, supply quantity is the foundation, supply quality is the key, supply efficiency is the core, and supply fairness is the guarantee. However, in the process of providing agricultural and rural infrastructure, some places have not properly handled the relationship between quantity and quality, efficiency and fairness, resulting in difficulties in continuously improving the level of agricultural and rural infrastructure supply.
For example, in some regions, the excessive pursuit of speed and quantity growth in infrastructure supply neglects quality, resulting in the inability to fully realize the long-term benefits of infrastructure. In some places, heavy construction is emphasized over management and maintenance, resulting in many infrastructure facilities aging and being abandoned before the end of their service life due to lack of management and maintenance, causing unnecessary resource waste. In order to improve the speed and efficiency of infrastructure construction, some places have focused their resources on "demonstration villages" and new agricultural operators, resulting in the "Matthew effect" and gradually widening the gap in infrastructure supply between villages and small farmers and new agricultural operators.
In summary, multiple measures should be taken simultaneously. We need to establish a smooth "supervision feedback" mechanism that integrates external supervision, internal supervision, and mutual supervision, in order to accelerate the construction of agricultural and rural infrastructure while improving supply quality. We should improve the government or village level organization management mechanism for non operating facilities, improve the diversified management mechanism for quasi operating facilities, innovate the market-oriented management mechanism for operating facilities, and promote the integration of urban and rural management of public infrastructure in a hierarchical manner to comprehensively improve the level and quality of infrastructure management, reduce the damage rate of infrastructure, and ensure its long-term operation. Attention should be paid to the infrastructure needs of small farmers, and the role of village level organizations, agricultural cooperatives, and other organizations should be fully utilized to balance the efficiency and fairness of agricultural and rural infrastructure supply.
