鄂尔多斯农牧业
In line with the five developmental concepts of “innovation, coordination, green development, opening-up and sharing”, Ordos has established bases for production, processing and export of green agricultural and animal products. It has embarked on an efficient, resource-saving and environment-friendly path for the development of modern agriculture and animal husbandry, which can offer a variety of safe products. In 2016, the city’s agricultural sector reported a gross output value of RMB 18.29 billion and a value addition of RMB 11 billion, representing a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 3.1% and 3.2%, respectively.
I. Strengthening Agriculture via Innovation
Innovation is the foremost driving force for agriculture and animal husbandry.
1. Innovation in Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Services System: All kinds of service providers in the city are growing rapidly given an enhancement in standardization and integration of services. This has given a new impetus to the healthy development of agriculture and animal husbandry.
2. Boosting Scientific and Technological Innovation: Ordos has been making efforts for improving the mechanisms and actualizing scientific and technological innovation in agriculture and animal husbandry sectors through the application of relevant research findings. So far, the city is home to 2,500 scientific and technological talents in agriculture and animal husbandry sectors along with 50,000 practical talents and new type of skilled farmers and herdsmen. At the same time, an effective mechanism for scientific and technological innovation in the long-run has been put in place. Per this mechanism, scientific and technological personnel visit farmers and herdsmen at home; good seeds and methods are brought to the farmlands directly; and key technological points are taught to relevant persons. In the meanwhile, the city has established a new model for projecting and promoting technologies related to agricultural and animal husbandry. The model involves gradually moving from households to the entire village. The popularization rate of agricultural/animal husbandry technologies has been maintained above 95% level, while scientific and technological advancements contribute 53% to the development of the two sectors.
3. Steadily Innovating in Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Property Ownership System: Deepening the reform of rural and pastoral areas on all fronts, the city has established a sound service system for the transfer of pastures. Field measurement of 4.11 million mu of land (67% of the total task) has been completed for the registration of confirmed ownership right for collective lands in rural and pastoral areas and relevant certificate grant. In addition, regarding the confirmation of grassland ownership right, field measurement of 74.45 million mu of land (76% of the total task) has been completed. Moreover, 8.7 million mu of land on pastures have been transferred, laying a foundation for new-type agricultural and animal husbandry operators to carry out scaled operations.
4. Actively Innovating in Business Methods of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry: The city has cultivated 2,760 specialized large households, 2,330 environment friendly family-operated farms, 5,247 specialized cooperatives of farmers and herdsmen, and 295 leading enterprises at city level or above, including three national-level enterprises and 62 autonomous region-level enterprises.
II. Realizing Farmers’ Welfare through Coordinated Development
Coordinated development is the inner call of modern agriculture and animal husbandry. Ordos has been promoting integrated and coordinated development in the areas of food, cash and feed crops, animal husbandry, fishing, planting, breeding and processing, as well as primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
1. Developing Scaled Industrial Bases along Two Rivers, Pastures in West and Rural-Urban Fringe Zones; Optimizing Productivity; and Balancing Production and Resources Per “Three Zones” Development Plan of Agricultural and Pastoral Economy: In the areas along Yellow River and Wuding River, the key is to propel the development of large-size agricultural businesses, involving cattle farming (sheep, cows, pigs), poultry and rabbit farming, composite feed processing and plantation of fruits and vegetables. As far as the western pastures are concerned, the key is to develop ecologically-efficient modern grassland-based animal husbandry with a focus on cashmere-producing goats, fine-wool sheep and composite feed. In the rural-urban fringe zones, the key is to upgrade the function of protected agriculture and develop a kind of agriculture and animal husbandry for leisure and tourism, such as vacationing, flowers exhibition, fruit picking, etc. In order to enhance market competitiveness, the city has chosen to reduce the planting of food crops, stabilize the planting of cash crops and increase the planting of feed crops by decreasing the planting area of maize grain, optimizing melon, fruit and vegetable industries, developing composite feed and gradually improving the structure of crop plantation. In 2016, the total area of plantation in Ordos reached 6.56 million mu with the layout of food, cash and feed crops being 58:17:25. In the meanwhile, the city’s grain output has been maintained at around 1.5 billion kilograms for seven straight years. Moreover, in line with the principle of “optimizing animal husbandry industry on grasslands and strengthening it in agricultural regions”, the city has elevated the standards. Furthermore, the city is poised to build a green production base of herbivorous animal industry and characteristic livestock. The scaled, standard raising ratio of beef cattle, meat goat and dairy cattle has grown to 60%, 80% and 100%, respectively. In respect of animal husbandry, the city annually had a stock of livestock of 12.6 million and produced 170,000, 12,000, 2,829 and 160,000 tons of meat, wool, cashmere and milk, respectively. The city also improved 32,000 mu of modern fishery parks. The Spirulina Industrial Park in Etuoke Banner cultivated 3,045 mu of spirulina, while the city had 15,000 tons of aquatic products.
2. Forming “Three-In-One” Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Product Processing System via Primary, Deep and Comprehensive Processing: The city had 187 enterprises that could realize industrialized processing of agriculture and animal husbandry with an annual sales revenue of more than RMB 5 million. They reported combined sales revenue of RMB 49.9 billion. The processing transformation rate of agricultural and animal products stood at 63%. The city supported the expansion of leading processing enterprises in agriculture and animal husbandry into primary and tertiary industries, and pushed forward the industrialized operation of agriculture and animal husbandry that integrates culture, tourism, agriculture and science for the purpose of appreciating the value of whole industrial chain.
3. Efficiently Exploiting Resources: The idea is to responsibly exploit resources, such as agricultural and animal husbandry ecosystem, farming culture, grassland culture, ethnic historical culture and courtyard economy, while developing 30 beautiful villages featuring the integration of agriculture, culture, tourism and science/technology along with a combination of primary, secondary and tertiary industries. It has established 127 city-level farmer/herdsman households which can offer small bed and breakfast services for tourists, and constructed a batch of characteristic beautiful villages with mountainous and water landscapes.
III. Actualizing Agricultural Growth via Green Development
Green development is essential to the growth of modern agriculture and animal husbandry. Concerned with food safety and sustainable growth, Ordos has been trying its best to enhance the level of “ecological civilization” in the areas of modern agriculture and animal husbandry.
1. Preserving and Improving Quality of Cultivated Land and Achieving Fertilizer Reduction and Efficiency Gains: The city has popularized the technology of testing soil for formulated fertilization in 5 million mu of land. The comprehensive utilization rate of fertilizers has been up to 36% while the use volume of fertilizers reported no growth at all.
2. Moving Towards Intelligent and Digital Pest Monitoring and Early Warning: The idea is to put pesticide use under control and reduce the pests. The unified pest prevention and treatment has covered more than 35% of the main crops. The comprehensive utilization rate of pesticides has been up to 36% while the use volume of pesticides reported no growth at all.
3. Equipment Modernization and Land Intensiveness for Water Use Control and Reduction in Energy Consumption: Water-saving bases of modern agriculture and animal husbandry increased to 3.15 million mu, the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water reached 0.5, and the agricultural mechanization level was raised to 83%.
4. Popularizing Technology for Comprehensive Utilization and Collection of Used Plastic Film for Realizing Film Use Control and Efficiency Improvement: The annual used plastic film collection rate has surpassed 40%, while the green high-yield and high-efficiency technology has covered more than 50% of the crops.
5. Giving Grants and Incentives for Protection of Grassland Ecology and Sandstorm Management for Beijing and Tianjin: The city has established an ecological restoration zone of 20,000 square kilometers and saw 52% rise in vegetation coverage of grasslands.
So far, Ordos has finished the construction of 185 standard demonstration zones; and certified 136 pollution-free agricultural products, green food, organic food and geographical indication of China’s agricultural products. It has also taken ownership of five famous Chinese brands and 49 famous branches at the autonomous region level. The standard production base of green foods covered an area of 550,000 mu. Besides, a four-level (city, banner, township and village) agricultural and animal husbandry product quality safety testing and supervision system has been put into place. The supervision work has made monitoring of production process and tracing of product quality possible under the network of law enforcement and risk monitoring. The Ordos Center for Quality Safety Detection of Agricultural and Animal Products is able to detect 135 indicators. In Ordos, more than 98% of major agricultural and animal products can pass the quality safety detection, indicating there are reliable safeguards for the public’s food safety.
IV. Expediting Agricultural Development through Opening-Up Measures
Modern agriculture and animal husbandry sectors must embrace opening-up. For the purpose, Ordos has released a series of policies, such as Construction Plan for Production, Processing and Exporting Bases of Green Agricultural and Animal Products. The idea is to optimize the investment environment, strengthen regional cooperation in agriculture and animal husbandry and promote the harmonious development of Hohhot, Baotou and Ordos.
1. Ordos actively carried out key agricultural and animal husbandry projects and made brilliant achievements. In 2016, the city introduced more than 30 investors and carried out over 50 agricultural investment projects with an aggregate amount of more than RMB 2 billion.
2. Ordos found a right position in the regional pattern of Hohhot, Baotou and Ordos, i.e. building production, processing and exporting bases of green agricultural and animal products with more comparative edges. It has wrapped up the construction of eight large-size regional agricultural & animal products warehousing and logistics centers and 66 agricultural and animal products collection/distribution marketplaces. It has 30 e-commerce operators, 577 online stores in rural areas and 286 e-commerce service stations in rural areas, all of which deal with agriculture and animal husbandry. Moreover, the establishment of a Green Agricultural and Animal Products Production & Trading Center has been preliminarily completed in the west of Inner Mongolia. This center is characterized by assorted functions, rapid reaction to information and good foundation. Thus, a region featuring open and modern agriculture and animal husbandry has taken shape in Ordos.
V. Raising Rural Living Standards via Sharing
The raising of rural living standards via sharing is essential to the development of modern agriculture and animal husbandry. With a boom in modern agriculture and animal husbandry sectors in Ordos, local farmers and herdsmen are earning increasingly higher.
1. Interest Binding Mechanism: The idea is to actively guide agricultural and animal husbandry enterprises to establish a closer interest binding mechanism with farmers and herdsmen in forms such as joint shareholding, order/contract and price protection so that the farmers and herdsmen share the incremental benefits of industrial growth and a fresh model of increasing the incomes of farmers and herdsmen can be cultivated. More than 43% of local leading enterprises have established binding relationships with farmers and herdsmen, which effectively increased the operating income of farmer/herdsmen households. In 2016, permanent residents in rural and pastoral areas registered a disposable income of RMB 15,480, the second highest in Inner Mongolia.
2. Targeted Poverty Alleviation: The idea is to adopt “Six Batches” measures for targeted poverty alleviation in line with related requirements, thereby lifting the poor out of poverty as soon as possible. In 2016, 13,047 poor people of 5,220 households who lived under China’s poverty line managed to shake off poverty. Hangjin Banner, the only autonomous region-level poverty-stricken banner, exited from the poverty list while 21 autonomous region-level poverty-stricken villages ceased to be so poor. At the same time, low-income groups who lived under the city’s minimum living standard saw a growth of more than 20% in their incomes.
