Enhance the comprehensive production capacity, quality, and efficiency of agriculture

Enhancing Comprehensive Agricultural Production Capacity, Quality, and Efficiency Ke Bingsheng (Former President of China Agricultural University) The "Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Recommendations"), which was deliberated and adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, proposes to "enhance comprehensive agricultural production capacity, quality, and efficiency." This article discusses several insights and understandings regarding the essential content, current development status, main challenges, and fundamental driving forces of enhancing comprehensive agricultural production capacity, quality, and efficiency.
Essential content
The eighth section of the "Recommendations," titled "Accelerating the Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Areas, and Solidly Promoting Comprehensive Rural Revitalization," sets comprehensive requirements for the work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. This section comprises three articles, addressing issues related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers respectively. The first article, "Enhancing the Comprehensive Production Capacity, Quality, and Efficiency of Agriculture," focuses on agricultural issues. Essentially, it outlines specific task requirements for accelerating agricultural modernization and building a strong agricultural nation.
Enhancing the comprehensive productive capacity of agriculture is a requirement for the quantity of agricultural production. The "Proposal" puts forward the requirement to "intensify the implementation of a new round of action to increase grain production capacity by 500 million kilograms, and enhance the supply guarantee capacity of important agricultural products such as grain". The comprehensive productive capacity of agriculture mainly depends on two major factors: planting area and yield level. The planting area depends on cultivated land area and multiple cropping index; the yield level depends on cultivated land quality, technological level, and production organization and management.
The quality of agricultural production is reflected in the quality of products. There is a basic bottom-line requirement for product quality. Beyond this, there is a certain relativity, that is, relative to consumer demands, with consumer demands and their changes as the measurement standard. This is true for staple food, meat, fruits, and vegetables. The "scientific and technological agriculture, green agriculture, quality agriculture, and brand agriculture" proposed in the "Suggestions" are requirements in this regard.
The benefits of agricultural production are reflected in multiple dimensions. Among them, the most important ones are the cost dimension, the income dimension, and the ecological dimension. The cost dimension refers to the perspective of products, where production costs, including labor costs and input costs, should be as low as possible. The income dimension refers to the perspective of laborers, where the income from engaging in agricultural production labor should be as high as possible. This is related to production costs, but more importantly, it is related to the production efficiency (labor productivity) of laborers, requiring an increase in the quantity of products produced by agricultural laborers. The ecological dimension examines the impact of agricultural production on the ecological environment, aiming to promote the improvement of the ecological environment, at least to maintain the sustainable development of agricultural production, and not to have a damaging impact on the human living environment. The "Suggestions" proposed in the document, such as "adhering to the principle of simultaneously focusing on yield, production capacity, production ecology, and increasing production and income", "building agriculture into a modern large-scale industry", and "developing appropriate scale operations in agriculture", are all related to this.
In summary, enhancing the comprehensive production capacity, quality, and efficiency of agriculture requires protecting the quantity of cultivated land, improving the quality of cultivated land, increasing production, enhancing quality, reducing costs, improving labor productivity, and protecting the ecological environment.
development status
Since the reform and opening up, China's comprehensive agricultural production capacity, quality, and efficiency have seen significant improvements, particularly in terms of total output, per unit area yield, and labor productivity.
The development situation in terms of planting area is shown in Table 1. It can be seen that from 1978 to 2024, the total area of crop planting has increased, while the area of grain planting has slightly decreased. Among grain crops, the areas of rice and wheat have both significantly decreased, while the area of corn has increased significantly.

Between 1978 and 2024, China's total grain output increased by 401.74 million tons, representing a 1.32-fold increase (Table 2). Among them, the increase in corn was the largest, reaching 238.98 million tons, accounting for nearly 60% of the total grain increase and experiencing the greatest increase, which was a 4.27-fold increase; wheat came next, with an increase of 86.26 million tons, representing a 1.6-fold increase; in comparison, the increase and growth rate of rice production were the smallest.

Between 1978 and 2024, China's grain output increased significantly, while the cultivated area did not expand but slightly decreased. This indicates that the growth in China's grain production stems from an increase in yield per unit area. Table 3 illustrates the specific growth in grain yield per unit area. It can be observed that the increment and growth rate of wheat yield per unit area are the highest, followed by corn, and rice has the smallest increase.

The increase in cotton yield per unit area in China has been even more significant, rising from 30 kilograms per mu in 1978 to 145 kilograms per mu in 2024, representing a 3.8-fold increase. In 2024, China's cotton production reached 6.16 million tons, with a cotton planting area of 43 million mu. Without the increase in yield per unit area, producing 6.16 million tons of cotton would have required an area of 205 million mu. This means that the increase in cotton yield per unit area has saved more than 160 million mu of arable land. The arable land saved in this way could produce more than 70 million tons of corn. It can be seen that the improvement in the yield level of non-grain crops has also made a prominent and important contribution to safeguarding national food security.
Significant progress has also been made in agricultural labor productivity (Table 4). Meanwhile, from 1978 to 2024, the number of people per agricultural laborer (excluding the laborer himself) in China increased from 2.4 to 7.4.

However, compared with the international advanced level, China still lags behind in certain aspects, and the gap is relatively significant in some areas. The overall situation can be divided into two categories: in terms of rice and wheat, China's per unit yield level is higher than that of the world's major producing countries (the top five countries in total production), but still significantly lower than the country with the highest level; in terms of corn and soybeans, China's per unit yield level is significantly lower than that of the world's top-ranked producing countries, and is only equivalent to or even lower than the world average.

In terms of efficiency, the biggest gap between China and developed countries in agriculture lies in labor productivity (Table 6). How to accelerate the improvement of agricultural labor productivity may be the most urgent and arduous task in China's journey towards building a strong agricultural nation.

main challenges
The greatest challenges for China to enhance its comprehensive agricultural production capacity, quality, and efficiency are manifested in three prominent constraints: a large population, limited land resources, small-scale operations, and relatively low educational levels among farmers.
Among the major agricultural producers in the world, China's per capita cultivated land area is far below the world average (Table 7). Countries ahead of China are all major exporters of agricultural products.

In China's cultivated land, there are a large number of mountainous and sloping fields, which have poor soil quality. According to the Third National Land Survey, cultivated land located at a slope of 6-15 degrees accounts for 13.4%; cultivated land located at a slope of 15-25 degrees accounts for 6%; and cultivated land located at a slope of 25 degrees or above accounts for 3.3%. Among the cultivated land nationwide, 16% has an annual rainfall of less than 400 millimeters.
What stands out even more is that China has a vast number of agricultural households, yet the average agricultural operation scale per household is quite small. According to the data from the Third National Agricultural Census, China has 207 million agricultural households, with an average land area of merely 9.3 mu per household, which is approximately 1/20 of that in the European Union and 1/200 of that in the United States.
Meanwhile, the educational level of farmers in China is relatively low. In 2016, the average educational level of Chinese farmers was as follows: 1.2% had a college degree or above, 7.1% had a high school degree, and 91.8% had a junior high school degree or below. In contrast, the corresponding figures for the United States in 2018 were: 29.1% had a college degree or above, 66.4% had a high school degree or were college dropouts, and 4.6% had a junior high school degree or below.
Fundamental driving force
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must adhere to the principle that science and technology are the primary productive forces, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force. We must thoroughly implement the strategies of rejuvenating the country through science and education, strengthening the country through talent, and driving development through innovation, open up new fields and tracks for development, and constantly shape new driving forces and advantages for development." The fundamental driving force for enhancing China's comprehensive agricultural production capacity, quality, and efficiency is also innovation, including business model innovation, technological innovation, organizational innovation, and policy innovation.
Business model innovation. Based on the different natural conditions across the country, there are primarily five modes of agricultural modernization in China, namely mechanized field farming, facility-based horticulture, intensive animal husbandry, regionalized forestry and fruit industry, as well as specialized rural cultural tourism.
Mechanized field farming is primarily practiced in the northeast, northwest, north China, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The common feature of these regions is the vast stretches of flat plains, where large-scale mechanized operations are carried out. The total area of plains and flat lands capable of supporting such large-scale farming is approximately 1 billion mu, accounting for about half of the total cultivated land in the country.
The characteristics of facility horticulture include high investment, high output, high land productivity, and high farmers' income. The development of facility horticulture in China has been rapid, with simple greenhouses built by farmers to highly intelligent greenhouses seen everywhere across the country. In the future, greenhouse cultivation in China will continue to develop, becoming more intelligent and more industrialized. This will play a greater role in addressing the prominent contradiction of a large population and limited land resources in China.
Intensive animal husbandry, characterized primarily by large-scale operations and corporatization (including the "company + farmer" model), employs integrated technologies in terms of breed selection, housing, feed, and disease prevention. It boasts high breeding efficiency, particularly in feed conversion rate and labor productivity. The development of intensive animal husbandry is conducive to land conservation, disease prevention and control, as well as environmental protection and waste disposal.
Regionalized forestry and fruit industry is primarily situated in vast mountainous and hilly regions, where land plots are fragmented and mechanized large-scale field farming is challenging. However, these areas are ideal for developing various industries such as forestry, fruit production, and medicinal herbs. In mountainous and hilly regions, the operational scale of individual producers is usually not large, but regional scale can be achieved. A single county can cultivate hundreds of thousands of acres, or even millions of acres, of fruits. Such places are prone to generating regional scale benefits, which is conducive to the promotion of new technologies, the formation of a complete industrial chain, and the creation of regional public brands.
Guided by the concept of "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", China's rural cultural tourism industry has developed rapidly in recent years, emerging as a new business form in the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.
Agricultural science and technology innovation. This is the core element of new productive forces in agriculture. In terms of original and disruptive innovations, the focus is on seed industry technology innovation and facility equipment innovation. In terms of seed industry technology innovation, it is about improving the quality of labor objects, that is, innovations in crop varieties and livestock and poultry breeds. The biological breeding engineering repeatedly emphasized in the No. 1 central document in recent years is an important symbol. In terms of facility equipment innovation, it is about improving labor means, that is, comprehensively promoting agricultural mechanization, facility-based agriculture, digitalization, networking, and intelligence. This is manifested not only in field cropping, facility horticulture, and regional forestry and fruit industry, but also in intensive livestock and poultry farming and aquaculture.
For agricultural technological innovation achievements to be applied in agricultural production practices, the "last mile" problem of technological services must be addressed. With the strong support of the national and local governments, over 2,000 small science and technology institutes have been established nationwide, covering all provinces in the country. Some provinces, such as Ningxia, are promoting the extension of these institutes to all agriculture-related counties and districts within the region. In the future, the national system of small science and technology institutes will play a greater and better role in agricultural technological services.

Innovation in production organization. Promoting innovation in agricultural production organization is necessary for better applying advanced modern agricultural technological innovations to agricultural production practices. In recent years, there have been many models of agricultural production organization innovation in China, including leading enterprises, cooperatives, "company + cooperatives", "company + farmers", and family farms. The common characteristic of these models is the expansion of business scale. From a theoretical perspective, moderate scale should be the minimum scale at which all existing advanced technologies can be optimally economically utilized.
Farmers' cooperatives are an important way to expand scale and strengthen the application of advanced agricultural technological achievements. The case of Quzhou County, Hebei Province, shows that farmers' cooperatives have achieved a wheat yield of 730 kilograms per mu by utilizing the complete set of technologies provided by the technology courtyard, which is more than 200 kilograms per mu higher than that of adjacent farmers who operate in a decentralized manner (using agricultural socialized services).
Agricultural policy innovation. The "Proposal" emphasizes the need to "combine an effective market with a proactive government. We should give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and better leverage the role of the government." At the national macro-agricultural policy level, there are mainly two major types of policies: one is institutional mechanisms policy, which does not involve government public expenditure. The "Proposal" emphasizes policies such as "stabilizing land contracting relationships and steadily advancing the pilot program of extending the second round of contracting for another 30 years after its expiration." The other is policies to strengthen, benefit, and enrich farmers, which involve government public expenditure. The "Proposal" requires "improving a diversified investment pattern with fiscal priority, financial focus, and active social participation to ensure continuous strengthening of investment in rural revitalization.".
In terms of enhancing the comprehensive productive capacity of agriculture, the primary policies include farmland protection policies, land management rights transfer policies, farmland quality improvement policies (such as the construction of high-standard farmland), and various subsidy policies.
It is of great importance to better leverage the role of local governments, especially county-level governments. The No. 1 central document of 2025 clearly states that "all regions are encouraged to practice exploration, reform, and innovation." Although the content of the No. 1 central document is very rich, it is mainly focused on major policies and guidelines. Local party and government departments need to formulate corresponding specific implementation plans based on local characteristics, and carry out practical explorations of reform and innovation within the framework of the central major policies and guidelines. The five-level secretaries' focus on rural revitalization is not only a requirement for implementing central decisions but also a necessity for carrying out practical explorations of local reform and innovation. County-level governments directly face the front line of promoting agricultural development. The sense of responsibility, scientific attitude, and innovative spirit of the main leaders of county-level party and government are of great significance for promoting the comprehensive production capacity, quality, and efficiency of agriculture within the county, especially in terms of industrial development planning, scientific and technological service support, agricultural brand building, high-standard farmland construction, modern agricultural industrial park construction, investment attraction, talent introduction, and village-level organizational leadership selection and allocation.