Chapter 10 3. We forget to be hungry too early

In 1993, China's total grain output reached a record high of 456.44 million tons, which was another bumper harvest after several years of bumper harvests. Just in this bumper harvest year, China experienced a nationwide spike in food prices. This is a unique phenomenon in history, and it is also an extremely abnormal phenomenon.There are many reasons for this phenomenon, including farmers' anticipation and reluctance to sell grain, and a small number of people's misunderstanding of the tax reform.But the most critical point is our misunderstanding of the grain purchase and sale system.

China began to implement the unified grain purchase and marketing system in 1953. Under the economic conditions at that time, it played a greater role in ensuring the national grain supply. However, with the development of society, this rigid system based on the planned economy became more and more serious. The more it exposes its disadvantages, especially it does not meet the needs of a market economy. In the late 1980s, some coastal areas were the first to reform this system. On November 1, 1992, the whole country announced the liberalization of grain purchase and sales prices and operations. By the end of 1993, more than 95% of counties and cities across the country had liberalized grain prices.

Unfortunately, we misunderstand the concept of "letting go" and think that letting go means letting go and letting go.Denying the nature of grain as a special commodity, anyone who wants to operate it can operate it, and the price can be raised as much as they like.It is believed that any measures taken by the state to stabilize food prices and stabilize the food market are not in line with the principles of a market economy and are going back.As a result, some places have relaxed grain production, and the area of ​​grain planting has dropped sharply; some places have relaxed the management of the grain market, and individual and private grain merchants have controlled and monopolized the grain market; In the hands of grain merchants...especially some comrades in the grain department, they lack contingency measures and the necessary mental preparation for how to regulate the production, purchase and sale of grain after the grain market and prices are liberalized.Quite a few of the original 32,000 state-owned grain stores in towns and cities across the country have survived in name only, mainly dealing in commodities other than grain.In the past, the work of purchasing surplus grain in rural areas and adjusting the grain balance between regions, which was undertaken by the national grain department, fell to the self-employed and other social collectives to a large extent.According to statistics, there are more than 5,000 enterprises operating grain through non-state-owned channels in Fujian Province; 50-60% of the grain consumed by Shanghai residents is transferred to the market, and 100% of the grain consumed by some social groups comes directly from grain-producing areas.Many large individual hoarders of grain have emerged across the country, often tens of tons or hundreds of tons.

A considerable part of the grain is controlled in the hands of individual traders, laying a hidden danger for driving up grain prices. In 1993, China's grain production had a bumper harvest, and only a few regions experienced imbalances. This is a normal phenomenon, but some unscrupulous traders took the opportunity to drive up grain prices, creating the illusion of food shortages, and causing the food problems in some areas to spread to a national level. price hikes.In a city in Sichuan Province, 35 individual grain stores suddenly raised the price of grain by 0.5 yuan per kilogram on the same day, causing panic in the city, and then the city's large and small grain stores followed suit, making grain price increases a fixed trend.

Because we underestimated the market situation after the liberalization of grain management and prices, and were not prepared enough for emergencies, we were caught off guard by slight fluctuations in the grain market. A wrong point of view will bring us a catastrophic storm. In fact, no market economy country in the world will completely ignore the price of grain, which is related to the national economy, the people's livelihood and social stability. On the contrary, any country's grain is managed by the government and intervenes in the price of grain.Grain price policy has become the main content of the grain policy of each country.From the price support policy of the United States to the managed price system of Japan, the intervention price and threshold price of the European Community countries, etc., all of them are strict monitoring of grain prices.Canada and Australia, where agricultural production is more developed, have stricter grain price management, which is almost set by the Wheat Bureau, unified purchase, and finally paid by the consolidated cost system.Japan's management of grain is very detailed. Its rice market has not been liberalized for many years. Recently, under the pressure of the United States, it has relaxed a little, but it is not very liberal.Imported rice has become cheaper, but it is still sold at a high price domestically, and the money earned from foreign trade is used to subsidize domestic agriculture.South Korea did not let it go. It was released two years ago, but there were also troubles. The prime minister and ministers all resigned to thank the people.

Of course, our management of the grain circulation system is not the old method of relying on administrative orders to "control it to death" under the planned economy, but to comprehensively use administrative, economic, and legal means to regulate it. First of all, on the basis of respecting the role of the law of value and in accordance with the mechanism of market supply and demand to form prices, determine a reasonable grain price, which can not only mobilize the enthusiasm of grain farmers for production, but also consider the affordability of consumers. Second, we must have a certain source of grain.As the saying goes, don't panic if you have food in your hands.The State Council clearly stipulates that the grain department must control 70-80% of the commodity grain sources in order to give full play to the role of the main channel, stabilize the grain market, and have a fundamental guarantee for the food problems of urban and rural farmers.It is a common practice in many countries in the world that the government or commercial institutions controlled by the government have sufficient food sources.The semi-official Canadian Wheat Board monopolizes the purchase and sale of all wheat and barley in western Canada, and it also monopolizes the export quota of Canadian wheat and the right to issue national export credits.The Australian Wheat Bureau, established in 1939, is also a semi-official organization, which almost monopolizes all the wheat circulation in Australia.According to the law, the Australian Wheat Board has the right to determine the sales policy and domestic purchase and sale price of wheat, while the export of wheat is completely controlled by the Wheat Board.As a developing country, India's annual purchase volume by the government is around 15-20 million tons, and as high as 20.12 million tons from 1984 to 1985, achieving basic self-sufficiency in grain.my country has more than 200 million urban population and tens of millions of poor and food-deficient rural people. The state-owned grain department does not have enough grain sources. How can it stabilize the market, cope with grain fluctuations, and ensure people's food supply?

But we tend to ignore this.Some state-owned grain stores have been diverted to operating department stores and home appliances. The food is delivered to the door. Individual grain vendors replace the grain department to purchase and stockpile grain. When there is a disturbance, we are naturally caught off guard. A wrong understanding, a one-sided understanding, let us pay a heavy tuition. Fortunately, this tuition fee was not paid in vain.After stabilizing the trend of rising grain prices, China began to re-understand the special commodity nature of grain, and reaffirmed the unique status of grain production and grain circulation in China. In 1998, the reform of China's grain circulation system also started after learning from this turmoil.

Food is the lifeblood, which is deeply felt by people who are hungry, but it may be just a superfluous dogma for people who have a full meal and a good meal. With the fullness of their stomachs, some people began to forget about their hungry stomachs, forgetting that food is always our lifeblood. Analyzing the grain turmoil in 1994, in addition to grain prices and business being left alone after liberalization, the neglect of grain production was also an important reason. First of all, in the coastal areas, there are many ways to make money and many opportunities to make a fortune. Who would look down on the thankless farming of food?Anyway, there is money in the pocket, and the bills are flicked, so there is no need to worry about food.They boldly declared: "If you don't grow rice, you can eat rice; if you don't grow wheat, you can eat wheat."As a result, the rice field became a development zone, and Liang Nong became the owner of the karaoke hall.The grain planting area is shrinking year by year. This is the main grain producing area, but the grain output is decreasing year by year.Tickets are not worth food after all, and rich tycoons cannot rely on "remys" to fill their stomachs every day. In the end, they have to "beg for food" from neighboring provinces.

Some grain-producing areas in the interior are not slow to change their minds. Coastal people only earn tickets and do not grow rice. Why do we have to make wedding clothes for others?It is a disadvantage to grow grain, and it is useless to engage in agriculture, so the grain-producing provinces are unwilling to produce more grain.Planting what makes money has become the first "market economy" concept instilled in farmers by some grassroots leaders. The basic position of food production began to be shaken. In 1993, the national grain sown area was 1.651 billion mu, a decrease of 72 million mu compared with 1992 (of which the rice sown area decreased by 23.8 million mu).Those with a large decrease are: 6.75 million mu in Hunan, 5.7 million mu in Guangdong, 4.95 million mu in Zhejiang, 4.2 million mu in Jiangsu, 2.4 million mu in Fujian, and 1.95 million mu in Xinjiang. The grain output of the southern granary, the "land of fish and rice", has been greatly reduced: Jiangsu has reduced production by 225,000 tons, Fujian has reduced production by 350,000 tons, Zhejiang has reduced production by 1.05 million tons, Hunan and Jiangxi have each reduced production by 900,000 tons, Hubei has reduced production by 665,000 tons, and Guangdong has reduced production by 825,000 tons tons.Fortunately, our north was stabilized, and the weather was favorable. In 1993, the country's total grain output still hit a record high, reaching 456.44 million tons, an increase of 13.78 million tons or 3.1% over 1992.However, the increase was all contributed by the north. The total increase in production in the north was 17.91 million tons, which just made up for the decrease in production in the south.

The grain price hike that broke out at the end of 1993 shocked and panicked most people, but did not attract enough attention from some local leaders. In 1994, the grain sown area continued to decrease and fell below the warning line.The national grain sown area was 1.64 billion mu, which was 17 million mu less than that in 1993.It is a year in which the sown area of ​​grain has decreased a lot in recent years, and the total grain output has been affected by 4.5 million tons due to the decrease in area.This year, we did not have the luck of 1993 either. There were floods in the north and south, drought in the central part, and wind disasters in the east and west.At the end of the year, the total grain output of the country was 444.5 million tons, which was 12 million tons less than that in 1993.21 provinces, regions, and municipalities across the country have reduced grain production, among which provinces such as Henan, Liaoning, Guangxi, Jiangsu, and Sichuan have reduced production by more than 1 million tons.

This makes it easy for us to understand why the price of grain in 1994 "singing all the way" skyrocketed.Fortunately, our country's food foundation is solid, and the special grain reserves are abundant so that we can tide over the difficulties smoothly, but this is enough to make us palpitate for a long time: the lifeblood must not be ignored! By 1995, food production was finally seriously placed in front of governments at all levels, and most local leaders began to realize that if they did not catch food, they would be in danger of starvation.This is naturally a good phenomenon, but due to inertia, the country's grain sown area has only rebounded slightly, reaching 1.644 billion mu, which is still below the warning line, an increase of only 4 million mu compared with 1993.It is easy to reduce and increase is difficult. In the past few years, we unknowingly reduced the sown area of ​​grain by more than 10 million mu every year, but to increase it took a lot of effort, and it was only a few million mu.It was not until 1996 that my country's grain sown area returned to the national warning level of 1.65 billion mu.Corresponding to this, the country has re-established the core and leading position of grain production, and implemented the "rice bag" governor responsibility system, and the top leaders of all levels of government will personally handle agriculture and grain.At the same time, the state established and improved the grain reserve system to ensure sufficient grain sources, strengthened grain market management, and maintained normal grain circulation order. Five years have passed, and my country's grain production has returned to the right track, with bumper harvests year after year.Following the historical peak of 504.5 million tons of total grain output in 1996, 492.5 million tons of grain in 1997 became the second high-yielding year in history. With the efforts of farmers and farmers, the grain output reached a new record, reaching 495 million tons.Grain stocks are plentiful and grain prices are stable, and the "grain books" that have been restored to use in many places during the wave of rising food prices have also been locked in drawers by the vast majority of residents. However, the alarm bells of 1994 are still ringing in our ears-when to ignore agriculture, when to ignore food production, when something will go wrong! Can we still take it lightly? The author once heard a local official help farmers change their minds: Do you think it is better to have a house of tickets or a house of grain?He "taught me well": Of course it should be a house of money! This proposition is obviously wrong.Currency, without materials as a basis, is just a piece of waste paper. If we don't have enough food for market circulation, you just have piles of notes, what's the use?Still have to be hungry! However, many people have begun to disapprove of food because of their full stomachs and rich pockets in the past few years. "What to do to make money" has become a fashionable slogan for changing minds.Someone publicly wrote an article claiming that grain is not a special commodity and should be completely regulated by the market. Some special policies adopted by our country on grain production for a long time are harmful but not beneficial.Some of them talked freely and freely: "Our country has a vast land, and the east is not bright and the west is bright. Even if there are disasters in successive years, as far as the whole country is concerned, there will be no devastating disasters in food production."They believe that as long as they have money, they don't have to worry about food. Others are more emancipated.He believes that not only urban residents, but even rural farmers do not need to grow food, and can solve their own food ration problems through exchange.This is called "Eat rice without planting rice, eat wheat without planting wheat".He suggested that farmers "change the old concept of simply asking for food from production and the state, and establish and increase the new concept of asking for food from the market." He believes that this is a market economy. We don't know, everyone doesn't grow grain, who do you go to buy grain with the ticket?In the past few years, the neglect of growing grain in the coastal areas has caused a food shortage? Zhu Rongji, Premier of the State Council, pointedly pointed out: "If we abandon agriculture after the economy becomes rich and rely on buying or importing grain at high prices in the interior, no matter from the perspective of our country's arable land resources, total grain volume, and foreign exchange balance, it will be a big problem. unbearable". "From the perspective of the overall national economy, the development of grain production in coastal areas is not only necessary, but also promising." The "rice bag" is dissatisfied, and the "money bag" may not be able to drum up.The experience of economic development in various countries in the world shows that without the strong development of agriculture and the stable growth of food, the rapid development of the national economy will be difficult to sustain.In the early stages of industrialization in developed capitalist countries, there was also a common phenomenon of severely weakening food production, but the backwardness of agriculture soon seriously hindered industrial development and national economic modernization, so greater efforts had to be made to speed up agricultural and food production. production development.Over the past 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of my country, the development of the national economy has experienced several ups and downs and major adjustments, all because of problems in agriculture and food production lingering or landslides. It is an undeniable fact that food is a special commodity of strategic importance.Especially in a special country like ours with a lot of people and little land, the fundamental policy of national economic development has always been "first, food, and second, construction." The issue should be considered at a strategic height related to the overall economic development of the country. Agricultural experts believe that China's food problem has reached the point where the whole people must pay attention to it. First of all, we must prevent three ideological tendencies: one is to avoid thinking that my country's food problem is not serious, not realizing that our country's food production base is fragile, and the resulting The second is to prevent the tendency to think that the development of a market economy should make money and grow whatever, and not to see the particularity of grain, a special commodity; the third is to prevent the belief that money can buy grain, There is no tendency to see the trend of tight international and domestic grain sources. If we don't clarify our understanding and correct our erroneous thinking, China's grain production will be in danger of a sharp decline, and the Chinese may go hungry again.At present, the coastal areas are reluctant to grow grain, and the phenomenon of abandoning land is serious. Many grain-producing areas only seek self-balance and are unwilling to grow grain. We must not treat food production with a simple benefit principle, nor can we completely let the market adjust food production spontaneously.my country must never become a major food importer, and the basic food strategy must be based on basic domestic self-sufficiency.Developing grain production is our fundamental way out, and stabilizing area, output, inventory, total balance, and regional balance are our basic policies.As long as we pay attention to the food problem and work hard to develop food production, we will not only be able to better solve the food problem, but will also promote the development of the entire national economy.This means that the "rice bag" is full, the "money bag" is full, and the people's living standards have improved! Will the Chinese still go hungry?It depends on whether China's "rice bags" are sufficient!