An on-the-spot meeting was held at the conference room of Hubei Zhijiang Liquor Group recently concerning solving the practical problems the business may be facing with in the process of turning it into an enterprise with the annual output value of ten billion RMB. At the meeting, all government officials in charge of agricultural sector in Yichang, together with senior managers of this company, were present and put forward their suggestions and ideas to counter the current issues.

　　It is the fifth meeting this year that Yichang Government has called at the headquarters of some key enterprises in Yichang. And the system has worked so well, that the processing industry for agricultural products and many leading businesses with high agricultural industrialization in Yichang benefit a lot from such an innovative way of administration, since meetings like this make it possible for us to “pool the wisdom and efforts of everyone” and to work out policies and measures to overcome companies’ difficulties.

　　So far, the output value of the processing industry for agricultural products has almost reached one hundred billion, a year-on-year growth of thirty-three percent; the ratio of the output value to gross agricultural output value is 2 to 1; the number of “Important Agricultural County with output value of the processing industry of ten billion RMB” has been more than four; that of leading enterprises of agricultural industrialization with annual output value of one billion RMB amounts to ten while that of agricultural enterprises with annual output value of one hundred million RMB reaches seventy-nine; of more than one thousand and two hundred brands for agricultural products, six hundred and fifty-five have been awarded various titles and honors, some of which include sixteen “Famous Trademark of China”, the number accounting for over one third in Hubei Province, three “China Famous Brand Product”, nineteen “Products of Geographical Indication”, forty-five “Hubei Famous Brand Product”; the rural per capita net income reached eight thousand and forty-six RMB in 2012, a net increase of nine hundred and ninety-one RMB as against that in 2011, whose growth rate exceeded that of urban residents for the fourth consecutive year; whereas the rural per capita net income was more than four thousand and seven hundred RMB for the first half year of 2013, an increase of twelve percent. As the Secretary of Municipal Party Committee Huang Chuping points out, in the process of building Yichang into a modern megacity we must lay stress on agriculture, because it is the basis and impetus and spotlight in terms of economic and social development.

　　Concept Innovation Helps Solve the Issues of Agriculture, Rural Area and Farmers.

　　For this reason, we shall develop modern agriculture and solve the problems concerning agriculture, rural area and farmers. Yichang, the provincial sub-central city in Hubei Province, has undergone two times of leapfrog development in economic and social development with the construction of Gezhouba Water Control Project and the Three Gorges Water Control Project. At present, Yichang ranks the fourth among nineteen cities of the same level (prefecture-level city) along the Yangtze River, the second among seventy-seven prefecture-level cities of Central China in comparison of the economic aggregate. And at the 10th Party Congress of Hubei Province it was instructed that Yichang quicken its pace of transforming into a modern megacity, which marks the beginning of Yichang’s third golden opportunity.

　　Although no small accomplishments we have made for the past decades, Yichang, after all, is a city that urban population only makes up no more than thirty-five percent of the city’s population, and has jurisdiction over five districts, five counties and three county-level cities. In other words, it is a typical city surrounded by an even larger rural area that is characterized by its countless mountains and hills, which makes it extremely difficult to increase farmers’ income under the circumstances. So, what measures can we take to boost agriculture development in this region? How to settle numerous problems aroused in rural area? And what is the best way to get rich for people in the countryside? The general rule is that the city usually becomes prosperous first and then support the agricultural development in rural area. Is it possible for agriculture to make its own great contribution to the cause of turning Yichang into a modern megacity? Faced with these strategic challenges and historic missions, Yichang Government gradually figures out specific measures and plans after plenty of investigation and discussions. Huang notes that the success of the issues of the agriculture, rural area and farmers will contribute a lot to the leapfrog development and the planning of turning Yichang into a modern megacity, simply because of the basic support and constant impetus agriculture will give.

　　While the percentage of agriculture is on the decline in the gross regional products, coupled with the decreasing rural population during the process of industrialization and urbanization, the importance of the agriculture will never be changed due to the role it has played as the sunrise industry and the mother industry. The Mayor of Yichang Ma Xuming also seriously realizes that we shall have a long-term vision in agricultural development and properly handle three relationships, namely, economic development and ecological protection, speed and efficiency, the present profit and the future one. Only by doing this can we really fully realize the importance of the issues of the agriculture, rural area and farmers on the basis of maintaining stability, setting up overall perspective, and improving people’s livelihood.

　　And the establishment of the correct idea towards the issues of the agriculture, rural area and farmers cannot do without the great achievements in the modern agriculture which we have reached and tasted over the years, if not mention the strategic plans we have implemented without hesitation.

　　“Featured agriculture won’t be competitive after the market is inundated with products that come from other places. But we lay more stress on the quality in addition to characteristics we equally attach much importance to in agriculture development,” says the Deputy Party Secretary Wang Xingyu. He explains that the so-called “quality” he refers to is equivalent to efficiency and quality and agricultural modernization, which borrowed from the concept of industrialization.

　　Ideas do matter. At the period of the 12th Five-Year Plan, we will build Yichang into a city whose production capacity of agricultural products with distinctive features is so considerable that can exert influence over China, that is famous for its processing industry for agricultural products in Central China, that is the model city for the modern agriculture across the nation, that basically completes the conversion into a city whose agriculture is competitive than that of other places. And all this will be started from the breakthrough in the processing industry for agricultural products. “Given the current situation that Yichang has indicated in terms of resources and characteristics, we have no possibility to follow the old path of cities of national major grain producing areas regarding to agricultural development, even lack of competence compared with cities in Jianghan Plain, the major grain producing areas in Hubei; neither can we learn from the successful case of some big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, where urban modern agriculture enjoys prosperity in suburb areas,” says Deputy Major Wang Guobing, “But we are going to unswervingly take the road of the modern agriculture with unique features in accordance with local conditions, and the road of coordinative development between agricultural modernization and industrialization with the help of the powerful industrial bases in Yichang.”

　　Yichang’s agriculture is quickening its pace of turning into the industrial pattern of modern agriculture with “an industrial chain with annual output value of 10 billion RMB and the agriculture with annual output value of 100 billion RMB”.

　　Industry Innovation Helps Lift the Development of Endogenous PowerWhen it comes to the modern agriculture in Yichang, we never fail to mention the “hundred, thousand and ten thousand” project. This project is designed to achieve the goals of fostering “enterprises with annual output value of ten billion RMB, industries of one hundred billion RMB and of reaching the rural per capita net income of ten thousand RMB”. And the concrete steps are that under the guidance of scientific layout and making the most of the advantages, we will quicken the pace of the development of the four emerging industries of flower and nursery stock, edible fungi, konjak and Chinese herbal medicine on the basis of continually making the six traditional industries of citrus, tea, mountain vegetables, animal husbandry, aquaculture and cooking oil big and strong, and strive to set up ten industries with annual output value of ten billion RMB. Apart from that, we shall reorganize the industries on condition that leading enterprise shall play the central role, so that we can speed up producing the effect of cluster development, and ensure that in every featured industry there are the leading enterprises that can take the lead while the industrial cluster that can give a boost, and in every district, county or county-level city there exist some key enterprises that can be the mainstay. The next step is to promote the progress in technique, to upgrade the processing industry, to improve businesses’ benefit and to increase job opportunities. The industries will be the basis of the project. It is said that Yichang is a land with high proportion of mountain areas and hills as well as variety of landscapes, such as the flat ground between two mountains, middle mountain and high mountain. Besides Yichang is a city with arable area of 0.56 million acres and agricultural population of 2.72 million, which accounts for 65.5% of the city’s population. Generally speaking, in spite of the face of large population and little land, Yichang enjoys the advantages of pleasant climate, abundant rainfall and plentiful vegetation, together with relatively rich natural resources and large agricultural space.

　　We will adhere to the principle of industrial distribution of “three types of use of land fit for grain growing, forestry or featured agricultural products according to its land situation”. For example, we can grow crops like grain, cotton and oil plants in flatland area, citrus and tea in hills, oil plants and konjak in middle mountain area, mountain vegetables in mountain area. Now, we have completed the work of planning for ten industries with annual output value of ten billion RMB, six traditional competitive industries, and are ready to draw up the planning for the four emerging industries. Then we will raise funds for the project, and the agricultural featured industry will be the investment priority so that we can build it into the pillar industry of promoting farmers’ income increase and the core industry of representing the developmental level of the modern agriculture.

　　Factory-sale production disagrees with shiitake mushroom processing. Therefore, aiming to reconstruct industrial chain, Yuan\'an County separated the processing tache of bacteria tube which can implement factory production from the whole industrial chain, realizing the transformation and upgrading of traditional industry to modern industry. The county was awarded the title of "Hometown of Chinese Shiitake Mushroom". In Yichang Nature Biotechnology Co., Ltd., the workers were expertly sorting fresh products at the modern separation line. Early in 2010, through customization, the company adopted two four-unit automatic processing lines of shiitake. The shiitake production capacity reached 200,000 per day, which reduced production cost of single shiitake by more than 0.3 RMB compared with manual operation, the efficiency was increased by more than 10 times. In another workshop, 300,000 bags of shiitake were neatly packed on the ground, with sprinkler pipe and a variety of facilities nearby for temperature control. The chairman Zhou Huaxiong told the reporter, now it was the key stage to cultivate hyphae, and temperature control will be realized after phase II project is put into use.

　　Enterprise is the key when industry is developing. In order to promote processing enterprises to grow rapidly, Yichang Government formulated Implement Scheme of Billion-worth Agrotechny Enterprises Growth Project to support Hubei Daohuaxiang Group to build itself into the enterprise with annual output value of 50 billion RMB. Yichang Government also works on the spot for enterprises such as Xiao’s Group, Tulaohan and Qugu to support them to achieve the aim with annual output value of 10 billion RMB. With the aim of perfecting tea industry, Xiaoshi Group is a famous tea enterprise in Yichang or even in Hubei. Its tea industry chain covers tea powder, tea food, tea drink, tea extract (tea polyphenols, catechin, etc.) and daily necessities produced with tea chemical fiber. As one of the five provincial key agricultural science and technology industrial chains, the whole industry chain of Xiao’s Group is the typical representative of scientific development of special industries. It’s also a vivid portrayal for Yichang agriculture to adopt the way of deep processing. The similar enterprises are Hubei New Century Food Co. Ltd. in Dangyang, “Tulaohan” in Yidu and "Qugu"in Zigui, etc.. Hubei New Century Food Co., Ltd. has self-management import and export rights. Taking Yichang tangerine orange and Dangyang ponkan as raw materials, the cans it produces are mainly exported to the United States, South Korea and other countries. “Tulaohan” transforms the seafood processing waste into active calcium, extracts fish protein from fish bone and adds citrus peel to ferment to brew seafood sauce. In Qugu Company in Zigui, essential oil can be refined from navel orange peels, citrus can be fermented to produce vinegar and fruit wine, and tangerine pith can be used to make tea.

　　At the same time, Yichang Government adopts overall advancement to promote the building of agricultural product processing park, guide the agricultural products processing enterprises to gather to the park and support Daohuaxiang Industrial Park, Xiao’s Industrial Park, Anfusi Fruit and Vegetable Industrial Park and other five agricultural product industrial parks. However, we know that focusing on big projects doesn\'t mean giving up the small ones. We will push "small enterprises to develop into big ones" to promote the number of large enterprises to increase by more than 20% per year, actively encourage all types of investors to start new undertakings, expand business scope and form industrial cluster development trend.

　　To develop enterprises, we must firmly establish the concept that "brand is productivity". Relying on parks and creating famous brand, it is in the park that 80 percent of the agricultural brands emerged. Yidu Qingjiang Green Food Processing Park has two China famous brands and over 20 well-known brands of agricultural product. It takes brand building as an important measure of the implementation of agricultural processing "10 billion-worth enterprise" growth projects, it also makes plans, increases support and incentives through evaluation, so that a number of leading enterprises can be the main force of brand building. Cai Hongzhu, a farmer-entrepreneur, created Hubei\'s first famous enterprise with annual output value of ten billion RMB, Daohuaxiang Group with only three individuals, three vats and 3,000 RMB at the very beginning. It leads 300,000 farmers to be on the path of continual income growth. Now the company is going to achieve the aim at the annual output value of 50 billion RMB. Longquan Town, where Daohuaxiang Group locates, and even the entire Yiling District, have been known as "wine cities". This enterprise has three Chinese well-known brands. Now the pattern that several enterprises compete with each other has formed in Yichang, covering two wine enterprises ( Daohuaxiang Group and Zhijiang Liquor Group) , two tea enterprises (Xiao’s Group and Caihua Group), two fruit enterprises (Tulaohan Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. and Qugu Company), two konjak enterprises (Yizhi Konjac Co., Ltd. and Fucheng Biology Co., Ltd.).

　　Model Innovation Helps Farmers Get ProsperousWe will accelerate institutional innovation and strive to build new agricultural service system to form integrated model covering the village committee(leading enterprise, bases), cooperative and farmers. We will also explore “one product, several cooperations”, “one industry, one cooperative” and “cross-village cooperative” to realize cross-regional integration, seeking the way to benefit more farmers with the achievements of industrialization development and making farmers the subject of income increase. By the end of last year, 2,793 rural specialized cooperative economic organizations of Yichang has taken into shape, ranking the first in Hubei Province. The number of cooperative members has reached 213,000, covering 26.7 percent of farmers. According to the information, the number of cooperatives has increased 1,000, the total number of cooperations has been 3,700 and the registered family farm has reached 142.

　　In the core base of Xiaoxihong Citrus Cooperative, 14 techniques such as hanging lamp, garden clevis and mechanical spraying are implemented and track transportation of oranges is first applied. Mature oranges are transmitted to the foot of hill by three means, that is, no track, single track and double track. Xiaoxihong Citrus Cooperative was set up in 2003, it has 1,120 members and 1000 hectares of core bases, produces 60,000 ton of quality oranges, involves 11,000 orange farmers and radiates 7,333 hectares of area. The cooperative establishes 4 cooperate entities, its annual marketing production reaches 100,000 tons, its income breaks 300 million RMB and the total assets are 60 million RMB. The cooperative was awarded “the National Model Farmers\' Specialized Cooperative” last year, ranking the best five ones in Hubei Province.

　　Quality tangerine oranges of “Tulaohan” brand are sold at 20 to 30 RMB per one and they are exported to Russia, Central Europe and other countries and regions. The output value of the group reached 1.5 billion RMB last year. In April 2006, in order to improve the traditional industry, on the basis of investigation and research, Tulaohan Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. was planned to join Honghuatao Citrus Industrial Cooperative, to connect the two important brands of Yidu. The development way of quality oranges was gradually established by depending on the cooperative and the brand “Tulaohan”. The government organized heads of enterprises to learn other cities’ experience, promoted standardization of citrus production, and paid special attention to the quality of the products and marketing.

　　Nowadays, the production value is promoted through brand development, certification of geographical indications and green products, which vigorously increases farmers’ income. Such three geographical indications as Yichang Tangerine Orange, Zigui Navel Orange and Qingjiang Orange and several local brands vigorously improve the popularity and reputation of Yichang orange and promote both the quantity and value while oranges meet dull sale in China, making orange industry the pillar industry for farmers to increase income. Having registered geography symbol, the price of thin-shelled walnut per kilogram was increased 10 RMB, the price of chive that Wufeng exports to EU increased more than four times. The “agreeable city, prosperous place” Yichang ushers in the golden opportunity of development.

　　(Originally carried out on the front page of Farmers’ Daily on September 12, 2013)(Reporters: Tang Yuanjie, He Lansheng, He Hongwei, Feng Ke and Gao Yang)