In recent years, President Deng Xiuxin, a member of the NPC Standing Committee and deputy to the NPC, and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, has been following up supply-side structural reform in agriculture by tourism. “Recently, people’s enthusiasm to travel continually heats up, so maybe we could see something through it,” Prof. Deng said.
When a journalist from CTNEWS asked Prof. Deng’s opinions about how to advance supply-side structural reform in agriculture by tourism, another deputy to the NPC said, “Prof. Deng is a specialist in supply-side structural reform in agriculture, which centers on benefiting farmers by developing farm produce into commodities and rural areas into tourist areas,”.
According to the 2016 Report on the Work of the Government, “In tourism, domestic trips showed rapid growth, and overseas trips exceeded 120 million. People in both urban and rural areas saw a rise in living standards,”. And Prof. Deng said, “For instance, In Wuyuan (a county of Jiangxi Province), featured by rapeseed, a very appealing agricultural landscape has been created at a very low cost, thus promoting local agricultural economic development. So, rural tourism is becoming an effective way for poverty alleviation.”
However, during the rural tourism development, a few structural weak points of supply-side in agriculture are also revealed. Prof. Deng said, there are deficiencies in three aspects. First, the asymmetry of market supply and demand information to aimless production. Second, lack of a good study on time window, brand awareness of rural tourism products, etc. Third, the planning issues of rural tourism. Overall, in order to be competitive and attract investment, rural tourism should at least reach a medium scale relying on either a unique natural landscape or making a unique agricultural landscape, which requires strengthened plan for and guidance to farmers from villagers’ committee, the villagers’ autonomous organization, or local government at county and town level.
But how to make up weak points in supply-side structural reform of agriculture by tourism so as to achieve the integrated development of the two industries? Prof. Deng suggested, at the macro level, the local government should connect thousands of households through playing its role of comprehensive coordination, strengthening the tourism planning, and making an overall arrangement for rural tourism resources and regional economic development under a limited increase of investment. The unique selling points of products are required, such as sightseeing or fruit picking recreation. Prof. Deng values a new type of agricultural tourism a lot, “Gardening Experience”. Farmers can jointly set up a large-scale horticultural garden with different types of flowers, attracting children to experience gardening, grafting, management, and planting at home with their parents. This type of industry has been relatively mature in Japan and South Korea, with a good market effect. And some pilot projects in China received good response.
Prof. Deng also mentioned that, we should draw a red line when carrying out supply-side structural reform in agriculture through the development of rural tourism, according to objective laws in agriculture. Never plan landscapes against environment-friendly rule. Or else, it will not only waste a large number of facilities, but also lead to soil salinization and desertification, resulting in a waste of resources and ecological damage.
http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2017/0314/48542.shtml
(By Pan Xiangcheng)
