Fully Release the Potential of Agricultural Machinery Trade-in

The upgrading of agricultural machinery is an important driving force to promote the development and progress of agricultural machinery market. The survey shows that the value of agricultural machinery updated every year is as high as 300 billion yuan. This year, the agricultural machinery market as a whole has shown a trend of steady and good development, and the structure of the agricultural machinery market has been continuously optimized, but affected by many factors, such as the decline in grain prices, the implementation of the emission standard of "National three to National four", and the reduction of subsidy standards for the purchase of agricultural machinery, the agricultural machinery market has not yet gone out of the downturn since last year. Industry insiders believe that there is an urgent need to accelerate the implementation of the agricultural machinery trade-in policy, dredge the blocking points of agricultural machinery trade-in, stimulate the vitality of the agricultural machinery market, enhance farmers' investment confidence, and drive the agricultural machinery industry chain into a virtuous circle.

Enhance investment confidence

Grain farmers, especially the new agricultural operators, are the main target customers of agricultural machinery and are sensitive to the price of agricultural machinery. At present, farmers are facing the double squeeze of downward grain prices and rising agricultural machinery prices, which further affects the willingness to buy machines.

"The decline in food prices is an important reason for farmers to buy agricultural machinery." Liu Guogang, chairman and general manager of Heilongjiang Qiqihar Guoda Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd., said that since last year, the prices of corn, wheat and other grain varieties have declined, and farmers' income from growing grain has declined, which has affected the confidence of investment in purchasing agricultural machinery. In particular, cooperatives, agricultural companies, farms and other new agricultural business entities are more cautious in investment, leading to a decline in investment demand.

"'Three countries to four 'is the key factor leading to the downturn in the agricultural machinery market." Ye Qing, chairman of the Agricultural Machinery Market Branch of China Agricultural Machinery Circulation Association and chairman of Anhui Qingyuan Group, said. The implementation of the "National IV" standard in December 2022 has improved the environmental protection performance of agricultural machinery and promoted the upgrading of agricultural machinery technology; on the other hand, it has increased the manufacturing cost of agricultural machinery, resulting in rising terminal prices and rising user purchase and use costs, which directly affect Farmers' buying behavior. Agricultural machinery enterprises in the emission standards before the upgrade of large-scale to the "country three" agricultural machinery inventory, ahead of the overdraft of agricultural machinery consumption demand, resulting in a sharp decline in the domestic agricultural machinery market in 2023. From the perspective of historical experience, in the first two years of "national one to national two" and "national two to national three", the agricultural machinery market also experienced a downturn, and the agricultural machinery market gradually recovered in the third year. This year is the second year after "national three rises to national four", and the market still needs to recover.

Industry insiders believe that the agricultural machinery trade-in policy can not only directly promote agricultural machinery market consumption, promote agricultural machinery technological progress and industrial upgrading, but also improve agricultural production efficiency and quality, and help sustainable agricultural development. The policy of agricultural machinery trade-in should be promoted as soon as possible. At the same time, we will implement actions to increase farmers' income, increase farmers' income from growing grain, and boost farmers' confidence in investing in agricultural machinery.

Increase subsidies

For the majority of farmers, the purchase of agricultural machinery is not a small investment. Xu Shuangchao, chairman of Shuangchao Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Funan County, Anhui Province, said that the cooperative has more than 20 agricultural machinery. Because of the socialization of agricultural machinery, the depreciation of agricultural machinery is fast, and a batch of agricultural machinery will be replaced in 2 to 3 years. Now the price of agricultural machinery is becoming more and more expensive, and the purchase subsidy of regular agricultural machinery is becoming less and less. At the same time, the agricultural machinery insurance mechanism is not perfect, the probability of agricultural machinery accidents is high, the insurance is difficult, the amount of insurance is too high. He hopes that the state can increase subsidies for agricultural machinery trade-in, improve the agricultural machinery insurance mechanism, and make farmers feel more at ease in buying agricultural machinery.

Agricultural machinery market is a typical policy market, which is dominated by agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy. Since the implementation of the agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy in 2004, the level of agricultural mechanization has been rapidly improved, and the agricultural machinery industry has developed rapidly. At present, the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting has exceeded 73%.

In recent years, the amount of subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery in many places has dropped significantly, which has affected farmers' enthusiasm for purchasing agricultural machinery. Zhou Kaiwu, deputy director of the Agricultural and Rural Bureau of Chongren County, Jiangxi Province, said that the reduction of the subsidy standard for the purchase of agricultural machinery is an important reason that affects the trade-in of local agricultural machinery. The state may increase subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and raise the standard of subsidies.

Industry insiders said that when formulating the implementation rules for agricultural machinery trade-in, the relevant departments should give full play to the regulatory and guiding role of the subsidy policy, increase subsidies, expand policy coverage, simplify the application process, and cash in time to attract more farmers to purchase advanced applications. Agricultural machinery will further expand the scale of the agricultural machinery market. We should learn from the business model of agricultural insurance, bring agricultural machinery insurance into the scope of policy insurance, and mobilize the enthusiasm of insurance companies to operate agricultural machinery insurance.

Perfect second-hand market

To implement the policy of replacing old agricultural machinery with new ones, we should not only solve the problem of buying new agricultural machinery, but also solve the problem of disposing of old agricultural machinery. Industry insiders believe that the second-hand agricultural machinery market can provide farmers with affordable choices, promote the recycling of resources, promote the development of agricultural machinery maintenance, evaluation and other related industries, and provide farmers with more employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.

The evaluation of the value of old agricultural machinery is a complex process, involving the service life of agricultural machinery, the amount of work, maintenance status and other factors. At present, the lack of unified evaluation standards and pricing mechanism makes it difficult for farmers and recycling enterprises to reach a consensus on the value of agricultural machinery. Ye Qing suggested that a unified second-hand agricultural machinery evaluation and pricing mechanism should be established. The government or industry associations can formulate guiding standards for agricultural machinery evaluation and pricing, clarify evaluation methods and procedures, provide references for farmers and recycling companies, reduce information asymmetry, and enhance farmers Willingness to trade in old. Through the introduction of third-party evaluation agencies, the fairness and accuracy of evaluation can be improved, and the performance and quality of second-hand agricultural machinery can be strengthened.

Agricultural machinery recycling involves dismantling, reuse and other links, which requires professional facilities and technology. At present, the second-hand agricultural machinery recycling system is not perfect, the lack of professional recycling enterprises and processing facilities, resulting in low efficiency of agricultural machinery recycling. Ye Qing believes that we should speed up the construction and improvement of second-hand agricultural machinery recycling and treatment system, increase investment in the construction of agricultural machinery recycling and treatment facilities, strengthen technological innovation, and improve the technical level of agricultural machinery dismantling and reuse.

Ye Qing said that the circulation of agricultural machinery is the deficiency of the agricultural machinery industry, and the relevant departments should seize the opportunity of "trade-in" of agricultural machinery, increase support for the second-hand agricultural machinery market, and build a regional second-hand agricultural machinery trading market. focus on second-hand agricultural machinery trading, centralized evaluation, centralized maintenance, centralized storage, effectively standardize and promote second-hand agricultural machinery trading, and promote the development of agricultural machinery circulation industry.