The key to strengthening and optimizing the agricultural and pastoral industry lies in integrating production, processing, and sales, and bridging agriculture, culture, and tourism. This approach builds a resilient, value-added, and sustainable industrial chain, which must be systematically planned and implemented in layers based on regional realities.
It is essential to adhere to the principles of ecological priority, people-centered development, tailored guidance, and systematic governance. The improvement of the living environment should be organically integrated with industrial development, cultural heritage, ecological protection, and grassroots governance, thereby forging a distinctive path to building livable, business-friendly, and beautiful villages suited to local conditions.
The "reform" key must be utilized effectively. Through institutional innovation, systemic and mechanistic barriers can be dismantled, activating the potential of essential factors such as land, pasture, labor, culture, and ecology. This drives the transformation of resources into assets, assets into capital, and capital into wealth.
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has charted a grand blueprint for development over the next five years, stating that "agricultural and rural modernization is crucial to the overall context and quality of Chinese modernization." The 11th Plenary Session of the Autonomous Region Party Committee and the Regional Economic Work Conference proposed to "accelerate the transformation and development of agriculture and animal husbandry, build a national important agricultural and livestock product production base, focus on improving per-unit yield, vigorously promote deep processing, comprehensively strengthen brand building, promote the development of the entire industrial chain, and solidly advance from a major agricultural and pastoral region to a strong one," and to "coordinate and promote urbanization with the county seat as an important carrier and the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas." For Inner Mongolia, comprehensively advancing rural revitalization is both a major political task and a systematic project concerning border stability, ethnic unity, ecological security, and people's livelihoods. Embarking on the new journey of the "16th Five-Year Plan" period, we must base our efforts on reality, coordinate the advancement of rural and pastoral area construction, and closely focus on the two keywords: "chain" and "integration," to forge a path of rural revitalization characterized by vibrant industries, ecological safeguards, a quality life, and warm governance.
Inner Mongolia's rural and pastoral areas are located at the forefront of China's northern important ecological security barrier, possessing rich resources for agricultural and pastoral development as well as profound ethnic cultural endowments. However, constrained by factors such as remote geographical location, weak infrastructure, short industrial chains, and weak market connectivity, the region's agricultural and pastoral industry development has long faced the dilemma of "having products but no brands, having resources but no transformation, having culture but no experiential value." To strengthen and optimize the agricultural and pastoral industry, it is necessary to integrate production, processing, and sales, bridge agriculture, culture, and tourism, build a resilient, value-added, and sustainable industrial chain, and proceed with systematic planning and layered advancement based on regional realities.
The production end must be restructured with a focus on standardization, greening, and branding. Relying on family pastures, cooperatives, and Gacha collective economic organizations, the standardized production of characteristic livestock products such as high-quality beef and mutton, dairy products, and wool under the grassland-livestock balance system should be promoted. On the agricultural production side, high-standard farmland construction and the upgrading of characteristic planting industries should be advanced according to local conditions, developing contract farming, smart agriculture, and digital farms. Precision management should be achieved through remote sensing monitoring, IoT devices, and big data platforms to reduce production risks and improve resource utilization efficiency. The establishment of regional public brands accompanied by quality traceability systems should be encouraged to gradually enhance product premium capabilities.
The processing segment must strengthen local conversion and high-value utilization. Addressing the current issue of pastoral areas mainly selling primary products externally, guidance should be provided for building small and medium-sized cold chain logistics facilities, deep-processing plants for milk and meat, and comprehensive utilization facilities for by-products, forming a gradient processing network of "herder household — primary processing point — deep-processing park." The exploration of building "enclave parks" or processing platforms jointly built and shared by leagues and cities can reduce the investment pressure on individual banners and counties. For bulk agricultural products like corn, potatoes, and sunflowers, support should be given to building primary processing facilities such as cleaning, sorting, cold storage, and drying at the production site to reduce post-harvest losses. Simultaneously, leading enterprises should be guided to deploy projects for extracting functional components like starch, protein, dietary fiber, and vegetable oil, promoting the shift of agriculture from "selling raw materials" to "selling health foods" and "selling industrial raw materials."
Sales channels should be畅通无阻 through synergistic online and offline efforts. On one hand, the three-level logistics system of banner-county — sumu — gacha must be improved to打通 the "first mile" and "last mile." On the other hand, leveraging transportation hub cities like Linhe, Tongliao, and Chifeng, green agricultural and livestock product trading markets radiating to North China, Northeast China, and even the whole country should be established, supported by functions such as cold chain storage, inspection and testing, and e-commerce incubation. Cooperatives and family farms should be encouraged to establish direct procurement relationships with e-commerce platforms or develop membership-based delivery through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) models. The promotion of the "Mengzi Biao" certification to cover more agricultural and pastoral products can enhance market trust and premium space through unified standards.
Deep integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism should be promoted. This integration is a key path to achieving industrial value addition. Leveraging natural landscapes like grasslands, deserts, and lakes, as well as cultural resources such as folk customs, intangible cultural heritage skills, and festival activities, new business formats like pastoral leisure tourism, study tours, and wellness vacations should be developed. Models like "family pasture + homestay + handicraft experience" should be promoted, allowing tourists to participate in processes like milking, cheese-making, horse riding, and embroidery, thereby enhancing the repurchase rate of agricultural and pastoral products through immersive experiences. Promoting the integration of pastoralism and tourism extends the consumption scenarios for livestock products, allowing traditional culture to gain economic support through living inheritance. New formats such as "rural complexes," "shared farms," and "study bases" should be developed, enabling tourists to experience farming activities like sowing, harvesting, milling, and oil pressing, and purchase locally processed souvenirs like flour, millet, and linseed oil. By advancing the multi-dimensional integration of "agriculture + animal husbandry + culture + tourism + wellness," the value chain of agriculture and animal husbandry can be effectively extended, while also attracting people and increasing vitality to rural and pastoral areas.
The ultimate goal of comprehensively advancing rural revitalization is to give the vast number of farmers and herders a more tangible sense of gain, happiness, and security. Improving the living environment in rural and pastoral areas should not remain at the superficial level of "cleaning up dirt and disorder"; rather, it should be treated as an important抓手 for comprehensively advancing rural revitalization, strengthening China's northern important ecological security barrier, and promoting ethnic unity and progress. For Inner Mongolia, it is necessary to base efforts on the fundamental characteristics of vast territory, ecological fragility, dispersed population, cold climate, and interwoven agriculture and pastoralism in rural and pastoral areas. Adhering to ecological priority, people-centered development, tailored guidance, and systematic governance, the improvement of the living environment should be organically integrated with industrial development, cultural heritage, ecological protection, and grassroots governance, forging a path to building livable, business-friendly, and beautiful villages with regional characteristics.
Public services should be made readily accessible nearby. The equalization of infrastructure and public services must be strengthened, continuously advancing the remediation of roads "returning to disrepair" and the project of connecting natural villages with hardened roads, thereby improving accessibility depth and disaster resistance capabilities. Accelerating the rollout of 5G networks and broadband internet to villages and households will provide support for smart pastoralism, telemedicine, and online education. The water supply guarantee system needs improvement, implementing centralized well drilling, water storage tank installation, and water purification projects for distant water fetching points in pastoral areas; in agricultural areas, the integration of urban and rural water supply should be promoted to ensure drinking water safety. Furthermore, functions such as Party-mass service centers, cultural activity rooms, clinics, and courier stations should be integrated to create a "15-minute便民 service圈," allowing farmers and herders to enjoy basic public services right at their doorsteps.
A clean and comfortable living environment should be achieved. Regarding garbage management, a hierarchical system of "farmers/herders classify, Gacha collects, Sumu transports, Banner/County processes" should be established, promoting on-site resource utilization models such as redeemable points for recyclables and composting kitchen waste for grassland fertilization. Particular attention must be paid to solving the pollution problem of new types of waste like plastic packaging and discarded vaccine bottles in pastoral areas. For sewage treatment, small-scale constructed wetlands or micro-power treatment stations can be built in densely populated villages in agricultural areas; pastoral areas are better suited to low-maintenance technologies like waterless or water-saving ecological toilets, and greywater separation and reuse, strictly avoiding the blind introduction of high-energy-consumption, high-operation-cost "urbanized" facilities. For toilet retrofitting, applicable technologies like frost-resistant triple-compartment septic tanks and double-pit alternating sanitary dry toilets should be promoted, fully considering the characteristics of severe winters, and coordinated with the resource utilization of livestock manure to turn waste into fertilizer for cyclic use.
Inheriting traditional culture helps rejuvenate the appearance of villages. In the process of promoting village greening and beautification, priority should be given to native drought-tolerant tree species like sea buckthorn, caragana, and elm, avoiding the wasteful planting of ornamental lawns or southern tree species that consume excessive water. Encouraging the transformation of废弃 sheepfolds and old enclosures into small vegetable gardens, orchards, or pastures can achieve "greenery in the yard, livestock in the pen, and harvests in the field." Attention should be paid to preserving ethnic cultural symbols such as the layout of ancient villages and settlements, stone courtyard walls, and yurts, avoiding a "thousand villages with one face" in environmental improvement. Utilizing carriers like intangible cultural heritage workshops, herder memory halls, and farming display parks, a tidy and orderly living environment can become a living space for inheriting traditional culture.
The key to activating long-"dormant" resources in rural and pastoral areas lies in skillfully using the "key" of reform. Through institutional innovation, systemic and mechanistic obstacles can be broken, activating the potential of要素 such as land, pasture, labor, culture, and ecology, and driving the transformation of resources into assets, assets into capital, and capital into wealth. Based on the realities of border ethnic regions, and balancing ecological protection redlines, ethnic cultural characteristics, and market economic logic, systematic advancement of clarified property rights, marketized要素, organized operations, and modernized governance is needed. The institutional bottleneck of "resources in hand, but unable to monetize" must be broken. Through property rights restructuring, policy relaxation, market access, and organizational innovation, "dormant" resource要素 like grasslands, farmland, culture, and ecology can be developed under protection, appreciate through流动, and benefit through sharing.
Multiple measures should be taken to stimulate the vitality of resource要素 in rural and pastoral areas. In agricultural areas, the inventory and verification of rural collective assets should be comprehensively completed, clarifying the ownership boundaries of collectively owned operational assets and resource assets, and advancing the reform of "resources turned into equity, funds turned into share capital, farmers turned into shareholders." In pastoral areas, under the premise of adhering to the grassland-livestock balance and the stability of the grassland household contract responsibility system, effective forms for separating grassland contract rights and management rights should be explored. In areas with strong demand for pasture流转, banner/county-level grassland management rights流转 service centers can be established to standardize流转 procedures, assess pasture value, provide contract authentication, and guide herders to contribute pasture as shares to cooperatives or leading enterprises for stable dividends. Meanwhile,闲置 assets collectively owned by the Gacha, such as unused school buildings, old office spaces, and废弃 pens, can be introduced to operating entities through public leasing or cooperative development for developing storage and logistics, e-commerce service stations, or cultural tourism projects.
Addressing the issue of vast territory with sparse population but紧张 construction land quotas in pastoral areas, flexible land use mechanisms like "point-based land supply" and "elastic term lengths" can be explored to support projects that meet ecological requirements, such as pastoral-tourism integration, cold chain logistics, and new energy配套设施. In agricultural areas, the utilization of contiguous farmland formed through high-standard farmland construction can be encouraged to推行 "consolidating small plots into large fields," creating conditions for large-scale operation; for inefficient land use like abandoned farmland and saline-alkali land, improvement and reclamation can be carried out through "government guidance + social capital investment," while developing characteristic planting or carbon sink projects. Additionally, pilot programs can link ecological restoration outcomes with construction land quotas. For example, in sandy areas like Kubuqi and Mu Us, enterprises participating in desertification control and afforestation that meet certain standards could receive a certain proportion of supporting industrial land use quotas, achieving "gaining land through desert control, benefiting from ecology." By further deepening rural and pastoral reforms, breaking the institutional and mechanistic obstacles hindering agricultural and pastoral development, precious resources like land and pasture can be transformed into tangible development capital, achieving the effective allocation and appreciation of existing resources in rural and pastoral areas.
(The author is an Associate Researcher at the History Research Institute of the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences.)