农村金融与公共物品和服务：什么对小农户最重要

FINANCE VERSUS PUBLIC GOODS AND SERVICES:QUESTIONS RAISED ON WHAT MATTERS MOST TO SMALLHOLDERS

在发展中国家,对小农户最重要的是有一个稳定和有利的经济环境,这使他们能够将农业固有的不确定性转化为可以衡量的风险,减少和分散这些风险,降低经济活动的交易成本,进而通过提高获利能力来扩大其经营。政府持续地投资并提供公共物品及服务,对创造这样一种环境是至关重要的。因此,农村金融的重要性是显而易见的,因为它帮助小农户战胜贫苦的有效性很大程度上取决于小农户的经营是否是在这样的环境下进行。在中国农业经济和非农业经济快速转型的过程中,小农户大大地受益于政府持续地投资并提供公共物品及服务,以及增进的刺激。然而,尽管有这些重大成就,中国仍然存在着数百万的农村贫困人口,特别是在中西部地区。因此,中国政府面临的挑战是,要以一种穷人易于获得的方式,以及使他们更好地融入获利性的供应链,把他们与不断扩大的国内外市场联系在一起,持续投资并提供公共物品及服务。

What matters most to smallholders throughout the developing world is a stable and supportive economic environment which enables them to transform the inherent uncertainties of agriculture into measurable risks,reduce and diversify these risks,reduce the transactions cost of doing business and thus expand their operations through higher profitability.Sustained government investment in and delivery of public goods and services is absolutely essential for creating such an environment.The role of rural finance should be seen within this overall context because its effectiveness in helping smallholders overcome poverty depends largely on whether smallholders are operating within such a context.In China＇s fast transforming farm and nonfarm economy,smallholders have greatly benefited from sustained investment in and delivery of public goods and services and from improved incentives.Despite of these substantial achievements however,there are still millions of rural poor,especially in the central and western regions.The challenge therefore remains for Chinese government to continue to invest and deliver public goods and services in a way that makes them easily accessible to the poor,and in a way that better integrates them in profitable supply chains thus linking them to expanding markets,domestic and foreign.