Rural areas must not become a blind spot in financial knowledge popularization

In recent years, financial policies supporting agriculture have been continuously improved, financial institutions have been increasing their support for “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”, and the level of rural financial services has been raised to a certain extent. Walking into townships, it is not hard to find that new forms of financial services have gradually been accepted by farmers: the use of bank cards and ATMs has become fairly common, electronic banking is nothing new, and advertisements for some microcredit service intermediary companies have even appeared in rural markets. During a survey, a fellow villager once told me enthusiastically: “In the past there were few banks and they were far from home, so we were all used to keeping our money at home. Now we can withdraw money right at our doorstep, which is very convenient!”

With the development of agricultural modernization, farmers' demand for financial services in production is becoming more and more urgent. Take Gansu Province, where I am located, as an example. The “Gansu Province Rural Finance Development White Paper” released in 2014 showed that demand for microcredit in rural areas across the province was strong. Among the farming households surveyed, as many as 68.9% had borrowed money in the past three years, of which 28.7% had borrowed more than 3 times. The role of rural finance in agricultural economic development is becoming increasingly prominent.

However, as the survey went deeper, I found that most farmers only understood traditional businesses such as deposits, remittances and loans relatively well, while knowing relatively little about new businesses such as financial consulting, trusts and insurance, as well as wealth management and investment products, which left them afraid to manage their money and unable to manage it. Some farmers did not understand at all such safety basics as personal information and password settings, bringing huge hidden risks to their property, while others were full of suspicion toward these protective measures and rejected financial services. What is more, some lawbreakers took advantage of farmers' lack of the knowledge and ability they should have in identifying counterfeit money, financial fraud, illegal fundraising and risk prevention, and reached their black hands into rural areas. In addition, as farmers participate more in financial activities, when they encounter financial disputes, their relatively lower level of education, lack of certain financial legal literacy and unclear understanding of their own rights leave their lawful rights and interests damaged. During the survey, I once met an honest and simple farmer who acted as a loan guarantor for a fellow villager. The fellow villager walked away, yet he was saddled with heavy debt. To this day he still does not understand: “I did not borrow the money, so why should I repay it?”

There is no doubt that the degree to which farmers master financial knowledge is still quite far from what the current development of rural finance requires. If it is not improved as soon as possible, it will become a constraint. Although government departments and relevant financial institutions have all realized the existence of the problem and have carried out some activities to popularize rural financial knowledge, achieving certain results, many problems still remain: judging from the rural financial knowledge popularization activities carried out nationwide, although there are many participants, most act on notices issued by higher-level competent departments and take completing the task as their starting point, lacking overall planning and a long-term mechanism; in activities that send financial knowledge to the countryside, there is more content involving RMB knowledge such as counterfeit money identification, but there is a lack of publicity for knowledge that farmers generally need to understand and that concerns their own interests, such as loan basics, economic and financial laws and regulations, insurance knowledge and wealth management knowledge; looking across the forms of rural financial knowledge popularization, although methods such as hanging banners, distributing publicity materials, and on-site explanation and consultation have been adopted, it appears diverse in form but in reality emphasizes “sending” while neglecting “answering”, or only “sends” without answering.

For this reason, I suggest formulating plans and establishing a long-term mechanism for popularizing rural financial knowledge. Include rural financial education as an important part of inclusive finance, and clarify the goals, priorities and safeguard measures for popularizing rural financial knowledge at each stage. Fully mobilize the initiative of professional institutions such as banks and insurance companies to participate, and strengthen the social responsibility of financial institutions. Actively give play to the role of township governments and village committees to provide organizational guarantees and relationship coordination for the construction of rural financial education bases. Through policy guidance, encourage public welfare civil organizations and volunteers to participate in rural financial knowledge popularization work, forming a pattern of diverse participants.

It is necessary to improve the effectiveness of the content of financial knowledge popularization. Focus on popularizing knowledge in areas such as preventing financial fraud, the concept of good faith, the use of bank cards, ATMs and electronic banking, and loans, and also increase popularization of knowledge in areas such as wealth management and insurance. In view of the different needs of those engaged in farming and those working away from home, formulate knowledge popularization plans with different emphases. With the help of the public cultural service system such as radio and television “village-to-village connectivity”, rural film screenings and rural reading rooms, produce vivid and intuitive special publicity films on financial knowledge that people enjoy, arrange literary and artistic programs with related content, and make professional financial knowledge simple and entertaining. Financial knowledge popularization should be carried out in rural middle schools to shape students' modern financial concepts so that they can integrate more calmly and naturally into the modern economic society in the future.

In addition, village and township officials are closely connected with farmers and are familiar with the current state of farmers' mastery of financial knowledge and their needs. Strengthening their financial knowledge training and having them serve as financial knowledge speakers can better ensure targeted efforts. The business personnel of rural financial institutions are the main force in popularizing rural financial knowledge. Only by improving their professional level and professional ethics can publicity be more authoritative and professional.