Li Keqiang stresses accelerating agricultural modernization

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 5 (dispatch)  When speaking about “coordinating efforts to promote stable economic growth and structural optimization”, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council stressed the need to accelerate agricultural modernization. The position of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” as the top priority must remain unshakable, the transformation of the agricultural development model must be accelerated, and agriculture must be made stronger, farmers richer, and rural areas more beautiful.

This year, grain output must be kept stable at more than 1.1 trillion jin, ensuring food security and the supply of major agricultural products. The red line for cultivated land must be firmly upheld, work to designate permanent basic farmland must be carried out across the board, action to protect and improve cultivated land quality must be implemented, land consolidation must be advanced, and 200 million mu of land must be added to deep loosening. Capital construction of farmland water conservancy must be strengthened, and water-saving agriculture must be vigorously developed. Research, development, promotion and application of new technologies, new varieties and new agricultural machinery must be accelerated. Farmers must be guided to adjust their planting and breeding structures in light of the market, support must be given to agricultural product processing, especially the local conversion of grain in major producing areas, and pilot projects must be carried out to convert grain crops to feed crops. The problem of pesticide and veterinary drug residues must be addressed through comprehensive measures, and the quality of agricultural products and the level of food safety must be improved in an all-round way.

The building of a new countryside must benefit the broad masses of farmers. Emphasis must be placed on strengthening the building of water and road infrastructure; this year, drinking water safety problems must be solved for another 60 million rural residents, 200,000 km of rural roads must be newly built or upgraded, and the task of replacing zip lines with bridges in remote mountainous areas of the west must be fully completed. Every effort must be made to ensure that the last more than 200,000 people without electricity can all have access to electricity. Environmental improvement must be strengthened with a focus on garbage and sewage, and beautiful, livable villages must be built. Farmers' incomes must be increased through multiple channels, and the trend of narrowing the income gap between urban and rural residents must be maintained. The fight against poverty must be continued, poverty alleviation and development in contiguous areas of extreme poverty must be advanced in depth, and targeted poverty alleviation and targeted poverty eradication must be implemented. No matter how great the difficulty, this year the rural poor population must be reduced by more than 10 million again.

On the basis of stabilizing household operations, support must be given to the development of new types of operating entities such as large planting and breeding households, family farms and ranches, farmers' cooperatives and leading industrialized enterprises, new-type professional farmers must be trained, and various forms of appropriately scaled operations must be advanced. Work on confirming, registering and certifying land rights must be done well, and reform pilots such as rural land expropriation, market entry of collective operating construction land, the homestead system and the collective property rights system must be carried out prudently. In reform, it must be ensured that the quantity of cultivated land does not decrease, its quality does not decline, and farmers' interests are safeguarded. Reform of supply and marketing cooperatives, state farms, the seed industry, and state-owned forest farms and forest areas must be deepened, and rural reform pilot areas and modern agriculture demonstration areas must be run well. The minimum purchase price and temporary purchase and storage policies for grain must be improved, and the method of target price subsidies for agricultural products must be improved. Overall planning, integration and management of agriculture-related funds must be strengthened. No matter how difficult public finances are, policies benefiting farmers can only be strengthened, not weakened, and funds supporting agriculture can only be increased, not reduced.