Full Text of 2015 Central Document No. 1 Released

Several Opinions on Increasing the Intensity of Reform and Innovation and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 1 (Dispatch) The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council recently issued the "Several Opinions on Increasing the Intensity of Reform and Innovation and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization." The full text is as follows:

In 2014, all regions and all departments earnestly implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, increased the intensity of deepening rural reform, and grain output achieved an “eleventh consecutive increase.” Farmers' incomes continued to grow rapidly, rural public undertakings continued to develop, and rural society remained harmonious and stable, making outstanding contributions to stabilizing growth, adjusting the structure, promoting reform, and improving people's livelihoods.

At present, China's economic development has entered a new normal and is shifting from high-speed growth to medium-to-high-speed growth. How to continue strengthening the foundational position of agriculture and promote sustained increases in farmers' incomes against the backdrop of slowing economic growth is a major issue that must be solved. Domestic agricultural production costs are rising rapidly, and the prices of major agricultural products are generally higher than those on the international market. How to innovate agricultural support and protection policies and improve agricultural competitiveness under this “double squeeze” is a major test that must be faced. China's agricultural resources are insufficient, with excessive development and worsening pollution. How to ensure the effective supply of agricultural products and quality safety under hard resource and environmental constraints and enhance the capacity for sustainable agricultural development is a major challenge that must be met. The flow of urban and rural resource factors is accelerating, and urban-rural interaction and links are strengthening. How to accelerate the pace of new socialist countryside construction and achieve common prosperity of urban and rural areas against the backdrop of deepening urbanization is a major issue that must be well solved. Solving these difficult problems is a major task for the work related to “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” in the period ahead. We must always take resolving the issues related to “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” as the top priority in the work of the whole Party, add momentum through reform, ensure guarantees through the rule of law, and accelerate agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics.

In 2015, agricultural and rural work must fully implement the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the Party and the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee, take Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of “Three Represents,” and the Scientific Outlook on Development as guidance, thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important speeches, actively adapt to the new normal of economic development, and, in accordance with the general requirements of stabilizing grain production and increasing incomes, improving quality and efficiency, and innovation-driven development, continue to comprehensively deepen rural reform, comprehensively advance the construction of the rule of law in rural areas, promote the synchronized development of new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, strive to tap new potential in raising grain production capacity, open up new paths in optimizing the agricultural structure, seek new breakthroughs in transforming the agricultural development model, achieve new results in promoting increases in farmers' incomes, and take new steps in building the new countryside, so as to provide strong support for the sustained and healthy development of the economy and society.

I. Focusing on building modern agriculture, accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model

For China to be strong, agriculture must be strong. To make agriculture strong, we must as quickly as possible shift from extensive management that mainly pursues output and relies on resource consumption to intensive development that lays equal emphasis on quantity, quality, and efficiency, focuses on improving competitiveness, focuses on agricultural scientific and technological innovation, and focuses on sustainability, and take the path of modern agricultural development featuring high-output efficiency, safe products, resource conservation, and environmental friendliness.

1. Continuously enhance grain production capacity. Further improve and implement the system of provincial governors taking responsibility for grain. Strengthen policy tilting toward major grain-producing provinces and counties, and ensure that major grain-producing counties gain real benefits and have development prospects from emphasizing agriculture and grasping grain production. Major grain-consuming areas must earnestly shoulder their own responsibility for grain production. Comprehensively carry out the delimitation of permanent basic farmland. Coordinate the implementation of the national overall plan for high-standard farmland construction. Implement actions to protect and improve cultivated land quality. Comprehensively promote the reuse of topsoil stripped from cultivated land occupied by construction. Explore the establishment of grain production functional zones, and ensure that rations production capacity is linked to specific fields and that safeguard measures are linked to specific projects. Innovate investment and financing mechanisms, increase capital input, and concentrate efforts on accelerating the construction of a number of major water diversion projects, key water source projects, and backbone projects for river, lake, and reservoir management. For major water conservancy projects for water conservation and supply, implement the same policies on land requisition compensation and cultivated land occupation-compensation balance as for major national infrastructure projects such as railways. Accelerate the continued construction, supporting facilities, and water-saving renovation of large and medium-sized irrigation districts, accelerate the construction of modern irrigation districts, and strengthen the construction of small-scale farmland water conservancy infrastructure. Implement the science and technology project for bumper grain harvests and the science and technology demonstration for improving saline-alkali land. Deepen the creation of high-yield grain production and tackle key problems in green yield-increasing models. Implement the plant protection construction project and carry out specialized unified prevention and control of crop diseases and insect pests.

2. Deepen the adjustment of the agricultural structure. Scientifically determine the self-sufficiency level of major agricultural products and rationally arrange the priority order of agricultural industry development. Launch and implement capacity-building plans for oilseeds, sugar crops, and natural rubber. Accelerate the development of grass-based livestock husbandry, support the planting of forage crops such as silage corn and alfalfa, carry out pilot projects for converting grain to feed and combining planting with breeding, and promote the coordinated development of a three-part planting structure of grain, cash crops, and forage. Based on the resource advantages of each region, vigorously cultivate characteristic agriculture. Promote the adjustment of the layout of comprehensive agricultural development. Support major grain-producing areas in developing animal husbandry and grain processing industries, continue implementing the subsidy policy for primary processing of agricultural products at the place of origin, and develop deep processing of agricultural products. Continue to carry out the creation of standard horticultural crop gardens and implement projects to improve the quality and efficiency of horticultural products. Increase support for the construction of standardized large-scale breeding farms (communities) for pigs, dairy cows, beef cattle, and mutton sheep, implement the improved livestock and poultry breed project, accelerate large-scale, intensive, and standardized livestock and poultry breeding, and enhance the competitiveness of animal husbandry. Improve policies for the prevention and control of animal diseases. Promote healthy aquaculture, increase efforts to renovate standard ponds, continue to support the renewal and renovation of ocean-going fishing vessels, and strengthen the construction of fisheries infrastructure such as fishery administration and fishing ports.

3. Improve the quality of agricultural products and the level of food safety. Strengthen the capacity building of county and township supervision of agricultural product quality and food safety. Strictly manage agricultural inputs and vigorously promote standardized agricultural production. Implement the subsidy policy for quality and safety inspection and testing fees at important agricultural product production bases and wholesale markets. Establish a whole-process traceable, interconnected, and shared information platform for agricultural product quality and food safety. Carry out activities to create agricultural product quality and safety counties and food safety cities. Vigorously develop famous, special, excellent, and new agricultural products and cultivate well-known brands. Improve the comprehensive coordination system for food safety supervision and strengthen the statutory duties of local governments. Increase efforts to prevent foreign harmful organisms and protect the safety of agricultural and forestry production. Implement the primary responsibility of producers and operators, severely punish all kinds of illegal and criminal acts involving food safety, and improve the public's sense of safety and satisfaction.

4. Strengthen the driving role of agricultural scientific and technological innovation. Improve the incentive mechanism for agricultural scientific and technological innovation, improve the system for the flow and part-time work of scientific researchers from research institutes and universities and talent from enterprises, advance pilot reforms in the use, disposal, and income management of scientific research achievements and equity incentives for scientific and technological personnel, and stimulate the enthusiasm of scientific and technological personnel for innovation and entrepreneurship. Establish a mechanism for optimizing and integrating agricultural science and technology plans, programs, and scientific and technological resources, and improve the mechanism for opening major national scientific research infrastructure and large-scale scientific research instruments to society. Strengthen guidance and support for enterprises carrying out agricultural science and technology research and development, so that enterprises become the main body of technological innovation and application. Accelerate agricultural scientific and technological innovation and achieve major breakthroughs in fields such as biological breeding, smart agriculture, agricultural machinery and equipment, and ecological environmental protection. Establish collaborative innovation alliances for agricultural science and technology, and rely on national agricultural science and technology parks to build service platforms for agricultural science and technology financing, information, and brands. Explore the establishment of agricultural science and technology achievement trading centers. Give full play to the role of research institutes, universities and their new rural development research institutes, vocational colleges, and teams of science and technology commissioners in the transformation of scientific research achievements. Actively advance pilot reforms in the distribution of rights and interests in scientific research achievements in the seed industry and improve the sharing system for achievement completers. Continue to implement the seed project and advance the construction of the three major national breeding and seed production bases in Hainan, Gansu, and Sichuan. Strengthen research, safety management, and scientific popularization of agricultural genetically modified organism technology. Support technological innovation by agricultural machinery, chemical fertilizer, and pesticide enterprises.

5. Innovate agricultural product circulation methods. Accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the national agricultural product market system, focus on strengthening facility construction and supporting services, and improve trading systems. Improve the national backbone network for agricultural product circulation and increase the construction of warehousing and logistics facilities for important agricultural products. Accelerate the progress of building new granary capacity for the 100 billion jin grain construction, form as quickly as possible a grain purchase and storage mechanism with clear division of responsibilities between the central and local governments, and improve grain purchase and storage support capacity. Continue to implement the project for scientific grain storage by farmers. Strengthen the construction of agricultural product markets at the place of origin, accelerate the building of a cross-regional cold-chain logistics system, and continue to carry out pilot construction of public-benefit agricultural product wholesale markets. Promote linkages between cooperatives and supermarkets, schools, enterprises, and communities. Clean up and rectify arbitrary fees in the transportation and marketing of agricultural products. Develop agricultural product futures trading and develop new varieties for agricultural product futures trading. Support enterprises in e-commerce, logistics, commerce, and finance in participating in the construction of agricultural e-commerce platforms. Carry out comprehensive demonstrations for e-commerce entering rural areas.

6. Strengthen agricultural ecological governance. Implement the overall plan for addressing prominent agricultural environmental problems and the plan for sustainable agricultural development. Strengthen the treatment of agricultural non-point source pollution, deeply carry out soil testing and formulated fertilization, vigorously promote bio-organic fertilizers and low-toxicity and low-residue pesticides, carry out regional demonstrations for the resource utilization of straw and livestock and poultry manure and the recovery of residual plastic film in farmland, and enjoy relevant fiscal and tax policies in accordance with regulations. Implement the environmental impact assessment system for large-scale livestock and poultry breeding and vigorously promote the development of the circular economy in agriculture. Continue to implement the subsidy and reward policy for grassland ecological protection and carry out pilot projects for sustainable development of agriculture and animal husbandry in the arid areas of the northwest, governance of reclaimed grasslands in the farming-pastoral ecotone, and protection of the black soil in Northeast China. Increase efforts to propagate and protect aquatic biological resources. Establish and improve the water resources demonstration system for plans and construction projects and the national water resources inspection system. Vigorously promote water-saving technologies and comprehensively implement regional large-scale efficient water-saving irrigation actions. Increase efforts in water pollution prevention and control and aquatic ecological protection. Implement a new round of projects to return farmland to forest and grassland, expand the pilot scope for the remediation of heavy metal-polluted cultivated land, comprehensive governance of groundwater overexploitation areas, and return of farmland to wetlands, and advance the construction of key soil and water conservation projects such as ecologically clean small watersheds in important water source areas. Vigorously advance major forestry ecological projects, strengthen afforestation and forest management projects, and develop the forest industry and characteristic economic forests. Advance ecological protection and restoration in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Silk Road Economic Belt, and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Find out the baseline, do a good job in planning, increase investment, and protect the country's natural forests. Raise the subsidy standards for the natural forest resource protection project and the compensation standards for forest ecological benefits. Continue to expand the pilot project for stopping commercial logging of natural forests. Implement wetland ecological benefit compensation, pilot wetland protection rewards, and subsidy policies for closed protection areas of desertified land. Accelerate the implementation of projects such as returning grazing land to grassland, disaster prevention and mitigation in pastoral areas, and the development and utilization of southern grasslands. Establish and improve the responsibility system for agricultural ecological environmental protection, strengthen accountability supervision, and seriously investigate and deal with all kinds of acts that damage the ecological environment in accordance with laws and regulations.

7. Improve the ability to coordinate the use of both international and domestic markets and resources. Strengthen regulation of agricultural product imports and exports, actively support the export of competitive agricultural products, and properly grasp the scale and pace of agricultural product imports. Improve the import and export and tariff quota management of important agricultural products such as grain, cotton, and sugar, and strictly implement the sliding duty policy for cotton. Severely crack down on agricultural product smuggling. Improve policies for border residents' mutual trade. Support the strengthening of agricultural product trade and accelerate the cultivation of internationally competitive agricultural enterprise groups. Improve the inter-ministerial joint conference system for agricultural foreign cooperation and promptly formulate plans for agricultural foreign cooperation. Innovate models of agricultural foreign cooperation, focus on strengthening cooperation in links such as agricultural product processing, storage and transportation, and trade, support overseas agricultural cooperative development, advance the construction of science and technology demonstration parks, and provide services such as technical training, demonstration of scientific research achievements, and brand promotion. Improve policies on investment, fiscal and tax affairs, finance, insurance, trade, customs clearance, and inspection and quarantine that support agricultural foreign cooperation, and implement support policies for the export of agricultural equipment and agricultural inputs needed for agricultural production abroad. Give full play to the role of various chambers of commerce in information services, legal consultation, and dispute arbitration.

II. Focusing on promoting increases in farmers' incomes, increase the intensity of policies benefiting farmers

For China to be prosperous, farmers must be prosperous. To enrich farmers, we must fully tap the income-increasing potential within agriculture, develop space for income increases in rural secondary and tertiary industries, broaden external channels for rural income increases, increase the intensity of policies helping farmers increase incomes, and strive to maintain the momentum of continued narrowing of the urban-rural income gap under the new normal of economic development.

8. Give priority to ensuring investment in agriculture and rural areas. To increase farmers' incomes, the government's responsibility to improve the conditions for agricultural and rural development must be clearly defined. Persist in taking agriculture and rural areas as a priority area for fiscal expenditure at all levels, accelerate the establishment of a mechanism for stable growth of investment, continue to increase fiscal expenditure on agriculture and rural areas, and continue to tilt central infrastructure investment toward agriculture and rural areas. Optimize the structure of fiscal expenditures supporting agriculture, focusing on supporting increases in farmers' incomes, major rural reforms, agricultural infrastructure construction, agricultural structural adjustment, sustainable agricultural development, and improvement of rural livelihoods. Transform the mode of input, innovate the operating mechanism of agriculture-related funds, and fully give play to the guiding and leveraging role of fiscal funds. Reform the transfer payment system related to agriculture, delegate approval authority, and effectively integrate fiscal investment in agriculture and rural areas. Earnestly strengthen the supervision of agriculture-related funds, establish standardized and transparent management systems, eliminate all forms of misappropriation, interception at each level, and false reporting and fraudulent claiming, and ensure that the use of funds achieves real results.

9. Improve the effectiveness of agricultural subsidy policies. To increase farmers' incomes, the state's support and protection system for agriculture must be improved. Maintain the continuity and stability of agricultural subsidy policies, gradually expand the scale and scope of “green box” support policies, adjust and improve “amber box” support policies, and fully give play to the income-increasing effects of policies benefiting farmers. Continue to implement policies such as direct subsidies to grain farmers, improved seed subsidies, subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools, and comprehensive subsidies for agricultural inputs. Select some localities to carry out pilot reforms to improve the orientation and effectiveness of subsidies. Improve the subsidy policy for the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools, tilt it toward major producing areas and new agricultural business entities, and expand the scope of subsidies for the purchase of water-saving irrigation equipment. Implement subsidy policies for the promotion of major technical measures in agricultural production. Implement fiscal reward and subsidy policies for major counties in grain and oil production, major counties in grain crop seed production, major counties in pig output, and major counties in cattle and sheep breeding. Expand the scope of awards and subsidies for modern agriculture demonstration zones. Improve the systems of interest compensation for major grain-producing areas, compensation for cultivated land protection, and ecological compensation.

10. Improve the price formation mechanism for agricultural products. To increase farmers' incomes, a reasonable level of agricultural product prices must be maintained. Continue to implement the minimum purchase price policy for rice and wheat and improve the temporary purchase and storage policy for important agricultural products. Summarize the pilot experience of target price reform for cotton in Xinjiang and soybeans in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, improve subsidy methods, reduce operating costs, and ensure that subsidy funds are delivered to farmers in a timely and full amount. Actively carry out pilot projects for agricultural product price insurance. Rationally determine the reserve scale of important agricultural products such as grain, cotton, sugar, and meat. Improve the national grain reserve throughput regulation mechanism and strengthen supervision of reserve grain. Implement the plan for the newly added local grain reserve scale, establish a system for commercial and trade enterprises of important commodities to store on behalf of the state, and improve the system for sugar-producing enterprises to store on behalf of the state. Use modern information technology to improve statistical surveys of planting area and output and improve methods for monitoring costs and prices.

11. Strengthen socialized services for agriculture. To increase farmers' incomes, the agricultural service system must be improved to help farmers reduce costs and control risks. Do a good job in pilot innovation of the socialized service mechanism for the entire agricultural production process, focusing on supporting services for farmers such as plowing and harvesting on their behalf, unified prevention and control, and drying and storage. Stabilize and strengthen public-benefit service institutions such as grassroots agricultural technology extension, improve funding guarantees and incentive mechanisms, and improve the working and living conditions of grassroots agricultural technology extension personnel. Give play to the role of rural professional technical associations in agricultural technology extension. Adopt methods such as purchasing services to encourage and guide social forces to participate in public-benefit services. Increase the intensity of central and provincial fiscal premium subsidies for insurance for major grain crops. Include insurance for seed production of major grain crops in the central fiscal premium subsidy catalog. The insurance amount for centrally subsidized insurance types should cover direct materialized costs. Accelerate research and issuance of a central fiscal reward-in-lieu-of-subsidy policy for insurance for local characteristic and advantageous agricultural products. Expand the scope of forest insurance. Support the postal system in better serving “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.” Innovate the mechanism for meteorological services for agriculture and promote its integration into the socialized agricultural service system.

12. Promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas. To increase farmers' incomes, the agricultural industrial chain must be extended and the added value of agriculture raised. Based on resource advantages and guided by market demand, vigorously develop characteristic planting and breeding, agricultural product processing, and rural services, support the development of one village one product and one township (county) one industry, strengthen the county economy, and drive farmers to employment and prosperity. Actively develop the multiple functions of agriculture and tap the value of rural ecological leisure, tourism and sightseeing, and culture and education. Support the construction of a number of tourist villages and towns with historical, regional, and ethnic characteristics, and create diverse and distinctive rural tourism and leisure products. Increase investment in the construction of rural tourism and leisure infrastructure, enhance online and offline marketing capabilities, and improve management levels and service quality. Study and formulate support policies on land use, fiscal affairs, and finance to promote the development of rural tourism and leisure, and implement tax preference policies. Activate rural factor resources and increase farmers' property income.

13. Broaden external channels for rural income increases. To increase farmers' incomes, the transfer employment and entrepreneurship of farmers must be promoted. Implement the plan to upgrade the vocational skills of migrant workers. Implement the policy of equal pay for equal work, protect the rights and interests of migrant workers' labor remuneration in accordance with the law, and establish a long-term mechanism for the normal payment of migrant workers' wages. Ensure that migrant workers entering cities and their accompanying family members equally enjoy basic urban public services, expand the coverage of urban social insurance for migrant workers, carry out occupational disease prevention and assistance actions for migrant workers, improve relevant policies for accompanying children to receive compulsory education locally and participate in the zhongkao and gaokao, and explore specific measures for migrant workers to enjoy urban subsidized housing. Accelerate the reform of the household registration system, establish a residence permit system, and promote in a categorized manner the settlement of the agricultural transferred population in cities and towns and their enjoyment of the same treatment as local residents. At the current stage, farmers' settlement in cities must not be linked to the withdrawal of land contractual management rights, homestead use rights, and rights to participate in the distribution of collective returns. Guide migrant workers with skills, capital, and management experience to return home to start businesses, implement targeted tax reductions and general fee reductions, and lower entrepreneurship costs and enterprise burdens. Optimize the industrial development environment of small and medium-sized cities and small towns in the central and western regions and create conditions for farmers to transfer employment locally or nearby.

14. Vigorously advance rural poverty alleviation and development. To increase farmers' incomes, the pace of rural poor people escaping poverty and becoming prosperous must be accelerated. Focusing on contiguous extremely poor areas, increase investment and work intensity, accelerate the implementation of regional plans, and fight a tough battle in poverty alleviation and development. Promote targeted poverty alleviation and formulate and implement assistance measures for poor villages and poor households registered and identified. Strengthen infrastructure construction, ecological protection, and basic public services in contiguous extremely poor areas, increase support through land use policies, and implement projects such as whole-village advancement, relocation of migrants, and rural tourism poverty alleviation. In principle, the approval authority for poverty alleviation projects should be delegated to the county level, and provinces and cities should earnestly perform their supervisory responsibilities. Establish a public announcement and publicity system and fully disclose information such as poverty alleviation targets, fund arrangements, and project construction. Improve the mechanism for organizing and mobilizing social poverty alleviation and build a platform for social participation in poverty alleviation and development. Improve the system for cadres to be stationed in villages for assistance. Strengthen poverty monitoring and establish and improve mechanisms for assessment, restraint, and exit of poor counties. Economically developed areas must continuously raise the level of poverty alleviation and development.