Rural Work Conference Identifies Five Key Measures, Proposes for the First Time a "New Rural Area for People"

Central Rural Work Conference: Agricultural Modernization Remains the Weak Link Among the Four Modernizations

Conference Proposes Allowing Grassroots Units and the Public to Explore New Forms of Appropriate-Scale Operation

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing - The Central Rural Work Conference was held in Beijing from the 22nd to the 23rd. The conference reviewed rural and agricultural work in 2014, studied major measures for advancing agricultural modernization through reform and innovation, and made comprehensive arrangements for agricultural and rural work next year and for a period to come. Li Keqiang attended the conference and delivered an important speech, and Zhang Gaoli attended the conference.

Agricultural Development Faces Challenges

The conference emphasized that the challenges facing sustained and stable agricultural development are unprecedented. At present, domestic prices of major agricultural products exceed import prices, while production costs are continuously rising. The agro-ecological environment has been damaged, and resources such as arable land and fresh water are under strain. We must accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model, continuously raise land output rates, resource utilization rates, and labor productivity, and achieve intensive and sustainable development.

The conference pointed out that agricultural modernization is the foundation and support of national modernization, and that it remains a prominent “weak link”; the key difficulties in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects still lie in rural areas. As China's economic development enters a new normal, accelerating agricultural modernization is of great significance for stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, and improving people's livelihoods. Tapping the consumption potential of farmers, the largest group, can better leverage the foundational role of consumption; rural and agricultural infrastructure and public services are backward, with enormous demand for new investment, and making good use of this space can better leverage the key role of investment; making the agricultural industry bigger and stronger can create many new industries, new business forms, and new models, fostering new growth points for the economy.

Five Key Measures Identified

The conference emphasized that in advancing agricultural modernization, we must persist in taking the safeguarding of national food security as the primary task, ensuring basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple foods. First, vigorously develop agricultural industrialization, shifting from seeking solutions solely on arable land to addressing the entire national land and resource base, and build an advantageous regional layout and specialized production pattern. Second, actively develop various forms of appropriate-scale operation, fully give play to the pioneering spirit of grassroots units and the public, and allow “exploration, exploration, and more exploration”; as long as a form complies with national laws and policies, conforms to the direction of reform, and is welcomed by farmers, it must be encouraged and supported, no matter what form it takes. Third, build resource-conserving and environment-friendly agriculture, and reduce the excessive use of agricultural inputs. Fourth, increase agricultural policy and funding support. No matter how tight fiscal resources are, it is necessary to ensure that agricultural investment only increases and does not decrease. Fifth, improve the system for international agricultural exchange and cooperation, and innovate ways of agricultural cooperation with foreign countries.

Driving Agriculture Through Urbanization

The conference required giving full play to the radiating and driving role of new urbanization in agricultural modernization. Efforts should focus on solving the existing “three 100 million people” issue, innovating ways for cities to support rural areas and industry to promote agriculture, guiding the flow of modern urban production factors to agriculture and rural areas, and promoting farmers' income growth through multiple channels. We should actively and steadily advance the building of a new countryside, accelerate the improvement of the living environment, raise the quality of farmers, and promote the construction of both a “new countryside for things” and a “new countryside for people” in parallel. We should continue to declare war on poverty, promote the integration of regional development and targeted poverty alleviation, and accelerate the pace of poverty-stricken areas shaking off poverty and becoming prosperous.

The conference discussed the "Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Further Deepening Rural Reform and Accelerating Agricultural Modernization (Discussion Draft)."