Central Rural Work Conference convenes on the 22nd, focusing on modernization development

The Central Rural Work Conference will be held in Beijing on December 22 and 23. The conference will continue to focus on advancing agricultural modernization and rural reform.

Central Rural Work Conference convenes on the 22nd, focusing on modernization

The Central Rural Work Conference is the most important annual meeting of the central leadership in the field of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. By convention, the Central Rural Work Conference is held after the Central Economic Work Conference, and on the basis of summarizing the year's agricultural and rural work, it provides guidance and arrangements for the coming year's work. The following year's central “No. 1 Document” is also circulated at the conference for comments, and is released after revision and improvement.

The 2015 “No. 1 Document” will focus on agriculture, rural areas and farmers for the 12th consecutive year. 2014 is the opening year of comprehensively deepening reform, and this year's “No. 1 Document” made overarching arrangements for advancing agricultural modernization and comprehensively deepening rural reform. According to Caixin reporters, the 2015 “No. 1 Document” is expected to continue deepening these reform measures and policies.

At the just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference, “accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model” was listed as one of the five major tasks for next year. Stabilizing the output of grain and major agricultural products, continuously increasing farmers' incomes, improving the policy for the transfer of rural land management rights, developing modern agriculture, deepening various rural reforms, improving policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers, improving the price formation mechanism for agricultural products, improving agricultural subsidy methods, and strengthening financial services were all mentioned.

⟦NL> Regarding land reform, which the public follows most closely, on December 2, Xi Jinping presided over the seventh meeting of the Leading Group for Deepening Reform, which deliberated the “Opinions on the Pilot Work for Reform of Rural Land Expropriation, Market Entry of Collective Commercial Construction Land, and the Homestead System” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”). It is reported that after counter-signing by various departments, the “Opinions” finally submitted to the central leadership for deliberation had been greatly reduced in intensity compared with the original plan of the Ministry of Land and Resources, and its wording was also more general. The Leading Group for Deepening Reform proposed revision opinions, requiring certain expressions to be refined. According to the task arrangement, the “Opinions” should be issued before the end of the year.

Since the beginning of this year, many important reforms in agriculture, rural areas and farmers or related to agriculture have already been implemented. The “Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Contracted Management Rights to Develop Moderately Large-Scale Agricultural Operations” and the “Opinions on Further Advancing Reform of the Household Registration System” have both been issued. The pilot plan for collective property rights reform is also expected to be announced soon. However, many reform measures are considered insufficient in intensity, and how to continuously deepen reform still involves many theoretical and practical problems that need to be explored and solved.