context: Resources for the ag and rural sector will go to broader development goals following 'victory' in the poverty alleviation program. Ag modernisation setting the basis for higher level food security has systematic design this year. Rural construction programs and reforms will continue to bridge urban-rural gaps that hinder the latter's economic development.
The end of the anti-poverty campaign marks the start of a new era, says Central Committee of the CCP and State Council's released '2021 Central No.1 Document: Opinions on the rollout of rural revitalisation, accelerating ag and rural modernisation' on 21 Feb 2020. The document stipulates
- I. connecting poverty alleviation with rural revitalisation
- keeping key supportive policies unchanged in the 5-year transitional period
- consolidating poverty alleviation achievements, preventing relapse into poverty
- promoting rural revitalisation in previous poor regions through the production of ag specialties, consumption promotion and employment creation
- constantly monitoring and supporting low-income rural residents, providing them with employment opportunities and social security
- II. accelerating ag modernisation
- improving production capacity for staple grains and other key products
- government and Party committees sharing the responsibility for food security
- securing the supply of grain, cotton, oil, sugar and meat
- stabilising planting area and improving yield
- building functional grain production regions, key product protection regions and a national food security industrial belt
- ensuring farmers' profits
- optimising rice and wheat minimum purchase price schemes
- optimising corn and soybean producers' subsidies
- promoting structural reform of ag production, encouraging high-quality products, standard production and brand building
- producing high-quality animal feed, including forage corn
- stabilising soybean production, while developing other oil crops including canola and peanuts
- supporting grain-producing counties
- expanding pilots of full-cost insurance and income insurance for wheat, corn and rice
- promoting high-quality grain projects
- setting up a modern animal husbandry system
- protecting pig production capacity and stability over the long term
- actively developing cattle and sheep farming
- continuing dairy revitalisation
- promoting green aquaculture, fishing port building and management
- diversifying food import sources
- encouraging domestic companies to join global ag logistics
- cracking down on ag product smuggling
- strengthening inspections at customs to prevent bio-invasion
- preventing food waste during production, distribution, processing, storage and consumption
- resolving seed industry challenges
- protecting and utilising ag germplasm resources
- improving national crop, livestock/poultry, and aquaculture germplasm bank
- ensure long-term support for basic research, launching key R&D projects
- nurturing high-quality varieties
- promoting commercialisation of biotech breeding
- encouraging leading seed companies to build private breeding system
- improving seed bases, notably Nanfan base
- incorporating breeding, propagation and extension
- protecting the 120 million ha of farmland 'red line'
- implementing the strictest farmland protection
- prohibition on taking farmland for construction and environmental purposes
- prioritising permanent farmland for staple production and other farmland for grain, cotton, oil crop, sugar, vegetable and forage
- Improving monitoring of farmland transfer
- enhancing quality of high-standard farmland, establishing maintenance mechanism
- developing 6.7 million ha of high-standard farmland in 2021
- promoting intra-provincial swap of farmland quotas
- promoting monitoring of farmland quantity and quality
- implementing the strictest farmland protection
- developing ag tech and facilities
- upgrading infrastructure in irrigated areas
- supporting ag R&D, not least basic research
- encouraging academic institutions to provide tech support for rural revitalisation
- strengthening the ag tech service system, sending scitech commissioners
- setting up national tropical ag R&D centre
- improving ag machinery R&D capacity, above all smart products and machines for hilly areas
- providing more purchase subsidies and operating subsidies
- strengthening animal disease prevention/control and crop disease prevention/control systems
- building modern rural industrial system
- developing ag whole-supply chain and related standards
- developing ag specialties initial and deep processing
- building modern ag industrial parks, leading ag industrial towns, and industrial clusters
- promoting ag distribution system
- developing leisure ag and rural tourism
- building 500 modern ag demonstration zones by 2025
- supporting green development
- protecting black soil, promoting conservative tillage
- encouraging crop rotation and fallow system
- reducing fertiliser and pesticide
- promoting green methods to control crop disease and pest
- strengthening animal manure recycling
- rolling out straw utilisation and plastic film recycling
- selecting demonstration counties for nonpoint source pollution treatment
- strengthening the monitoring of food quality and safety
- developing green products, organic products, and product geographic indications (GIs)
- piloting ag product certification
- protecting aquatic resources
- promoting fisheries law enforcement
- implementing ten-year fishing ban on Yangtze river
- ensuring the livelihood of fishers who quit fishing on Yangtze river
- developing water-saving ag and dry farming
- reducing desertification, stony desertification and soil erosion on sloping farmland
- preventing and reducing soil pollution
- protecting underground water, preventing overdraft
- improving rural water systems
- consolidating the achievements of returning farmland to forest/grassland
- restoring grassland ecosystems
- promoting modern ag operation system
- developing moderate large-scale ag production
- encouraging family farms
- enhancing the quality of farmers' cooperatives
- nurturing professional ag services
- supporting innovation and development of leading ag companies
- educating professional farmers
- attracting entrepreneurial talents to rural areas
- improving production capacity for staple grains and other key products
- III. stepping up rural construction
- accelerating rural planning
- upscaling rural infrastructure
- promoting transportation, water, electricity and telecommunication systems
- applying digital techs in rural area and smart ag, including GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Networks), 5G, and IoT (Internet of Things)
- improving rural living environment by focusing on 'toilet revolution', waste disposal and village cleaning and greening projects
- upgrading rural public service, including education, healthcare and elderly care
- incentivising rural consumption through better logistics infrastructure and e-commerce service
- integrating rural and urban development
- small cities and counties critical to rural-urban connection
- prioritising ag and rural investment
- increasingly allocating central budget to rural and ag sector
- enhancing the share of land transfer revenue for ag and rural investment
- supporting local government to issue bonds for modern ag and rural development
- setting up market-oriented rural revitalisation fund to attract private capital
- deepening rural financial reforms, with policy tools including re-loan, rediscount and favourable required reserve ratio
- building up credit system for new ag operators within three years
- developing digital inclusive finance
- promoting microcredit, pledging insurance policy for loans, mortgage loans with ag machines and facilities as collateral
- providing medium- to long-term credit support to rural infrastructure projects
- expanding credit guarantee system
- replacing ag insurance subsidies with rewards
- optimising reinsurance mechanism
- developing 'insurance plus futures'
- deepening rural reform
- optimising rural collective property right mechanism and market-oriented factor allocation
- insisting on collective ownership of rural land and household contracting system
- orderly extension of farmland contracting period for additional 30 years after the second round of land contracting expires
- exploring ways for rural construction land marketisation
- releasing negative list for rural construction land uses
- experimenting on the separation of homestead's ownership, contract right and use right
- developing rural collective economy
- ensuring rural migrant's farmland contracting right, homestead plot use right, and the right to share collective revenue; designing measures for right transfer with compensation
- promoting reforms of ag water pricing and collective forest rights