context: As the 15th 5-year plan starts, rural policy is moving from securing supply to building stronger local growth. In Q1, investment in the primary sector rose by 15.9 percent, while rural spending grew by 3.1 percent. Rural industry is now a key lever for lifting farm incomes and keeping jobs in the countryside.
Farm supply stayed steady in Q1. Winter wheat growth caught up with normal levels, and spring sowing was more than 20 percent complete. Output of pork, beef, lamb, poultry and eggs reached 26.62 million tonnes, up 4.8 percent y-o-y. Milk output rose by 3.4 percent to 9.22 million tonnes, while aquatic product output rose by 4.3 percent to 15.47 million tonnes. The sow herd has now fallen for nine straight months, helping to ease pressure in the pork market. Overall, key farm goods remain in ample supply.
Rural industry gained pace. Value added in farm and sideline food processing rose by 6.8 percent, while the PMI for leading farm firms reached 58.1, pointing to strong business conditions. Rural tourism also kept heating up, with more young people returning home to run homestays, cafés and other small ventures.
Support this year has focused on building stronger local industry bases.
- 40 new clusters for local speciality industries
- 50 modern farm industry parks
- 200 strong rural industry towns
Future policy will focus on longer chains, lead firms and deeper food processing. This should help more farmers earn from industry-led growth. In Q1, rural disposable income per head rose by 5.4 percent in real terms, with wages and household business income driving most of the gain.
Support has shifted from the poverty-relief handover to long-term self-help. In Q1, C¥10.13 bn in new small loans backed production, while support for those able to work focused on industry, jobs and skills. East–West co-operation is also drawing eastern firms into full-chain growth in the West.
Land reform is moving ahead under the rule of broad stability with small changes where needed. The 30-year extension of second-round rural land contracts has been rolled out in province-wide trials. Most farmers will keep their current contracted land, with only limited local changes allowed in special cases.
Local areas are also being urged to grow new rural collective businesses and put idle assets to work.
- collective assets can be used through direct operation, leasing or shareholding
- idle rural homes can be leased, pooled as shares or used through joint ventures
- more than 1.1 million business bodies now provide farm services
- nearly 93 million smallholders are covered by such services
- 16 household-level support policies, including farmland fertility payments and farm machinery purchase subsidies, are being rolled out
Seed work, farm tech and food safety all kept moving. More than 95 percent of crop area now uses self-bred varieties, and the PRC’s national germplasm bank holds the world’s largest collection. Farm science now contributes more than 64 percent to growth, while the PRC has the world’s largest stock of farm drones. In Q1, routine checks found that 98.5 percent of farm products met quality and safety standards. The next step is to raise standardised production and tighten traceability checks across the whole chain.