Dr. Aihemaitijiang Rouzi, senior expert on agricultural sustainability from DCZ participated at the “2020 Tsinghua Forum on the Three Rural Issues” on January 4th which was organised by China Institute for Rural Studies of Tsinghua University.
“Three Rural Issues” has been proposed by the former Chinese President Hu Jintao and refers to agriculture, rural areas and farmers. This year’s theme was “broadly achieving affluent societies”. It was a one-day event with morning plenary and afternoon parallel sessions and is held once a year. This was the 8th forum. Dr. Rouzi attended both morning plenary and afternoon sessions on “sustainable agriculture”. Keynote speakers included Mr. Han Jun, Vice Minister of MARA, and Mr. Cai Fang, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Mr. Chen Xiaohua, Dean of the China Institute for Rural Studies at Tsinghua University, Chen Xiaohua etc.
In the morning plenary, speakers gave a general outline of agricultural and rural development in China and stressed the importance of achieving affluent society and eradicating poverty. Vice Minister Han Jun said that 2020 is a critical year to achieve multiple objectives such as reforming rural land institutional reforms, upgrading rural infrastructure and improving rural social services. Mr. Cai Fang summarised achievements of poverty eradication of China and its positive contribution to the world. Mr. Chen Xiaohua, Dean of the China Institute for Rural Studies at Tsinghua University gave a talk about establishing high quality farmlands and its importance to achieving food security. He also noted that further reform is needed to the subsidy system in agriculture, so China can guarantee its national food security. Keynote speaker Bai Shanlin also talked about agriculture 4.0 where China should integrate the 4th industrial revolution to its agriculture production, in order to leapfrog rather than catch up with developed countries.
The afternoon session on “sustainable agriculture” focused on local experiences from other provinces on rural development and Vice CEO of Pinduoduo also spoke about how the company started as a platform for selling agricultural products and it is still committed to sustainable agriculture and improving Chinese farmers’ livelihoods by connecting them to the market supply chain, so they can sell their agricultural products more quickly and efficiently.
For further information see: http://www.cirs.tsinghua.edu.cn/gzdt/20200105/3033.html (in Chinese)
