China’s “Two Sessions” kicked off on 05 March with Premier Li Qiang unveiling the Government Work Report on the state of the economy. At the annual gathering, China’s two main political bodies—the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)—meet to reveal policies involving the economy, trade, the environment, and many other areas. The Government Work Report is the most important policy document presented at the event as it sets the key economic and social development tasks for the current year.
Some of the broader economic development goals include:
- GDP growth at approx. 5%
- 12 million new urban jobs
- Urban unemployment rate no higher than 5.5%
- Inflation not exceeding 3%
The report also lists agricultural and rural development amongst the key tasks for 2024, vowing to build a strong agricultural sector as policymakers double down on improving food security. Three focus areas are mentioned in the report.
1. Stable agricultural production
To ensure the stable supply of agricultural products, policymakers will ensure grain acreage remains stable. Production of soybeans will also be promoted in a bid to reduce China’s heavy reliance on soybean imports. In the past few years, imports have amounted to over 100 million tons annually, mostly from the United States and Brazil. The report also vows to increase per-unit crop yields. China’s yields of domestically grown corn and soybean are significantly lower than in other countries, reaching only 60% of those planted in the United States.
Higher minimum purchase prices and the rollout of a nationwide full-cost insurance are mentioned as key measures to ensure adequate incomes for grain growers. More support for the seed industry, new agricultural technologies, and improvements in agricultural machinery are aimed at increasing yields.
Soil figures prominently in the work plan. Not only does the document pledge to maintain China’s farmland area above the red line of 120 million hectares, but it also promises to protect the nation’s valuable black soil areas in the Northeast and improve farmland with high salinity. More subsidies will be available to create “high-standard farmland”—a shorthand for consolidation of small land parcels into larger holdings suitable for mechanized farming and equipped with irrigation and other smart infrastructure.
2. Continued efforts in poverty alleviation
At the end of 2021, China declared victory in its fight against extreme poverty, mostly concentrated in the nation’s remote rural areas. Since then, officials have been scrambling to ensure rural populations do not slip back into poverty.
The report promises to support formerly poverty-stricken areas to develop competitive local industries, including agricultural specialty products and advance cooperation between China’s more developed eastern provinces and the landlocked West.
3. Rural reform
The report announces the deepening of rural land reform and the development of new types of rural collective economies. China has been promoting producer collectives as a way to upscale agricultural production and enable rural residents that want to move out of farming to lease their land use rights to larger farming entities.
Land ownership will not be affected by these measures. In China, all farmland is owned by the village collective, with individual households contracting land from the village for a period of 30 years. The report promises to extend all rural land contracts by another 30 years upon the expiration of second round-contracts.
To generate off-farm sources of income, the report vows to boost rural industries and develop new types of agribusinesses and commercial agricultural services. Beautifying the country is also part of the plan, yielding prospects for rural tourism and better living standards in the countryside. Improved public services are part of the package too. Low schooling and healthcare standards have made rural areas considerably less attractive than cities, a shortcoming that policymakers now seek to address.
In addition, the report announces continued efforts at integrating urban and rural development to strengthen linkages between cities and the countryside. A long-awaited reform of the national household registration system (hukou) is key to closing the urban-rural gap, with the report vowing to grant permant urban residency to migrant workers wishing to settle down in cities.
“Thousand—Ten Thousand Project” as a model
The “Thousand—Ten Thousand Project”, a rural development campaign initiated by President and Party Secretary Xi Jinping during his time as governor in Zhejiang Province, is also highlighted in the report. First appearing as a new policy buzzword in the No. 1 Document, it is cited by the Government Work Report as a role model for a green rural revival.
Acknowledging the need for a region-specific and phased approach to rural revitalization, the report appears to dispel concerns that rural development experiences from one of China’s most advanced and richest provinces will be imposed as a one-size-fits-all model on other areas of the country.
Sources
Government Work Report (unofficial English version)
Explainer in Farmers’ Daily (in Chinese)
