In 2014, the central leadership of the CPC party and the State Council, according to the general logic of stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, promoting reform, and benefiting the people's livelihood, correctly grasped the situation that the cost of agricultural production was rapidly increasing, domestic-foreign price gap was expanding, the shortage of agricultural resources was intensifying, the transformation of rural social structure was accelerating, and the flow of rural-urban resource elements was speeding up; took reformation as an essential driving force, based on the national and agricultural conditions and the time's demand, promoted the support for rural reform and policies, enhanced the role of science and technology, expedited the construction of new-type agriculture management system that features intensification, specialization, organization, and socialization, further optimized the support and protection of agriculture, and constantly strengthened agriculture, benefited the rural areas and increased farmers' income.
The efforts to empower, to benefit and to enrich farmers were continuously strengthened. In 2014，the special transfer payment project funds jointly managed by the MoA and the Ministry of Finance was 117 billion yuan, with an increase of 6.5 billion yuan from last year. The funds were mainly used for in projects in four major areas, such as promoting production and ensuring supply, among which 74.6 billion yuan was spent on production subsidy policy projects, 13.1 billion yuan was spent on policy support for technology service, 10.9 billion yuan was spent on disaster prevention and reduction projects, and 18.4 billion yuan was spent on ecosystem and natural resource protection projects. The policies on empowering, benefiting and enriching famers yielded achievements, and the nation's agricultural technology progress and facility improvement was sped up, which provided strong support for an 11-year consecutive increase of food production.
The basic rural management system was further consolidated. The pilot program of identification, registration and certification of rural land contract and management rights was steadily promoted. In 2014, the range of pilot areas was expanded: Shandong, Sichuan and Anhui provinces conducted the pilot programs in the whole province, while the other provinces conducted the pilot program in one county (city, or district) respectively, with an accumulated 27 pilots. By the end of 2014, 1,988 counties (cities, or districts) in 29 provinces' (Tibet Autonomous Region and Chongqing city not included) had conducted rural land contract registration, covering 13,000 towns and townships, and 195,000 villages. The area of registered land was 12.67 million hectares. The ministries summarized the conditions of rural collective assets management, started the second wave of setting demonstration counties for rural collective assets management, promoted the construction of supervision platforms for the management of the assets, and carried out inspections on rural financial management, in order to stimulate rural development and lay the foundations for accelerating urban-rural integration. Arbitrary charges for farmers were reduced, farmers’ burdens were kept at a low level, the overall situation of relieving farmers' burdens was kept stable, and the relationship between rural cadres and farmers was improved.
Agricultural scale management developed rapidly. On the premise of collective land ownership, the ministry realized the division of three rights including ownership, contracted right and management right, guided land management right to circulate orderly, cultivated new types of agricultural business entities, developed various forms of agricultural moderate-scale management, and promoted the innovation of rural land system and agricultural management system. Under the influences of the increasing transfer of work forces, the brightening future of quality and high-efficiency agriculture, and strong supports from all-level governments, the rural land transfer was accelerated, the contracted land circulation system was created preliminarily, scale operations developed fast, intensive and large-scale management was implemented for concentrated and contiguous planting, production cost was reduced, and agriculture development and farmers' income were boosted. Governments increased the support for family farms, professional farm households, farmer cooperative organizations, leading companies, agriculture socialization service organizations and other new types of agricultural business entities, and accelerated the implementation of supportive policies for scale management business entities.
Rural comprehensive reform was deeply promoted. Following the logic of "spending money on building systems/5 governments carried on reforms, pushed forward the 4tCase-by-Case Approval System" financial rewards and the "Beautiful Countryside" construction pilot program, built rural comprehensive reform demonstration pilots and state-owned farms social function reform pilots, and initiated the construction of demonstration town pilots. Rural comprehensive reform was deepened and yielded progress, which facilitated institutional innovation of the urban-rural integration system. The rural reform pilot project developed well. The first batch of pilot districts yielded good results, and the second batch was approved to start. The pilot project made remarkable progress in keeping the rural basic management system, improving rural land management system, modern rural financial system and rural ownership system, and promoting the overall rural reform condition. The rural financial reform was deepened, rural financial supports were enhanced, financial products were innovated, agricultural insurance market was developed, financing for agriculture was improved, and financial organizations' sense of responsibility in providing services for agriculture was reinforced.
The regulation and control mechanism of agro-product market was improved. In 2014, the minimum-purchase prices for wheat and rice were raised again. The main production areas of wheat and rice benefited from the purchasing price policy when the harvest season came. Policies were implemented to temporarily purchase and store corns, rapeseeds and sugar at the proper time, price subsidy pilots were built for cotton and soybeans, the shortage of food storage capacity was eased, and the analysis and alert system for agro-product market was improved. The regulation system for the nation's agro-product market was enhanced, which enabled price to better increase agricultural production and farmers' income.
The institutional reform of seed industry was deepened. Related departments followed the guidance of the Suggestions on Deepening Seed Industry's Reform and Raising the Innovation Abilities, focused on institutional innovation of the seed industry, implemented reform policies on the seed industry, enacted new measures and new policies, which all contributed to the development of the modern seed industry. The ministries stimulated the initiative of technicians to push forward the seed industry's research and innovation system reform; formulated supportive policies to fulfill the goal of building big and thriving companies; constructed national seed production bases to secure seed supply; carried on national seed research to make breakthroughs in cultivating new plant breeds; enhanced market supervision and intellectual property protection to improve the seed market environment.
The agricultural technology promotion system reform and construction entered a new track. In 2014, the central government spent 2.6 billion yuan to support agricultural technology promotion grassroots organizations to provide technology service in 37 provincial-level units, including 31 provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities directly under central government), three selected cities, two farming districts directed under the Ministry of Agriculture and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. In 2014, about 15,600 experts participated in agricultural technology promotion; 187,214 agricultural technology instructors were selected; 6,970 pilot bases were built; 1.84 million technology demonstration farm households were cultivated, which influenced 23.5 million surrounding farm households; 4.92 million grassroots agriculture technicians, big farm households and farmers were trained; 240,000 agricultural technology online bookstores were created in 2,200 counties; 3,909 major breeds and 3,176 recommended technologies were released, and were introduced into more than 95 percent of farm households. The agricultural technology promotion system made great contributions to food harvest and farmers' income increase.
The public service for migrant workers was gradually improved. Governments improved the service for migrant workers in new situations, and helped them to integrate into cities, which lay foundations for the citizenization of migrant workers. Governments provided supports for migrant workers for job search and starting new business, protected migrant workers' labor rights, helped them to equally use basic urban public services and register households in cities, encouraged them to integrate into new social environments, and reinforced the leadership in migrant worker related affairs. Under such circumstances, the scale of rural labor transfer was enlarged in 2014, job training and career service were improved, migrant workers' income was increased, wage arrear problems were eased, and the equality of urban-rural basic public service was enhanced.
Agricultural laws and regulations were improved. With the goal of developing agriculture and protecting farmers' rights, ministries took efforts to improve legislation, regulate enforcement and conciliate conflicts, which yielded good results. Agricultural legislation was enhanced, and regulations on new plant breeds protection and veterinary medicine administration were revised; the MoA established three regulations on fodder quality management, fodder import and additive administration, and fishery crew management; local agriculture departments enacted regional regulations. The enforcement of agricultural laws was enhanced, in order to improve agricultural production management and protect farmers' rights. Administrative reconsideration was reinforced to legally resolve agriculture disputes, and uphold the legal rights of administrative counterparts.
