In February 2013, China released No.1 Central Document for the year, highlighting the importance of focusing on modern agriculture, giving full play to the advantages of the basic operation system, building a new type of agricultural operation system, and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas.
Innovating the agricultural operation system and promoting the initiative of the rural areas and farmers require efforts in two aspects. One is innovating the agricultural production and operation system and making steady progress in getting farmers better organized. Efforts need to be made to keep the rural land contractual practice stable, improve the performance of rural households in intensive operation, vigorously support new types of farmers’ cooperatives in diverse forms, foster leading enterprises and make them stronger. The other aspect is building a new mechanism for commercial agricultural services and encouraging service providers to diversify and to grow. Efforts need to be made to strengthen the public service system for agriculture, cultivate commercial service providers, and facilitate innovation in service delivery.
Efforts will also be made in the following areas to accelerate the urban and rural reform in a well-coordinated manner, and promote the equal exchange and rational distribution of factors of production between urban and rural areas.
First, a mechanism needs to be in place to ensure the supply of important agricultural products and to consolidate the physical foundation of modern agriculture. It is thus important to steadily improve agricultural production, strengthen agricultural supplies and technology, make the distribution of agricultural products more efficient, improve market regulation for agricultural products, and enhance food safety.
Second, a more robust system needs to be implemented to better support and protect agriculture, and policies bringing more income and benefits to farmers need to be developed.Measures include increasing agricultural subsidies, improving rural financial services, and encouraging private investment in building the new countryside.
Third, the rural public service mechanism needs to be improved and a balance needs to be achieved in the allocation of public resources between urban and rural areas.Efforts need to be made to better develop rural infrastructure and social undertakings, grant permanent urban residency to eligible people who move from rural to urban areas, and promote ecological progress in rural areas.
