Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government

3. Improving the balance between urban and rural development and strengthening the foundation for the development of agriculture and rural areas

After six consecutive years of increases in grain output and rural incomes, it is vital we sustain our good work in the areas of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. In accordance with the requirements for balancing urban and rural development, we need to make solving problems faced by agriculture, rural areas, and farmers a top priority in all our work; further strengthen our policies to aid agriculture and benefit farmers; coordinate industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural and rural modernization; and consolidate and build upon the good situation in agriculture and rural areas.

We will promote the steady development of agriculture and a continuous increase in rural incomes. We will keep grain production stable; expand the total area sown with oilseed; increase supplies of important agricultural products in short supply; implement a large-scale effort to increase the production of grain, cotton, oilseed, and sugar; standardize farming practices in horticulture, animal husbandry, and aquaculture; and ensure the security of the "rice bag" (grain supply) and "vegetable basket" (non-staple food supply). We will continue to provide direct subsidies for grain producers, and increase general subsidies for purchasing agricultural supplies and subsidies for purchasing superior crop varieties and agricultural machinery and tools. The central government will allocate 133.5 billion yuan for this purpose, a year-on-year increase of 6.04 billion yuan. We will further raise minimum grain purchase prices. The minimum prices of early indica rice, middle-season and late indica rice and japonica rice will be raised by 3 yuan, 5 yuan and 10 yuan per 50 kilograms respectively, and the minimum price of wheat will be raised by 3 yuan per 50 kilograms. We will continue to implement the policy of purchasing and temporarily stockpiling major agricultural products and give farmers more tangible benefits. We will increase fiscal support for major grain-producing, pork-producing, and cattle farming counties. We will vigorously develop the processing industry for agricultural products, promote industrialization in agriculture, support the upgrading and renovation of wholesale markets and markets for farm produce, and promote closer linkage between production and the market. We will help rural residents find jobs or start their own businesses, and increase rural incomes through a variety of channels. We will intensify poverty alleviation and development and work tirelessly to eradicate poverty and backwardness so that rural residents can soon live a prosperous and happy life.

We will strengthen agricultural infrastructure. We will continue to give high priority in government spending to supporting agricultural and rural development. In the budget, our priority for fixed asset investment will be agricultural infrastructure and projects that improve the wellbeing of rural residents, and our priority for use of proceeds from the transfer of land-use rights will be developing agricultural land and building rural infrastructure. The central government plans to allocate 818.3 billion yuan for agriculture, farmers, and rural areas, an increase of 93 billion yuan over last year, and local governments at all levels will also increase their investment. We will comprehensively implement the plan to increase grain production by 50 billion kilograms nationwide, with the emphasis on major grain-producing regions. Focusing on water conservancy, we will improve agricultural infrastructure, accelerate related upgrades of large and medium-sized irrigated areas, expand the area in which water-conserving irrigation methods are used, create high-grade cropland, and finish reinforcing dilapidated large, medium-sized, and key small reservoirs. With the focus on breeding improved crop varieties, we will accelerate innovation in agricultural technology and the widespread adoption of scientific and technological advances, and carry out a major science and technology project to create new crop varieties using gene transfer technology. We will move forward with the construction of modern agriculture demonstration sites. We will accelerate the development of public services for extending agricultural technology, preventing and controlling animal and plant diseases, and providing quality oversight of agricultural products in townships, towns and regions.

We will deepen rural reform. We will uphold the basic rural operation system; quickly improve relevant laws, regulations and policies; and maintain existing land contract relationships over the long term. We will strengthen supervision of and services for the transfer of contracted land-use rights, and develop diverse large-scale farming operations on the basis of legal, voluntary, and compensated transfers of land-use rights. We will continue to carry out comprehensive rural reform, improve supporting policies for the reform of tenure in collective forests, and launch the reform of state tree farms. We will continue to reform the basic system for the use of grasslands, develop specialized farmer cooperatives, improve the organization of agriculture, more quickly develop small rural financial institutions, actively promote micro-credit loans in rural areas, and improve rural financial services. We will also deepen reforms in township and town government departments.

We will balance promoting urbanization and building a new countryside. We will keep to the path of urbanization with Chinese characteristics. We will promote balanced development between towns and large, small and medium-sized cities; increase the overall carrying capacity of cities and towns; ensure that cities stimulate the development of surrounding rural areas; and promote positive interaction between urbanization and the building of a new countryside. We will strengthen county economies, improve infrastructure and environmental protection in county towns and hub towns, guide an orderly flow of nonagricultural industries and rural people to small towns, and encourage returned rural migrant workers to start businesses in their hometowns. When developing urban and rural areas, we must adhere to the strictest possible systems for protecting arable land and economizing land use to genuinely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of farmers. We will carry out reform of the household registration system and relax requirements for household registration in towns and small and medium-sized cities. We will solve employment and living problems rural migrant workers face in cities and towns in a planned and step-by-step manner, and gradually ensure that they receive the same treatment as urban residents in areas such as pay, children's education, healthcare, housing, and social security. We will further increase spending on the development of rural work and living facilities, begin a new round of upgrades of rural power grids, expand the construction of rural methane facilities, provide safe drinking water to another 60 million rural people, carry out the project to build a clean countryside, and improve working and living conditions there. We will allow eligible workers who have left agricultural work to gradually become urban residents, and develop a beautiful rural environment where farmers can live a happy life.