New ways to help poor farmers

The mismatch of resources and production factors between the city and the countryside in China determines that rural laborers cannot be fully employed near their homes and thus poverty occurs. To eliminate poverty in the countryside, the government must address this mismatch first, says an article in Beijing News. Excerpts:

The central government of China issued a new guideline for poverty-relief in the countryside recently, requiring local authorities to create new mechanisms to tackle the issue, let the market play a decisive role in allocating resources and give society more access to participate in helping the poor.

Although the Chinese government has done a good job of eliminating poverty over the past 30 years, there are still some causes of poverty in the countryside that do not change with the times.

The farmers’ effective workdays and education level are limited. If farmers participate in modern labor distribution in the market, their income levels would be much higher. Making full employment possible for farmers can help them overcome poverty as soon as possible. On the other hand, within a fixed period of labor time, the more education and training that farmers get, the higher their incomes become.

It is necessary that the new guideline supports vocational education for students from the poor countryside.

Another possible means is for the government to actively support commercial capital and applicable technology to enter the circulation and services sectors of the countryside, along with constant improvement of local infrastructure construction and the market environment.

These new mechanisms are all based on the functioning of the market. The most sustainable way to help poor farmers is to lower the costs of entering the market for them, which involves a series of system reforms removing obstacles between the city and the countryside.

Letting farmers have the freedom and knowledge to fish is better than simply feeding them fish.