Where is the road of rural reform under the new normal?

Recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued some opinions on strengthening Reform and Innovation and speeding up Agricultural Modernization. The 2015 Central Committee document No. 1, with the theme of "increasing the intensity of reform and innovation and speeding up agricultural modernization", once again locked in the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. This is from 2004 to the present, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee has focused on agriculture, rural areas and farmers for 12 consecutive years. It shows that the CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the problems of rural areas, agriculture and farmers.

The theme of the 2015 Central Committee No. 1 document is "increasing the intensity of Reform and Innovation and speeding up Agricultural Modernization", which in fact continues the train of thought of comprehensively deepening rural reform and promoting agricultural modernization in the first year of reform in 2014. and further pointed out the focus and direction of rural reform under the new normal, comprehensively deployed the rural sector in the overall situation of deepening reform, and took a solid step in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way.

The document points out that we should promote the simultaneous development of new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, strive to tap new potential in improving grain production capacity, open up new ways to optimize agricultural structure, seek new breakthroughs in changing the mode of agricultural development, achieve new results in increasing farmers' income, take new steps in building a new countryside, and provide strong support for sustained and healthy economic and social development.

Promoting Agricultural Modernization with New urbanization

In 2015, the first document of the Central Committee pointed out that to strengthen agriculture, we must shift as soon as possible from the extensive operation that mainly pursues output and depends on resource consumption to pay equal attention to quantity and quality efficiency, pay attention to improving competitiveness, pay attention to agricultural scientific and technological innovation, and pay attention to sustainable intensive development. take the road of modern agricultural development with high output efficiency, product safety, resource saving and environment friendly.

In the context of new urbanization, a large number of agricultural transfer population into cities to become citizens, agriculture needs to be operated on a modern scale.

In this regard, Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with the China Economic Times that the purpose of developing agricultural modernization is to improve agricultural production efficiency and increase farmers' income. Through the process of urbanization, part of the agricultural population is transformed into citizens, and those who stay in rural areas can become professional farmers, produce in a mechanized mode of production, and improve production efficiency with a market-oriented service concept. In this way, people can choose to become new citizens or new farmers according to their own actual situation, which can provide due conditions for people who go to cities and return to their hometown to start businesses.

Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural work leading Group and director of the office, said that under the new normal, many farmers, especially young and middle-aged farmers, have accumulated certain knowledge and management capabilities when they go to work in cities, and they have also accumulated certain funds, but he will find that there may not be as many opportunities in cities as in rural areas. Therefore, many of these young farmers will go back to their hometown with the ability of capital, technology and management to start a business.

"We should train a new type of professional farmers, develop family farms, large growers and professional farmers, and encourage farmers to unite to set up co-operatives. We hope that young people with capital, knowledge and vision can return to their hometown to develop modern agriculture as the main body of a new type of agriculture. " Li Guoxiang said.

Li Guoxiang warned that farmers will be further divided in the future. If young people want to start a business in rural areas, they must first make full ideological preparation and research, and accurately grasp the market in the light of their own experience and local resources.

The previous central rural work conference also emphasized the development of agricultural modernization in the context of the new type of urbanization. The meeting called for giving full play to the radiation-driven role of the new type of urbanization on agricultural modernization. Efforts should be made to solve the existing problem of "three 100 million people", innovate the way of using cities to lead townships and industry to promote agriculture, guide the flow of modern urban factors of production to agriculture and rural areas, and increase farmers' income through various channels. We will actively and steadily promote the construction of a new countryside, speed up the improvement of living environment, improve the quality of farmers, and promote the construction of "material new countryside" and "human new countryside" side by side. We will continue to declare war on poverty, promote the combination of regional development with accurate poverty alleviation, and accelerate the pace of poverty alleviation in poverty-stricken areas.

There is a view that the new type of urbanization and agricultural modernization should be "tied" together. Therefore, at present, the central government especially emphasizes the need to make great efforts to solve the existing problem of "three 100 million people", innovate the way of using cities to lead townships and industry to promote agriculture, and guide the flow of modern urban factors of production to agriculture and rural areas. we will promote the construction of "material new countryside" and "human new countryside" side by side.

Strive to create "strong, rich and beautiful"

Centering on the integration of urban and rural development and deepening the construction of a new countryside, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee puts forward requirements for the construction of new countryside from six aspects, such as strengthening the construction of rural infrastructure, improving the level of rural public service, comprehensively promoting the renovation of rural human settlements, guiding and encouraging social capital to invest in rural construction, strengthening rural ideological and moral construction and strengthening rural grass-roots party construction.

While solving the problems encountered in the process of citizenization of agricultural transfer population, we should also actively build a new socialist countryside and create the possibility of providing equal public services and good living conditions for residents who stay in rural areas and farmers who choose to return home.

"strong, rich and beautiful" is regarded as the three key words of the Central Committee's No. 1 document in 2015. in addition to agriculture, the Central Committee's No. 1 document points out that if China wants to be beautiful, rural areas must be beautiful. To prosper rural areas, we must unremittingly promote the construction of a new socialist countryside. It is necessary to strengthen the leading role of planning, speed up the upgrading of rural infrastructure, promote the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas, and make rural areas a beautiful home for farmers to live and work in peace and contentment.

If China wants to be rich, farmers must be rich. Rich farmers must fully tap the internal income potential of agriculture, develop the income space of secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas, broaden the external income channels in rural areas, and strengthen policies to help farmers increase income. efforts should be made to maintain the momentum of continuous narrowing of the income gap between urban and rural residents under the new normal of economic development.

In terms of improving the level of public services in rural areas, document No. 1 mentions specific requirements in education, medical insurance, social security and infrastructure construction, which proposes to comprehensively improve the basic school-running conditions of weak schools in rural compulsory education, improve the teaching quality of rural schools, actively develop agricultural vocational education, and vigorously train new vocational farmers. We will comprehensively carry out serious illness insurance for urban and rural residents, and strengthen the capacity of grass-roots basic medical care, public health and rural doctors in rural areas. We will promote the interconnection between designated medical institutions at all levels and the new rural cooperative medical information system in the province, actively develop a remote consultation system that benefits rural areas, strengthen the standardized management of the rural minimum living security system, and establish a temporary assistance system in an all-round way. improve social assistance in rural areas. We will implement a unified basic old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents. We will support the construction of a variety of rural pension services and cultural and sports facilities. Integrate and make use of existing facilities and resources to build a rural grass-roots comprehensive public service platform.

Li Guoxiang believes that China's new urbanization is not developed at the expense of rural depression, but should emphasize the common prosperity of urban and rural areas and solve the problem of rural baffle in the process of urban-rural integration. Speeding up the construction of a new countryside also leaves room for people who go to cities to learn experience and technology to return to rural areas. in the future, farmers' amphibious working life will be avoided through equal coverage of social security and public services. to create conditions for the realization of people-oriented urbanization.