Find the right policy for building a well-off society in rural areas

The China Development Research Foundation recently held the China Development Report 2013/14: The Road to Building a Well-off Society in China's Rural Areas (hereinafter referred to as the Report) in Beijing.

In the past 30 years, with the implementation of a series of reform measures, China's rural development has made remarkable progress. The "revitalization" in the 1980s, the "stability" in the 1990s and the "feedback" policy implemented in rural areas after 2000 have injected strong impetus into agriculture and rural development. The Report points out that the per capita annual net income of Chinese farmers increased from 133.6 yuan in 1978 to 8895.9 yuan in 2013. Various social protection systems have been gradually established in rural areas, and hundreds of millions of rural people have been lifted out of poverty. Great changes have taken place in rural China.

However, while China's rural development has made remarkable achievements, there are still obvious shortcomings in many fields such as income, security, education, health and governance.

Lu Mai, secretary-general of the China Development Research Foundation, said that the massive outflow of agricultural labor force; the rapid development of rural population aging, marketization and urbanization require changes in agricultural production and management methods and rural land systems; and the emergence of new problems such as partial deterioration of rural ecological environment and living environment make the solution of existing problems in rural areas more complicated.

Based on the arduous task of building a well-off society in an all-round way in rural areas, the Report suggests that "four inputs" and "three guarantees" should be taken as key policy starting points when promoting various system reforms.

The so-called "four inputs" means to increase investment in agriculture and other rural infrastructure, rural human capital, rural environmental protection and community construction. "Three guarantees" is to regard rural minimum living security, old-age security and medical security as the key components of rural social safety net.