21st Century Business Herald:

The Central Economic Work Conference and the Central Rural Work Conference in 2023 both made arrangements for studying and applying the experience of the Green Rural Revival Program, as well as for advancing all-round rural revitalization strongly and effectively. What are the priorities for this year's work on agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents? What specific arrangements will be made? Thanks.

Deng Xiaogang:

Thank you for your attention and questions regarding the work on agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents. The Central Economic Work Conference and the Central Rural Work Conference, held at the end of 2023, provided specific directives for this work, offering overarching guidance for us to perform well in related fields. The agricultural and rural departments will earnestly implement the decisive policies and arrangements of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. We will make every effort to consolidate the foundation, stabilize production capacity, prevent risks, and stimulate vitality, advancing the work on agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents to achieve new improvements.

We will arrange our work by closely following two main tasks: advancing comprehensive rural revitalization and accelerating the building of China's agricultural strength. Two areas are priorities for our efforts. The first is agricultural production with a focus on food security, aiming to ensure a stable and secure supply of grain and other major agricultural products. The second is rural revitalization, emphasizing the construction and governance of rural development. This targets the consolidation and expansion of gains from poverty alleviation and creating a beautiful, harmonious countryside that is desirable for living and working.

We will adopt measures concentrating on the following "2+3+2" aspects and ensure their implementation.

The first "2" refers to two aspects: ensuring national food security and preventing any large-scale relapse into poverty. Regarding food security, we will launch a new round of actions to increase grain production capacity by 50 million metric tons and raise the per-unit crop yield of large-scale grain, oil, and other main crops nationwide. With such efforts, we will ensure the stable production of staple food, corn, and soybeans, continue to expand the planting area of oilseed rape, and increase per-unit crop yield, ensuring a grain output of over 650 million metric tons. We will prioritize work in several fields to consolidate and expand the gains from poverty alleviation. These include improving monitoring and assistance mechanisms to prevent any relapse into poverty, providing classified guidance to areas lifted out of poverty to develop supporting industries, stabilizing the employment of the workforce that shook off poverty, and pooling more resources to help areas and residents lifted out of poverty build their own momentum for growth.

The "Three Enhancements" aim to continuously promote rural industrial development, advance rural development initiatives, and improve rural governance. First, we will comprehensively promote the development of rural industries throughout the industrial chains, focusing on local specialty products. We will enhance the quality and competitiveness of rural industries with local features, develop and expand the industries that process agricultural products, and actively advance the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism. This will facilitate the integrated development of rural areas' primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Second, we will advance rural development initiatives in a pragmatic way. Starting from farmers' most pressing needs, we will plan and promote key actions to ensure the widespread and inclusive availability of rural infrastructure and public services. These actions will have a substantial impact, starting from small-scale initiatives and expanding to cover a broader area. We will focus on building a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in. Third, we will continuously improve rural governance, and encourage a shift away from outdated social practices. We will implement practical and effective governance methods like checklists, point-based systems, and immediate response mechanisms, and increase the supply of cultural products that embody the charm and essence of rural areas.

The "Two Reinforcements" refer to strengthening technology development and deepening reform at the same time as well as reinforcing measures to increase farmers' income. The emphasis on technological innovation lies in its application-oriented approach, optimizing work mechanisms and enhancing the overall efficiency of the agricultural science and technology innovation system. At the same time, efforts will be made to develop high-quality farmland, accelerate the revitalization of the seed industry, and enhance research and development as well as the application of agricultural machinery and equipment. The focus of deepening rural reform is to prudently advance the pilot program of extending second-round rural land contracts by another 30 years upon expiration as well as developing new collective economies in rural areas based on local conditions. The key emphasis in increasing farmers' income is to create more channels for increasing rural incomes through industrial development, employment opportunities, and reforms, and allowing farmers to share more fruits of reform and development. Thank you.