SCIO briefing on agriculture and rural development

Speakers:
Mr. Han Changfu, minister of agriculture

Mr. Han Jun, director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group

Mr. Ye Zhenqin, vice minister of agriculture

Mr. Wu Hongyao, deputy director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group

Chairperson:
Hu Kaihong, spokesperson of the State Council Information Office

Date:
Sept. 29, 2017

Hu Kaihong:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this press conference. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has always attached great importance to the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and much headway has been made in this regard.

Today, we are delighted to invite Mr. Han Changfu, the minister of agriculture, and Mr. Han Jun, the director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, to this press conference. They will introduce the progress on agriculture and rural development since the 18th CPC National Congress, and answer some of your questions.

Also present at this press conference are: Mr. Ye Zhenqin, the vice minister of agriculture, and Mr. Wu Hongyao, the deputy director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group.

Now, let's welcome Mr. Han Changfu to make his briefing.

Han Changfu:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the press, good morning. Thank you for your concern and support for the work concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers over the years. Autumn is a season of harvest, and it's a pleasure to exchange ideas with you on agriculture at this time.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party and the state have made great achievements under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and under the guidance of Xi's major addresses and his new vision, thinking, and strategies for the governance of China, and the same is true for the development of agriculture and rural areas.

The agricultural departments at all levels have studied Xi's speeches on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, focusing on agricultural supply-side structural reform and also on guaranteed supply, income and ecology to promote the modernization of agriculture. We have witnessed bumper harvests over the past five years, famers have gained increasing incomes and rural areas have maintained harmony and stability. All these factors have contributed to the stable economic and social development as a "ballast stone."

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, agriculture and the rural economy have made achievements in six areas, including progresses in grain production capacity, agricultural supply-side structural reform, agricultural modernization, rural reform, green agricultural development and the income of farmers.

Han Changfu:

First, the capacity for grain production has reached a new level, with annual output above 600 million tons for four consecutive years. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that we must ensure a sufficient food supply for 1.3 billion people. Based on that, we have always prioritized food safety and maintaining an adequate supply of important farm products, mobilizing local governments to focus on agricultural development and promoting farmers' enthusiasm for their industry.

Since 2013, China's food production has reached 600 million tons for four consecutive years. This year's food production is expected to remain at this level. Although accounting for only 10 percent of arable land worldwide, China produces food for 20 percent of the global population, which is a major contribution to the world's food security.

China has enjoyed good harvests for each of the last five years. In addition to bumper crops, the supply of other important farm products has also been adequate. The production of meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits and fish ranked first in the world. Urban and rural residents have both benefited from the rapid development of agriculture.

Second, supply-side structural reform in the rural sector has entered a new phase with marked results. President Xi Jinping has stressed promoting supply-side structural reform in the agricultural sector is the main thrust of the country's agricultural policy reform and development in the current stage as well as the future period.

We adhere to an orientation meeting market needs, deepen reform so as to create powerful impetus and further develop structural adjustment in agriculture. Now, the production structure has become smoother and unhindered. According to market needs, we have reduced the corn planting area by nearly 50 million mu (about 3.33 million hectares), and increased the soybean area by more than 16 million mu (about 1.67 million hectares) in the past two years. As much as 56 percent of livestock farming is now large-scale. Notable progress has also been made in the fisheries industry by reducing quantity and improving quality.

The industrial structure has been further improved, particularly in processing of agricultural products, farm-based recreation and agricultural tourism, and rural e-commerce. Development has been pursued in rural areas where the primary, secondary and tertiary industries have further been integrated. In 2016, the ratio between the processing of agricultural products and total agricultural output reached 2.2:1, e-commerce turnover of agricultural products reached 220 billion yuan, and farm-based recreation and agricultural tourism earned 570 billion yuan. Meanwhile, the production and supply of agricultural products featuring "green, ecological, high quality and safety" have increased significantly.

The regional structure is more reasonable. The concentrated area for grain, edible oil, cotton and sugar products continues to increase. Pig farming has been transferred to major grain-producing areas with a better environment. The output from major farming areas devoted to pigs and cows accounted for 80 percent and 60 percent respectively of the national total.

Third, modern agricultural construction has taken new steps, with the level of technology and equipment improved greatly.

Agricultural mechanization has been clearly enhanced. The level of comprehensive mechanization has reached more than 65 percent for the cultivation and harvest of all main crops. The cultivation and harvest of wheat is fully mechanized, while corn and rice have been more than 75 percent mechanized. These developments indicate that agriculture in China has pivoted from the centuries-old approach based on animal and human labor to mechanical engineering.

The level of technicalization has also been noticeably enhanced. Advances in agricultural science and technology contributed to 56 percent of agricultural production. Thus, China's agricultural development has gone from relying mainly on an increase of resources to a new phase of relying on technological progress.

Premium seed varieties have also increased. Improved breeds account for 96 percent of main crops, while the breeds and localization ratios of livestock are improving every year.

The production scale has also increased. There are more than 2.9 million new types of agribusiness in operation, such as family farms, farmers' cooperatives and leading industrial corporations. The proportion of suitably scaled-up operations of land reached 40 percent.

The installation of equipment and facilities has substantially increased. A total of 500 million mu of high-standard farmland was built to ensure stable yields regardless of drought or excessive rain, with more than 52 percent of farmland effectively irrigated. The facilities-equipped farmland covered 55 million mu. This indicates that the agriculture industry will no longer fully depend on the mercy of the natural environment.

Han Changfu:

Fourth, rural reform has been pushed forward with a new top-level design. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has chaired 38 group meetings among members of the CPC Central Committee to deliberate on deepening reform, of which rural reform has been singled out for consideration 18 times. During these meetings, they scrutinized 24 plans in regard to rural reforms and issued several circulars, including the separation of the "three rural rights", namely, land ownership rights, contract rights and management right. Other reforms covered the collective property right system, the development of appropriate scaled operations of land, and the agricultural land reclamation reform. All in all, the fundamental framework of rural reform has been established.

The reform of the "three rural rights", in particular, has become an institutional design reflecting immense political wisdom and a visionary view to meet the expectations of farmers in preserving their contract rights and contract management rights of land under transfer. It represents a new round of significant systematic innovation following the establishment of the household contract responsibility system in rural China.

Rural collective property rights system reform is crucial to improve the rural production relationship. It clarified the ownership of property rights, activated collective assets, and increased property income for farmers.

The registration of land rights has become essential to rural reform. The country has so far completed the registration of 1.05-billion-mu (1 mu=0.067 hectare) of rural land.

Fifth, greener agricultural development and initial success in solving prominent resource and environmental problems. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, pointed out that it is a profound revolution in development philosophy to pursue green agriculture. We have pushed for green production models and actively prevented and controlled agricultural pollution from nonpoint sources. This has been pursued mainly through five campaigns: curbing pollution from animal manure, replacing chemical fertilizers with organic ones in the production of fruits, vegetables and tea, treating crop straws in northwest China, protecting aquatic life (especially those inhabiting the Yangtze River), and recycling agricultural films. As a result, agriculture is now less resource-intensive, the coefficient on the effective utilization of water for farmland irrigation has risen above 0.55, 2.83 million hectares of marginal farmland have been turned into forests or grasslands, the crop rotation and fallow land trials have been expanded to 800,000 hectares, and the strain on resources and the environment from agricultural development has decreased. In addition, the worsening trend of agricultural pollution from nonpoint sources has moderated, the administration of pesticides has remained unchanged, the use of chemical fertilizers has seen almost zero growth, green technologies for preventing and controlling pests and diseases have been employed in over 33 million hectares of land growing grain crops, vegetables, fruits and tea, and the utilization rates of animal manure and crop straws and the recycling rate for agricultural films have all risen above 60 percent. (In short,) agriculture is turning green and rural areas are becoming beautiful.

Sixth, rural incomes have increased further, remarkably improving the living standard of farmers. In 2016, their per capita disposable income exceeded 12,000 yuan, with a four-year average annual growth of 8 percent, or a growth of near 1,000 yuan a year. In the first half of this year, the income growth continued to maintain a good momentum, with a growth rate of 7.4 percent, so that the income level is expected to reach 13,000 yuan by the end of this year.

The urban-rural income gap is continuing to narrow since the growth of rural income has surpassed that in urban areas for several years in a row. The ratio of urban income to rural income was 2.72 last year, a drop of 0.16 from 2012. In 2016, the Engel coefficients (i.e., the proportion of food expenditure in total consumption spending) per rural household fell to 32.2 percent compared to 37.5 percent in 2012. Incomes increased even faster in poverty-stricken areas, with an annual growth of over 10 percent. The figure is higher than national average rural income growth. As a result, we have further reduced the number of rural residents living in poverty by over 13 million a year during the period under review.

Looking back, we have made remarkable achievements; looking forward, we are firm in our confidence. We will be closely uniting around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, and work diligently and blaze new trails to promote agricultural supply-side structural reform and consolidate the favorable development of agriculture and rural areas, so as to greet the 19th CPC National Congress with remarkable achievements.

Thank you.

Hu Kaihong:

Thank you, Minister Han Changfu. Now let's invite Mr. Han Jun, director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group to give us an introduction.

Han Jun:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, we have followed a new development philosophy, taking agriculture, rural areas, and farmers as the top priority of CPC's work and promoted innovation in the practice, theories and institutions of work in this regard. We have held an annual Central Rural Work Conference for five consecutive years; issued the annual No.1 Central Document focusing on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers; formulated policies to comprehensively deepen rural reform, accelerate agricultural modernization, build a new socialist countryside, advance supply-side structural reform in agriculture, foster new growth engines to power agricultural and rural development; underscored the importance of agriculture and boosted its development. Thanks to the concerted efforts of the CPC and the entire country, difficulties and challenges in the development of agriculture and rural areas have been overcome and historic achievements made.

Just now, Mr. Han Changfu described the progress on agriculture and rural area development from six perspectives. The achievements should be attributed to the Party's leadership. Preliminary statistics show that, after the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping took 23 inspection tours to rural area across the nation to gauge public opinion and seek solutions that would promote further rural development. In a series of instructions and speeches, he proposed new ideas and strategies for the work related to agriculture and the rural areas.

After the 18th CPC National Congress, we have accumulated important experiences in three specific aspects.

Han Jun:

Firstly, we continue to adhere to overall planning and top-level design in rural reform. Focusing on properly handling the relationship between farmers and the land, we have implemented measures for separating land ownership rights, contract rights and management rights for rural land. We have also made overall arrangements to carry out trial reforms with regard to rural land requisition, the marketization of rural collective land designated for commercial construction and the system covering rural residential land.

Focusing on properly handling the relationship between government and market, we have been constantly deepening reforms of the purchase and storage systems, as well as the pricing mechanism for grain and other important agricultural products. We have gained notable progress through pilot reform programs for ensuring guaranteed base prices for cotton from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and soybeans from northeast China.

In addition, we have also improved the agricultural subsidy system, promoted the integration of agriculture-related funds, innovated the rural credit and insurance mechanism, deepened comprehensive reform of the rural supply and marketing cooperatives and promoted reforms in the handling of reclaimed land.

We have ensured an orderly, stable and rapid reform mode. The implementation of a series of rural reform measures has injected powerful endogenous impetus to agriculture and rural development.

Han Jun:

Secondly, we have been working on a balanced and coordinated development between urban and rural areas. Despite the tightening financial revenue and expenditure, we continue to give priority to agriculture, rural areas and farmers in our public expenditures, which ensured the stable growth of the investment in these three areas.

From 2013 to 2017, China's national general public budget expenditures for agriculture, forestry and water are expected to reach 8.28 trillion yuan. More newly-added budget expenditures for education, culture, health care and other social undertakings were allocated to rural areas. As such, the basic standards and level of rural public services have been improved. We promoted new socialist countryside construction and carried out projects to improve the water supply, roads, power grids and internet connectivity in the countryside. We have also reinforced the dangerous buildings in rural areas.

We worked to improve living conditions in rural areas, with waste and sewage treatment as the focus. Rural production and living conditions have undergone significant changes. With increased support to rural compulsory education, the conditions for schools have been further improved. New systems for rural cooperative medical care and assistance for treating major and serious diseases were put in place. We increased subsistence allowances, benefits and basic pension benefits for entitled groups. The culture and sports industries have become more prosperous. Take the new rural cooperative medical care system as an example: financial subsidies at all levels reached 450 yuan this year, a twofold increase since 2012.

By the end of this August, over 500 million urban and rural residents have been covered by endowment insurance, among which 488 million were rural residents; over 150 million people reaching the age of 60 have been able to draw a pension. The income of farmers has been growing faster than urban residents for five consecutive years. The income gap between urban and rural residents fell from 2.88:1 in 2012 to 2.72:1 last year.

We have also carried out targeted poverty alleviation. By the end of last year, 55.64 million poor people in rural areas had been enabled to shake off poverty steadily, and the incidence of poverty in the country dropped from 10.2 to 4.5 percent. In the process of promoting new type urbanization, we have promoted basic public services in urban areas to cover all permanent residents. From 2012 to 2016, 60 million people originally with a rural household registration were able to transfer to urban household registration.

We have been making full use of the unique advantages of the countryside to foster new industries like rural e-commerce, leisure agriculture and rural tourism, and promote integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. With coordinated planning of urban and rural areas, the agriculture sector and rural areas have demonstrated new appeal. More people are moving or returning to the countryside to start their own businesses.

Third, sticking to green, sustainable development, with the firm belief that green can turn to gold too, we have put greater emphasis on ecological progress and promoted clean production methods in rural areas.

We ensured that China's farmland remains at or above the red line. Presently, the area of land recognized as permanent basic cropland totals 1.55 billion mu (1 mu=0.067 hectare).

We protected the community of life, which consists of mountains, water, forests and farmland ecosystems. Pilot programs were launched to reform crop rotation and fallow land systems. More marginal farmland was turned into forests or grasslands, with 30.10 million mu of marginal farmland transformed from 2014 to 2016, and 12.30 million mu of farmland to be transformed this year.

We also protected natural forests in an all-round way, and tackled agricultural pollution from non-point sources and other prominent problems in the ecological field.

We have entered a new phase of reform on agriculture and the rural area. The future will be even brighter.

That's all I want to share with you. Thank you.

Hu Kaihong:

Thank you, Mr. Han. Now let's move to the question session. Please identify your media outlet before stating your question.