Winton Dong

    dht620@sina.com

    IN February this year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued their first policy document of 2017, aiming to bring new momentum into the country’s agricultural sector.

    It is the 14th consecutive year in which the first annual policy document released in China has focused on rural issues. This not only shows our Party and the Central Government’s great attention to agricultural development, but also reveals big challenges in the revitalization of farmland, farming and farmers in the country.

    As we all know, food is the first necessity of people. So we must make great efforts to stabilize the amount of farmland and improve its quality to ensure grain sufficiency and food security. The Chinese Government has many times now reiterated the “red line” of holding 1.865 billion mu (about 124.33 million hectares) of arable farmland by 2020 and demanded the retention of at least 1.825 billion mu by the year of 2030.

    By comparing the two figures, we will find that China can only reduce 40 million mu of farmland in 10 years from 2020 to 2030. To achieve this target and curb rampant urban occupation, we must at first have a detailed census to verify farmland ownership and usage rights for rural families nationwide. Such a massive verification mission began in China four years ago and is expected to finish in 2018. After the verification process, every farmer will get a certificate of land use rights, which specifies the ownership, contract and operating rights of the land.

    Verification of land ownership and usage rights is a big step forward for China. It can not only curb the use of arable land for construction and help the replenishment of arable land in the country, but also encourage modern farming and protect the interests of farmers. Based on the certificate, the legitimate rights of farmers are guaranteed. Those farmers who have moved to work in cities are allowed to earn money by transferring their land rights to individuals or agricultural business groups who are interested in large-scale farming.

    To inject more impetus into agriculture, farmers who prefer to stay in rural areas are encouraged to turn their assets, including land use rights and other operating assets, into shares in various ventures. By doing so, land rights and operating assets will be quantified and allocated to members of collective economic organizations in the forms of shares or allotments.

    As for the government, more money should be invested into rural areas to cope with soil erosion, farmland degradation and to boost infrastructure construction, facilities maintenance, water supplies and power grids. In the face of an ongoing economic slowdown in China, increasing investment in rural areas and the agriculture sector will surely generate better benefits and help to maintain steady growth of the country’s GDP. The government can also establish investment funds and issue government bonds that support infrastructure programs in rural areas.

    Besides government investment, public-private partnership (PPP), which is very popular in Western countries, can also be used to raise funds and meet financial shortage in the countryside. By channeling more investment into agriculture in various ways and ensuring a reasonable return for those investors, more talents and youths will be attracted to the farming industry and will start their businesses in the countryside, bringing with them new technologies and modern methods of production and business operation.

    According to the latest statistics, China’s urbanization rate reached 56.1 percent at the end of 2016 and the rate will continue to rise in the coming years. No matter how many people and how far they go to make a living in big cities, it is a tradition that Chinese will go back to their hometowns to spend Spring Festival. During the past Lunar New Year, I heard a lot of friends complaining about the decline of their countryside hometowns, wasted, desolate and abandoned, with only the aged, minors, physically disabled and mentally handicapped staying there.

    Despite the fact that some farmers living in urban villages of big Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, who rely on leasing properties for income, are really rich, it is still very difficult for most farmers in the country’s vast remote areas to lead a decent life only through farming. It is of great help that most Chinese top policy-makers, including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, know the hardship of farmers in the country very well because of their personal experiences. To answer the call of Chairman Mao who demanded urban youths to have rural labor experiences in the 1960s and 1970s, they were sent to remote villages for many years while at relatively young ages.

    The exact number of rural Chinese who still live in poverty now is expected to be released during the two annual sessions of national legislative and advisory bodies this month. However, insiders predict that China has more than 40 million residents — mainly from Guizhou, Guangxi, Ningxia, Yunnan and other remote regions — who remain impoverished.

    Eradicating poverty is the most important task of the nation. “No one should be left behind on the road to a moderately prosperous society,” said President Xi. The Central Government has also promised to have no Chinese living beneath the poverty line — set in 2011 at 2,300 yuan (US$334) per person per year by 2020 — which means that China is facing an arduous task of lifting at least 10 million rural villagers out of poverty annually in the coming four years.

    (The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily and guest professor of Shenzhen University with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)