The CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "No. 1 central document" for 2021 on Feb. 21, highlighting the consolidation of poverty alleviation accomplishments when prioritizing a transition to rural vitalization.
As the first policy statement released by the central authorities every year, the document is regarded as an indicator of policy priorities. Since 2004, work on agriculture and rural development has been high on the agenda for 18 consecutive years.
In my point of the view, the central document is practical. According to Tang Renjian, minister of agricultural and rural affairs, China will set a five-year transition period for counties that have shaken off poverty. Current poverty alleviation measures will remain in place during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (from 2021 to 2025) to stabilize and develop poverty alleviation outcomes. Despite the fact that absolute poverty was eradicated in China by the end of 2020, some people are still quite vulnerable, so early detection and intervention should be conducted to guard against the risk of some people once again falling under the poverty line.
On Thursday, a grand gathering was held in Beijing to mark the country's poverty alleviation and honor units and outstanding persons who have made key contributions to the process. Nevertheless, poverty eradication is not our final goal, but a starting point for new life and new endeavors. As China has removed the last remaining counties from the poverty list and secured a victory in its fight to eliminate absolute poverty in rural areas by the end of 2020, the country will surely shift the focus from poverty eradication to rural vitalization. To coordinate and facilitate the new task, the National Bureau of Rural Vitalization was set up in Beijing on Thursday.
Rural vitalization is an arduous and long-time task for China. It is crucial to the balanced development of China in the future. Thus, it should not and cannot be achieved in a hurried manner, but must be done with emphasis on quality instead of speed. According to China's timetable, the country will achieve all-round rural vitalization featuring strong agriculture, beautiful countryside and healthy farmers by the year of 2050.
To further strengthen the countryside economy, it is important to develop different strategies based on their unique geographical locations and regional resource advantages, rather than blindly copying the developmental model of cities and turning rural regions into big construction sites, which would result in a random pursuit of hot industries, repetitive construction and even destruction of natural landscapes. Different from cities, which mainly rely on enterprises of various forms for their GDP growth, rural areas are mainly dependent on the development of agriculture and agricultural products.
The central document emphasizes that China must retain a "red line" of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land. In 2021, the country will keep its sown areas stable, with the grain output to exceed 650 tons, further improve the quality of agricultural produces and food safety, and ensure that the growth of farmers' incomes outpaces that of urban residents.
It is reported that a farmer in Germany can feed up to 150 people, but the number of farmers in China greatly exceeds the number of urban residents. To promote agriculture modernization, China will strive to address issues regarding seeds, arable land and the development of modern agricultural technologies, as well as farming equipment. An influx of technologies, facilities and money is expected to be the solution to help rural people lead a better life. Due to historical and other reasons, the income gap between China's coastal areas in the south and east and poor areas in the west is very big. It is a good practice to have wealthy provinces and cities paired with poor counties, offering both financial and administrative assistance.
The lack of infrastructure is a major bottleneck for the development of poor regions. In addition to the construction of roads, clean toilets, garbage collection and sorting equipment, power and water supplies, more public facilities such as kindergartens, primary and middle schools, as well as cultural centers, medical service, social security and care centers for the aged, the handicapped and left-behind children should also be set up in poor areas.
(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)