Xi stresses advancing rural areas' vitalization

President Xi Jinping has called for advancing all-around rural vitalization and accelerating agricultural and rural modernization in 2026, the first year of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, highlighting food security, farmers' incomes and integrated urban-rural development.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in his instructions on work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, which were conveyed at the annual central rural work conference held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday.

The year 2026 marks a starting point for the new five-year plan and solid progress on rural work is vital, Xi said.

The meeting reviewed challenges facing China's agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and set priorities for the year ahead.

China should anchor its efforts on agricultural and rural modernization, advance comprehensive rural vitalization and promote integrated urban-rural development, Xi said.

He called for unwavering efforts on ensuring grain production, urging coordinated improvements in farmland, seed varieties, machinery and farming practices to boost overall productivity and quality.

Policies that strengthen agriculture, benefit rural areas and enrich farmers should be made more effective. Prices of grains and other key agricultural products should be kept at reasonable levels to ensure steady income growth for rural residents, he added.

Xi also emphasized consolidating and expanding achievements in poverty alleviation, integrating regular assistance into the rural vitalization strategy and preventing rural residents from lapsing or relapsing into poverty on a large scale.

He called for drawing on the experience of the Green Rural Revival Program, a long-running initiative focused on improving rural living environments, and adopting region-specific measures to build a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in.

Xi stressed that local authorities should prioritize rural issues, build agriculture into a major modernized industry, basically ensure modern standards of living in rural areas and deliver a more prosperous life for farmers.

A draft version of the guidelines of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, on anchoring agricultural and rural modernization and advancing all-around rural vitalization was discussed at the rural work conference.

The meeting's participants said that agricultural and rural modernization is central to China's broader modernization drive and pledged to speed up the building of an agricultural powerhouse.

Priorities include stabilizing grain and edible oil output, advancing a new round of initiatives to raise grain production capacity, and improving crop varieties and quality, the participants said.

Cheng Guoqiang, director of the school of national food security strategy at Renmin University of China, said the conference sent a clear signal on boosting food security and overall agricultural production capacity.

Building on years of consistently high grain output, the decision to step up a new round of efforts to raise grain production capacity by 50 million metric tons shows that the focus is shifting from maintaining grain output levels to enhancing production capacity and improving quality, Cheng said.

"Efforts should be made to strictly protect arable land and advance high-standard farmland construction," he said.

It is crucial to strengthen water conservancy projects, enhance meteorological monitoring and early warning systems, and improve disaster prevention and mitigation for agriculture, he added.

Greater emphasis will be placed on breakthroughs in key agricultural technologies and faster application of scientific results, while fostering new quality productive forces in agriculture suited to local conditions, officials said during the conference.

"The key of building an agricultural powerhouse has shifted from reliance on traditional input to a model powered by innovations of frontier technologies such as biotechnology, smart agriculture and high-end intelligent equipment," Cheng said, adding that the shift aims to fundamentally reshape agricultural production and enhance competitiveness.

Officials also called for promoting stable income growth for farmers. "The focus of the policy is improving income protection for grain growers, along with price support, subsidies and insurance to help ensure stable and sustainable returns for those who produce grains," Cheng said.

This year, enterprises across China purchased about 415 million tons of grains. The grain market operated smoothly over the year, with prices generally stabilizing and trending upward, according to the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration.

Liu Huanxin, head of the administration, said that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the administration will continue to strengthen oversight of grain purchasing, sales and reserves.

It will firmly safeguard the bottom line that farmers are able to sell the grains they produce, while keeping grain prices within a reasonable range, he said recently at the administration's annual work conference.

zhaoyimeng@chinadaily.com.cn