By Xiao Junyan, Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC

Research Report, No.227, 2020 (Total 5971) 2020-9-21

Abstract: After the decisive progress made in the fight against poverty, the task for China’s poverty elimination in rural areas has shifted from solving absolute poverty to addressing relative one. It is estimated that there will still be a large number of population living on the brink of poverty. Hence, efforts to prevent farmers from returning to poverty need to focus on the following aspects. 1. The existing resources need to be integrated and coordinated to enhance the effective utilization and we need to give full play to the role of national and social assistance departments. Current information networks and channels need to be utilized to establish a monitoring system to prevent farmers from sinking back into poverty. 2. We need to encourage various social sectors to provide assistance tailored to the situation to ensure that all the poor could receive proper help. 3. The development capability of areas in extreme poverty needs to be continuously promoted with further targeted policy measures and stronger support in line with the formation of the 14th Five-Year Plan at both provincial and national levels. 4. Government-led financial guarantee needs to be strengthened and specialized fiscal capital and preferential loans projects need to be set up. 5. The roles of government, market and society need to be brought into better play to encourage social force to help and support deeply impoverished areas. And the government can use the market as a leverage to improve its efficiency in a bid to further streamline government administration, offer best services to the people and strengthen social supervision.

Keywords: mechanism to prevent farmers from returning to poverty, policy options, reflections