China pushes rural revitalization strategy

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Since the 1980s, China has seen a lot of its population moving from rural areas to cities for better life, leading to an emptying out of the countryside.

To tackle unbalanced development, China is putting a lot of effort in revitalizing rural areas. The annual Central Economic Work Conference that ended a week ago listed rural revitalization as one of the key tasks for 2018.

Rural land ownership reform

In an attempt to efficiently use rural land and improve the well-being of rural residents, China initiated rural land ownership reform in 2014, giving farmers more opportunities to benefit from collective land in villages.

In the villages where the pilot program was carried out, each farmer owns a share in collective assets and receives returns each year.

Data from China’s Ministry of Agriculture showed that by the end of 2015, 26 billion yuan of returns had been distributed to farmers in pilot places.

At a meeting in Tianchang, in central China's Anhui Province, a major grain-producing region, Vice Agricultural Minister Ye Zhenqin said that a total of 300 counties will be covered by the pilot program, up from 129 at the moment, and that “the reform should be basically completed by the end of 2021.”

Diversified development paths

At the six day bi-monthly session, the standing committee of China’s top legislature -- the National People’s Congress adopted a revision of the Farmers’ Specialized Cooperatives Law in order to bolster agriculture and the rural economy.

The revision grants China's farmers' specialized cooperatives equal legal status with other market entities, as well as rights to invest in enterprises in accordance with the law.

Members of the cooperatives can invest non-monetary assets which can later be evaluated and transferred, such as their land management and forestry rights, according to the revision.

Since the law took effect in 2007, it played an important role in increasing rural incomes, promoting new agricultural management systems and boosting modern agriculture.

In addition to cooperatives, local governments have other multiple ways to spur the rural economy, including e-commerce, tourism and modern agriculture.

Official data showed that one in every four Chinese villages had e-commerce distribution sites at the end of 2016.

Also according to official data, by the end of 2016, 4.9 percent of Chinese villages started to tap their tourism potential, up 2.7 percentage points from 2006, and 51,000 rural businesses sold their farm produce through e-commerce platforms.

Move towards scale farming

According to results of the country's third national agricultural survey, which has been conducted every 10 years since 1996, 3.98 million Chinese households were engaged in scale farming by the end pf 2016.

Accompanying the growth of scale farming is the increasing use of machinery.

The survey showed that the number of combine harvesters in China reached 1.14 million, jumping 105.3 percent from a decade ago.

The survey also showed that there were 2.04 million agricultural businesses, more than five times the number seen a decade ago.

The number of farmers' cooperatives in China reached 910,000, accounting for 44.6 percent of all agricultural businesses.

(With inputs from Xinhua)