The government will allow farmers to sell their land use rights in various forms and moderately develop the scale operation of scattered plots of land that would spur the growth of fixed assets investment in rural areas. We estimate the volume of rural fixed assets investment would hit 6 trillion yuan ($882 billion), approximately three fold the volume in 2007 and equal to the volume of fixed assets investment in cities and towns in 2004.

New rules on the circulation of rural land use rights and reforms on agricultural product-pricing mechanism, as proposed at the session, will be conducive to increasing farmers’ incomes, hence to boost consumption, expand domestic demand, reduce the Engel index of rural households and promote consumption upgrading in the countryside.

Six targets

The basic targets for rural reform and development by 2020 are: improving the system of rural economy and establishing a mechanism to integrate urban and rural areas in terms of economic growth and social development; making notable achievements in developing modern agriculture, enhancing comprehensive agricultural productivity by a large margin and ensuring effective guarantees for national grain security and the supply of major agricultural products; doubling the per-capita net income of rural residents by 2020 from the 2008 level, boosting rural residents’ consumption levels, and basically eliminating absolute poverty in rural areas; further improving grass-roots democracy in the countryside and improving village self-governance systems to provide substantial guarantees for farmers’ rights; offering equal access to basic public services for both rural and urban areas, promoting rural cultural development, guaranteeing the basic cultural interests of farmers, providing equal education opportunities for all rural residents, improving basic living allowance, medicare and social administration systems in rural areas; and building up a resource-economical and eco-friendly agricultural production system, and making notable improvements in the living conditions and environments in rural areas to strengthen their capacity for sustainable development.

Dual development

Yu Jianrong (Director of the Social Issues Research Center at the Rural Development Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): A strong message of the communiqu is planning urban and rural development as a whole and forming a new pattern of integrated social and economic development in rural and urban areas. The annual per-capita net income of Chinese farmers was a little more than 4,100 yuan ($603) last year, but the income ratio between urban and rural residents stood at 3.33:1, according to official statistics released this August, which made the proposal to integrate urban and rural development profoundly significant.

Cao Jinqing (professor of sociology at East China University of Science and Technology): Urban-rural integration needs two preconditions. One is annulling the current household registration system and adopting a much looser workplace or home-based registration policy. The other is providing equal social security schemes for pension, unemployment assistance and medicare to the entire population. The two issues will encounter a series of problems, because the differences between all large cities cannot be easily eradicated. That’s why we say urban-rural economic integration is a “long and arduous” endeavor.

Grain security

Xie Gang (agricultural analyst at Sinolink Securities Co. Ltd.): Grain security is vital to a country’s major strategies. China’s grain production in the past three decades has been sufficient to meet domestic demand and even exports to other countries. But, the country’s grain production has witnessed no obvious per-unit growth since 1998. Besides, the coverage of cultivated land has shrunk, and many farmers have given up farming and left their hometowns to work in cities in hopes of increasing their incomes. All these factors threaten the country’s grain security.

It’s foreseeable that the Central Government will enhance budget support for the agricultural sector in order to increase grain production and ensure national grain security in the coming years.

Net income

Lu Xueyi (professor and senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): To double farmers’ per-capita net income by 2020 from the 2008 level means an average annual increase of at least 6 percent in the coming 12 years. It’s a tough task for many backward and remote areas in China.

An income increase for farmers will help to boost domestic demand. At present, 40 percent of China’s population has sufficient purchasing power. The most important factors underlying the dilemma include a low disposable income level in rural areas, incomplete social security schemes for the rural population and a lack of equal access to public services. All these have contributed to little increase in farmers’ savings and stagnant consumption in the countryside.

The communiqu discusses how to boost substantial income increases for farmers and promote economic growth in rural areas. It makes it clear that the government will speed up rural development not only to ensure a stable grain supply, but also, and more importantly, to increase steady income growth for farmers and expand domestic consumption by enhancing the purchasing power of farmers, who account for the largest portion of the country’s population anyway.

Political rights

Cao Jinqing (professor of sociology at East China University of Science and Technology): By enhancing grass-roots democracy, the communiqu refers to standardizing and reinforcing the functions of village committees in practicing grass-roots democracy. It contains two aspects. First, it allows villagers to directly elect not only village leaders but also township leaders. In doing this, the scattered interests of farmers will find a more concentrated expression in the people’s congress at the township level. Second, despite that direct elections are a reality in most villages, it’s hard to promote democratic management,