Xi urges deepening rural reform, building up strength in agriculture

BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged further deepening rural reform and making solid advances toward the goal of building up China's strength in agriculture.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) 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 was learned at the annual central rural work conference held in Beijing from Tuesday to Wednesday.

It is imperative to improve supporting systems to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich rural areas, and to advance rural revitalization across the board, Xi said.

Efforts should be made to ensure stable production and supply of grain and other major agricultural products, create more channels for farmers to increase incomes, continuously consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, and ensure that no large-scale lapsing or relapsing into poverty occurs, Xi said.

He also called for solid efforts to promote rural development initiatives and turn the countryside into a beautiful and harmonious place for people to live and work in.

He stressed that Party committees and governments at all levels must prioritize the development of agriculture and rural areas, accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, further consolidate the country's agricultural foundation, bring greater prosperity to rural areas and farmers, and steadily advance toward the goal of building up China's strength in agriculture.

Xi's instructions were conveyed and studied at the conference.

The conference also discussed the draft opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on further deepening rural reform and steadily promoting all-around rural revitalization.

The conference emphasized the need to concentrate efforts on achieving a number of tangible results, and to spare no effort in raising agricultural efficiency, injecting vitality in rural areas, and increasing farmers' incomes.

Solid work should be done to resolutely shoulder the responsibility of ensuring national food security, continually enhance the supply capacity of important agricultural products such as grain, and develop new quality productive forces in agriculture according to local conditions, it said.

The conference called for pursuing coordinated progress in new urbanization and all-around rural revitalization.

It also urged efforts to comprehensively implement the task of further deepening rural reform, and move forward with well-organized trials to extend rural land contracts by another 30 years upon the expiration of the second-round contracts.