The Chinese government published its “No.1 Central Document” for 2024, which indicates the major focus for work for the new year, in early February. It is the central government’s 24th No.1 central document focusing on the issues of agriculture, farmers and rural areas.
The 2024 document pledges to further promote the overall revitalization of rural areas by guaranteeing national food security and preventing a large-scale return to extreme poverty, upgrading the development of rural industries, construction and governance, improving technological development and reforms, and increasing farmers’ incomes.
The document states objectives that can be achieved via a significant number of demonstration and pilot villages.
The document lays out practical measures to benefit farmers, including improvements to rural insurance, improving compensation schemes for major staple crop producing areas, increasing the area of high-quality farmland and ensuring that relocated rural populations have the same rights as urban residents.
Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs, said at a press conference that the government will concentrate more efforts in 2024 on policy and system innovations to tackle the key challenges of rural revitalization.