For China to be strong, agriculture must be strong; for China to be beautiful, the countryside must be beautiful; for China to be rich, farmers must be rich. In the past ten years, Jiangsu has increased policy support, strengthened work promotion measures, and focused on maintaining the bottom line, making up for shortcomings, and promoting advantages. The implementation of the province’s rural revitalization strategy has achieved phased results. In the past 10 years, the total output value of Jiangsu’s agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery has increased from 520 billion yuan to more than 800 billion yuan, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents has increased from 12,000 yuan to 26,800 yuan, an increase of 123%.
On the morning of June 27, a special press conference on rural revitalization was held in Nanjing for the theme release activities of “Forge ahead in a new Jiangsu and make contributions to a new era”, reviewing and summarizing the achievements of the province’s implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, and jointly looking forward to the future development of rural areas.
In the past ten years, Jiangsu has strengthened the Party’s overall leadership over the work of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” and played the role of a battle fortress.
One is to improve the organizational leadership system. Fifth-level secretaries focus on rural revitalization and establish a system of contact points for rural revitalization. Comprehensively adjust and enrich the rural work leading groups of provincial, municipal and county party committees, and strengthen the leadership of party committees at all levels over rural work.
The second is to systematically plan key work measures. It has successively issued the implementation opinions of the provincial party committee and the provincial government on the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, the implementation plan of the rural revitalization strategy of Jiangsu Province (2018-2022), and the “14th Five-Year Plan” of Jiangsu Province to comprehensively promote rural revitalization and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Implement the “mission book” and “roadmap” for rural revitalization. The provincial party committee and the provincial government hold a rural work conference every year, and issue the No. 1 document to arrange and deploy key agricultural and rural tasks.
The third is to set up special classes for key work. For key tasks of rural revitalization, such as rural development, rural construction, and rural governance, a joint meeting system and special work classes will be established to promote mechanisms.
Fourth, establish an efficient operation mechanism. Establish a system of division of labor for key tasks, a monthly work plan submission mechanism, and an inspection and assessment mechanism, and schedule the progress of key work on a quarterly basis. For three consecutive years, the implementation of the special supervision and performance appraisal of rural revitalization has been carried out. A provincial rural revitalization commendation system was established, and 65 advanced rural revitalization collectives and more than 200 advanced individuals were selected and commended.
In the past ten years, Jiangsu has continuously improved the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of agriculture, and the reform of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” has continued to be at the forefront of the country.
First, firmly adhere to the bottom line of stable production and supply of important agricultural products such as grain. Implementing the same responsibility of the party and government for food security, tightening the “rice bag” governor responsibility system and the “vegetable basket” mayor responsibility system, issuing opinions on the implementation of important agricultural product security strategies, etc., to firmly secure the jobs of more than 85 million people in our province in their own hands. In 2021, the province’s grain output will reach 74.92 billion catties, a record high. This year’s summer grain harvest has been bumper again, showing a good situation of “four increases” in area, unit yield, total output and benefit.
The second is to vigorously promote the integrated development of rural industries. Promote the cluster development of advantageous and characteristic industrial clusters, actively build 8 advantageous characteristic industries of 100 billion yuan, 185 county-level industries of more than 1 billion yuan in the province, 64 national industrially strong towns, and 186 “one village, one product” demonstration villages and towns. Vigorously develop new industries and new formats, and innovatively carry out a series of rural leisure tourism agriculture promotion activities such as “Su Yunxiangqing”. In 2021, the province’s comprehensive income from leisure agriculture will reach 90.2 billion yuan.
The third is to focus on strengthening agricultural material equipment and technical support. More than 3 million mu of high-standard farmland is newly built every year, and it has been commended and encouraged by the State Council twice. The provincial agricultural and rural big data cloud platform has been built, the contribution rate of agricultural science and technology progress has reached 70.9%, the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting has reached 83%, and the development level of digital agriculture and rural areas has reached 66.5%.
The fourth is to accelerate the green development of agriculture. Take the lead in the country to carry out the pilot crop rotation and fallow, and build 16 ministerial-level green planting and breeding circular agriculture pilot counties. Promoting the prohibition and withdrawal of arrests in the Yangtze River at a high level, and fully completing the task of withdrawing arrests. In the comprehensive assessment organized by the state, our province was awarded the “Excellent” grade.
The fifth is to cultivate and expand new agricultural business entities and service entities. The number of family farms and farmers’ cooperatives reached nearly 170,000 and 85,000 respectively. There are 907 leading agricultural enterprises at or above the provincial level, including 99 at the national level.
In the past ten years, the appearance of Jiangsu villages has undergone tremendous changes, which are not only livable and workable, but also more beautiful.
The first is to highlight the leadership of rural planning. Carry out the “Co-painting of Suzhou Township” planners going to the countryside to guide the preparation of practical village plans.
The second is to continuously improve the housing conditions of farmers. Synchronize supporting industries, infrastructure and public services, and fully complete the task of improving 300,000 rural houses in northern Jiangsu in three years.
The third is to improve the rural living environment. In-depth implementation and successful completion of the three-year action to improve the rural living environment, and a new round of rural living environment improvement and improvement actions were launched.
The fourth is to carry out the construction of characteristic pastoral villages in depth. From pilot demonstration to pilot deepening and general creation, 446 rural villages with provincial characteristics have been built.
The fifth is to promote the interconnection of urban and rural infrastructure. The household rate of water supply in rural areas of the province has reached more than 99%, and the two-lane four-level highway in administrative villages and the 4G network in rural areas have achieved full coverage. It is the first in the country to achieve full provincial coverage of “express delivery into villages”.
In the past ten years, Jiangsu has worked hard to make farmers and citizens no longer have obvious identity boundaries, and make the quality of life between urban and rural areas no longer have obvious gaps.
The first is to carry out the action of enriching the people and strengthening the village. Promulgated the “Implementation Opinions on Carrying Out the Action of Enriching the People and Strengthening the Village to Continue to Promote the Comprehensive Revitalization of the Village”, coordinated and promoted the introduction of connecting policies by various departments, and formed a 1+29 assistance and promotion policy system.
The second is to take multiple measures to increase farmers’ income. In 2021, the income of farmers in the province will reach 26,800 yuan, and the growth rate will be faster than that of urban residents for many years. The urban-rural income ratio will shrink to 2.16:1, making it one of the provinces with the smallest urban-rural income gap in the country. The average collective operating income of villages in the province exceeded 2 million yuan.
The third is to continuously improve the level of basic public services. Over 90% of compulsory education schools meet the standards higher than the national provincial school-running requirements, and the compulsory education consolidation rate is 100%. Basically, there will be 1 public health center in each organic township and 1 village clinic in each administrative village. The minimum standard of basic pension for urban and rural residents has been increased by 11 consecutive years, reaching 187 yuan per month. The minimum standard of medical insurance financial subsidies for urban and rural residents has been raised to 640 yuan per person per year. Realize the integration of urban and rural subsistence allowance standards with districts and cities as units.
The fourth is to explore the construction of a new rural governance system. Establish a “1+4+1” rural governance system with the leadership of party building, the integration of self-governance, rule of law, morality, and wisdom, and the full development of the village-level collective economy. Six towns including Xuejia Town in Xinbei District and 60 villages including Qingshan Village in Yongning Street in Pukou District were selected as national demonstration towns and villages for rural governance, ranking first in the country. Three cases including the implementation of “three determinations, four specializations and five modernizations” in Suyu District were selected as typical cases of national rural governance, and two cases, including Changshu’s “small line poles” to solve major problems, were selected as typical cases of national rural public services. The New Era Civilization Practice Center has achieved full coverage at the county, township and village levels.
In the past ten years, Jiangsu has researched and introduced a series of policy measures to promote the flow of resource elements to rural areas and inject vitality into rural revitalization.
First, improve the policy support system. Major policy documents and plans such as the No. 1 Document of the Provincial Party Committee, the implementation of the responsibility system for food security, policies and measures to increase the proportion of land transfer income used in agriculture and rural areas, and the “14th Five-Year Plan” agricultural and rural modernization plan, focusing on high-quality development of rural industries, etc. A series of powerful policies and measures were introduced for key tasks, and 16 fiscal and financial support for agriculture were introduced, and the “four beams and eight pillars” of rural revitalization were basically formed.
The second is to strengthen the guarantee of resource elements. Focus on the key links of “education, introduction, use, and retention”, and innovate policies and measures such as “targeted post setting, targeted evaluation, and targeted use” for grassroots specialized technical personnel. It is clear that cities and counties will separately list no less than 5% of the new construction land plan to support the integrated development of rural industries, and formulate detailed rules for the implementation of policies to ensure and standardize the use of land for industrial integrated development. The whole province promotes the cultivation of high-quality farmers, cultivating 150,000 farmers every year. For five consecutive years, it has hosted the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference for New Farmers and New Business Formats.
The third is to promote the pilot demonstration of agricultural and rural modernization. Signed the country’s first cooperation framework agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs with the theme of taking the lead in realizing the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Take the lead in carrying out the research on the provincial agricultural and rural modernization evaluation system in the country. Solidly promote the construction of 4 national agricultural modernization demonstration zones and 13 provincial agricultural modernization pilot zones.
Fourth, solidly promote rural reform. We will deepen the reform of “separation of three rights” in rural land, and complete the province-wide pilot task of reforming the rural collective property rights system. Six counties (cities, districts) including Kunshan were selected as pilot projects for the reform of the rural homestead system nationwide. A number of innovative achievements, such as the pilot of rice income insurance, the standardization of the rural property rights market, and the government’s purchase of public welfare services, have been promoted on the surface.
At present, the focus of the “three rural” work has historically shifted to comprehensively promoting rural revitalization. In the next step, Jiangsu will speed up its efforts to ensure stable production and supply of grain and important agricultural products, comprehensively improve the development level of rural industries, solidly promote rural construction actions, strengthen innovation in rural governance paths, promote enrichment and income growth, continue to deepen rural reforms, and build pilot demonstration models. We will work hard to build a land of fish and rice in the new era with strong agriculture, beautiful countryside and rich farmers.
