Urbanisation of rural areas can help secure China food security
- President Xi Jinping says farm-industry technology may consolidate the country’s emergence as a world agricultural power and narrow the urban-rural gap
Despite recent bumper harvests, food security remains an abiding concern for China’s leadership. Evidence of that is to be found in the first State Council policy document for the year.
As always with the No 1 document, it outlines policies and priorities for the rural sector. What sets it apart this year is that President Xi Jinping has emphasised that the rural economy and farm-industry technology lie at the forefront of China’s great modernisation, aimed at consolidating its emergence as a world agricultural power.
Whereas the focus over the past decade has been on urbanisation and elimination of extreme poverty, it is shifting to “urbanisation” of rural areas. That means narrowing technological and income gaps.
Agricultural modernisation goes beyond the need for balanced national development. It focuses on food security amid geopolitical uncertainties, such as the Ukraine war and disruption of commodity supply chains, and tension with the United States.
As a result, the “No 1 central document” pledges a “full effort” to ensure agricultural supplies, create rural jobs and deepen import diversification.
“The most arduous task [in building] a modern socialist country lies in rural areas,” the document says. “Unpredictable factors are increasing. It is vital to maintain the fundamentals of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. We cannot afford to fail.”