MK sport 2024 shows a harvester working in a paddy field in Xidoujiazhuang Village of Baichigan Town in Zhuozhou City, North China's Hebei Province. Photo: Xinhua" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2024/2024-12-18/17918a24-44a7-422d-a51a-952ff5efa556.jpeg" />

An aerial drone photo taken on November 6, 2024 shows a harvester working in a paddy field in Xidoujiazhuang Village of Baichigan Town in Zhuozhou City, North China's Hebei Province. Photo: Xinhua

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, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

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. 

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.

"The conference has set the tone for the country's rural work in 2025 by clarifying the target and path," Li Guoxiang, a researcher from the Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

This year's annual central rural work conference is highly instructive, especially in practical operation, Wang Gangyi, a professor at Northeast Agricultural University, said on Wednesday, adding that the meeting highlighted the importance of ensuring food security, which was carefully divided into several key dimensions such as production, pricing and trade system, as well as disaster prevention and mitigation.

Li noted that as China's grain harvest in 2024 hit a new record high, the country will continue to enhance production and supply of grain and other major agricultural products by stabilizing the planting area of grain and raising the yields of grain and oil crops.

Moreover, developing new quality productive forces in agriculture according to local conditions will promote the use of digital technology to drive the green development of agriculture and improve the sector's quality, efficiency and competitiveness, Li noted.

Increasing farmers' incomes and advancing rural revitalization are also highlighted in the country's rural work next year, Li said. The meeting will inject more confidence into the farmers, and efforts including moving forward with well-organized trials to extend rural land contracts by another 30 years upon the expiration of the second-round contracts also show the path to deepening rural reform and work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, he added.

"All efforts mentioned during the conference will promote the solid, deep and steady advancement of rural revitalization, thus contributing to the entire national economy," Li said.

In 2024, China has secured another bumper harvest despite natural disasters, with substantial strides in improving the rural environment and well-being. China's 2024 grain output hit a record high of 706.5 million tons, an increase of 1.6 percent from the output last year. This year also marks the first time that the country registered a grain harvest of over 700 million tons, according to Xinhua.