Full text: Report on China's economic, social development plan (12)

5. Improving the foundation of agriculture

Our support for major development tasks will not be perfunctory; we will ensure that the investment momentum in agriculture and rural areas does not diminish, and that total investment continues to increase. In 2016, total grain output will stand at over 550 million metric tons.

1) We will guarantee food security in China. We will hold provincial governors responsible for food security across the board and improve the mechanism under which the central and local authorities work together to ensure food security. In order to ensure that grain production, cultivated land acreage, and production capacity all remain stable, we will make explorations into establishing functional zones for grain production and protective areas for the production of major agricultural products. We will guarantee grain production in major grain-producing areas, especially in the core areas for grain production. We will complete our work on designating and providing protection for permanent basic cropland nationwide, and will strengthen the development of high-quality farmland, major agricultural product-producing centers, national seed cultivation and production centers and regional centers for cultivating superior crop varieties, and grain storage and logistics. Actions will be taken to protect and improve the quality of cultivated land. The subsidy for purchasing superior crop varieties, the direct subsidy for grain growers, and general subsidies for purchasing agricultural supplies will all be integrated into a single agricultural subsidy. Improvements will be made to the mechanism for subsidizing major grain- and hog-producing counties as well as other major agricultural production areas. We will improve the price-setting mechanism for grain and other important agricultural products as well as the system for their purchase and storage. We will develop the grain industry, and expand the coverage of policy-based agricultural insurance to ensure better protection against agricultural risks.

2) We will promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas. We will coordinate the production of food, cash, and feed crops and the development of the farming, forestry, livestock, and fishing industries, and promote integrated planting, breeding, and processing operations; at the same time, we will nurture new types of agribusiness and fully engage the multiple functions of agriculture. Pilot demonstration projects for rural industrial integration will be carried out in about 100 counties, 1,000 townships and 100,000 villages. We will improve the mechanism for integrating farmers' interests into agricultural industry chains so that farmers can receive more benefits as rural industrial integration produces more value. The branding of agricultural products will be improved by making the agricultural industry chain more procedure-based and brand-development focused and by tightening production management, product certification, and post-certification supervision. We will improve the modern distribution system for agricultural products and supplies as well as cold-chain logistics networks for agricultural products. We will ensure the online marketing and offline distribution of agricultural products are integrated. We will deepen reform of the rural collective property rights system as well as reform of state farms on reclaimed land, collective forest tenure, state forestry farms, farmland irrigation and water conservancy, and rural supply and marketing cooperatives.

3) We will promote the sustainable development of agriculture. We will see to it that farmers move more quickly to adjust what and how much they grow or breed, particularly in relation to corn. We will formulate and implement a plan to let cropland and grassland lie fallow and to impose a moratorium on fishing in certain rivers and lakes. We will extend to more areas the trials for comprehensively dealing with pollution from non-point agricultural sources and for utilizing and conserving chernozem soil in the northeast. We will also launch trials to address the overdevelopment of surface water and step up efforts to deal with the heavy-metal pollution of cultivated land and the over-extraction of groundwater. We will establish pilot demonstration zones for sustainable agricultural development.

4) We will make further progress in building a new socialist countryside. We will make innovations in the investment and financing systems and mechanisms for rural infrastructure. We will continue to improve the power supply, water supply, transportation, and communications facilities in rural areas and the comprehensive water conservancy and meteorological systems for preventing and mitigating disasters. We will launch a project to consolidate and build on the achievements made in ensuring safe drinking water in rural areas, and we will improve the living environment for rural residents and promote the recycling and safe disposal of agricultural waste. We will prioritize the development of social programs in rural areas and in cities and towns where a relatively large number of people from rural areas take up employment and become urban residents. We will promote the coordinated development of the New Urbanization and the building of a new countryside.

6. Promoting coordinated and integrated development between regions and between urban and rural areas

In pursuing coordinated development, we will promote coordination between regions and integration between urban and rural areas. We will foster synergy between the Three Initiatives (the Belt and Road Initiative, the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt) and the coordinated development of the western, northeastern, central, and eastern regions to form a new pattern of regional development that gives play to the leading role of core areas and makes it possible for different regions to work together.

1) We will focus on implementing the Three Initiatives. We will coordinate work to advance the Belt and Road Initiative. We will fully implement the plan for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, research and implement policies and measures related to controlling the number of new projects launched and effectively carrying out existing ones, launch projects to relieve Beijing of functions nonessential to its role as China' s capital, continue to support the three major areas-integrated transportation, ecological conservation and environmental protection, and industrial upgrading and relocation-in making initial breakthroughs, strengthen the trials and demonstration projects for innovation-driven development, and accelerate the establishment of the systems and mechanisms for coordinated development. In order to focus on ecological conservation and pursue green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, we will give top priority to restoring the ecological environment in the Yangtze River valley, while pressing ahead with the effort to develop a green, ecological corridor, a high-level integrated multidimensional transportation corridor, and a modern industrial corridor; and we will also encourage city clusters in the Yangtze River Delta, along the middle reaches of the Yangtze, and in the Chengdu-Chongqing region to lead the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. (mo