The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have issued five "No.1 documents" since 2004, which constitute the framework of China's new policies towards agriculture, farmers and countryside development at the new stage of building a well-off society in an all-round way. Chen Xiwen, Deputy Director of the Office of Central Financial Work Leading Group and Director of the Office of Central Rural Work Leading Group, shared his views with Beijing Review and other reporters from China International Publishing Group on the country's agriculture, farmers and countryside development, and changes in China's rural areas due to the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy over the past 30 years.

Consolidating the fundamental role of agriculture in economic growth is among the eight major economic tasks put forward at the annual Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2007. There are at least three reasons to justify the importance of strengthening agriculture's position as the foundation of the economy.

First, agriculture remains the weakest link in the national economy. It's true that the proportion of agriculture in GDP drops following the development of industry and the urban economy in any country. But in China, with a large agricultural population (about 55 percent of the nation's total according to National Bureau of Statistics), agriculture contributes only 11 percent to the GDP. Besides, agriculture is subject to natural disasters and market fluctuations, farmers' income is low, and infrastructure, technology and equipment in the countryside are backward.

Secondly, the government and the whole society should share the responsibility of developing agriculture in order to increase farmers' income, and ensure the supply of labor and agricultural products.

Thirdly, despite the fact that local governments at all levels are increasing investments in agriculture and reducing the tax burden on farmers, the key to inspiring and mobilizing farmers is to further reform the economic system in the countryside.

In the past three decades, reform in rural areas can be divided into three phases.

In the first phase, from 1978 to late 1980s, reform was carried out within villages to implement the household contract responsibility system that allows farmers freedom in planning production according to demands from the market and choosing jobs they want to take. The reform invigorated farmers and gave great impetus to the development of agriculture and the rural economy.

Rural reform in the second phase focused on the agricultural products distribution system to ensure market-based resource allocation. It's a basic feature of the market economy that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation.

The focus of reform in the third phase is an overall planning of the country to balance urban and rural economic and social development as proposed by former general secretary of the CPC Central Committee Jiang Zemin in his report to the 16th CPC National Congress in 2002.

The most important task at this stage is to break up the urban-rural dual structure and establish a new system for balanced social and economic development in rural and urban areas.

The Chinese people have attained great achievements in the past three decades. In the first phase, the government managed to provide the people with adequate food and clothing. For example, the grain production in China increased from 300 billion kg in 1978 to 501.5 billion kg in 2007, up more than 60 percent in 30 years. It's safe to claim that it's a great achievement few countries in the world could accomplish.

Another achievement is that farmers' per-capital net income increased remarkably, from 134 yuan ($19) in 1978 to 4,140 yuan ($591) last year. The number of farmers without adequate food and clothing shrank from 250 million before reform and opening up to less than 15 million at the end of 2007.

Furthermore, a system that guarantees a minimum standard of living has been set up nationwide in the countryside. The system covered 34 million farmers by the end of 2007.

However, the urban-rural income gap in China keeps widening. The average net income of farmers is about one third of that of city residents. Therefore, rural reform to promote development and narrow the urban-rural gap still remains to be an arduous task.

The Central Government has clearly put forward two requirements to fulfill the task after the 16th CPC National Congress.

The first is to shift the focus of state-level projects of infrastructure construction to rural areas. There are more than 34,000 townships and 640,000 villages in China now. It is not difficult to connect every township by concrete roads. Thanks to the government's investment in rural areas in recent years, farmers in 85 percent of villages have access to bus services.

The government has input a total of 200 billion yuan ($28.6 billion) to improve power grid in rural areas since 1998, and for farmers in remote areas the government has funded small water conservancy projects or made use of solar and wind energy to generate electricity.

The second is to improve farmers' housing conditions. Thatched huts have all replaced by tile-roofed houses. Some farmers are even living in two or three-storey buildings.

Meanwhile, basic public services in rural areas, including the nine-year compulsory education system and the rural cooperative medical care system have also been improved.

Nine-year compulsory education covered 148 million children of school age in rural areas in 2007. The government has taken a further move to exempt 150 million children from textbook fees, and subsidize 7-8 million children in boarding schools since last September. This courageous move was unimaginable decades ago.

The new rural cooperative medical care system benefits 700 million farmers. The Central Government decided to increase the annual medical subsidy to every farmer this year--from 20 yuan ($3) to 40 yuan ($5.7). Together with 40 yuan ($5.7) from the local government and 20 yuan ($3) from the farmer, this totals 100 yuan ($14) in a medical care account every year.

Despite these steps forward China lags behind developed countries in agriculture in many aspects.

First, the majority of farmers in China have a wrong notion about the use of agricultural chemical products. They think the more fertilizers, the better their products are. China currently tops other countries in terms of the total volume of urea-based fertilizer used. In many other countries, the per-unit usage of fertilizer is controlled at a reasonable dosage for the sake of not only cost, but also environmental protection.

Second, despite the fact that the government has established a complete system of agricultural research and technology promotion, academic research in agricultural science has failed to meet the real needs of farmers or transfer into applicable technology.

The third problem is farmers' education. Farmers in China receive only eight years' education on average and only 0.2 percent of them have received junior college degrees or above. This has greatly affected the productivity of agriculture and demands more efforts from the government to promote technology-oriented modern agriculture.

It's a tough job to promote agricultural modernization in China. We need to apply more technological achievements to agricultural production and ensure sustainable development, and at the same time stick to the nine-year compulsory education system and improve the average education of farmers. If we catch up with developed countries in these aspects, the gap we have today will indicate huge potential in China to develop agriculture in the future.