Zhejiang has just rolled out a major plan of supporting the revitalization of 26 mountainous counties and accelerating the common prosperity of farmers and rural areas in order to further narrow the gaps between regions, urban and rural areas as well as incomes. 

The officially released document entitled "Opinions of the Office of the Leading Group for Rural Work of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee on Supporting the Rural revitalization of 26 Mountainous Counties and Accelerating the Common Prosperity of Farmers and Rural areas" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions") was recently issued by Zhejiang Provincial Agricultural Affairs Office. 

According to the policy, Zhejiang will establish a rural revitalization support mechanism for the 26 counties in the mountainous area, with a policy package of "10 common policies and a list of individual guidelines", to further accelerate the layout of its resolution of "common prosperity" among farmers and rural areas. As scheduled, by 2025, 30 agricultural industry chains with an output value of more than 1 billion yuan will be built in 26 mountainous counties. 300 modern villages with Chinese characteristics will be built up, and the average annual growth rate of the rural collective economy will be 3 percentage points higher than the provincial average.

A bird-view of a local village cluster in Zhejiang (Photo/Zhejiang News)

Strengthen the integrated agricultural industry chains

The industry is the foundation for comprehensive rural revitalization. The Opinions has proposed to support 26 mountainous counties to cultivate leading industries with their own characteristics and advantages, introduce and cultivate a group of agricultural leading enterprises above the provincial level to lead the development of the integrated agricultural industrial chain, and build at least one landmark integrated agricultural industrial chain with a single output value of more than 1 billion yuan in each county.

"At present, there are about 80 integrated agricultural industry chains with an output value of more than 1 billion yuan in Zhejiang, with a total output value of about 160 billion yuan, among which the output value of the agricultural integrated industry chain involves 26 mountainous counties is about 60 billion yuan." said staff from the information office of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Zhejiang Province. 

Open data shows that by 2021, a total of 140 provincial-level agricultural leading enterprises and more than 5,000 agricultural makers have been cultivated in 26 mountainous counties; with a total agricultural output value of over 35.842 billion yuan. In 2021, 26 mountainous counties will build national modern agricultural industrial parks and provincial modern agricultural parks, accounting for two-thirds and two-fifths of the total of the province respectively. A total of 28 modern agricultural parks have been built, covering an area of more than 2.71 million mu, with a total investment of more than 14 billion yuan. The per mu output is 29% higher than the surrounding area.

Activate the internal driving force in rural areas

In terms of narrowing the income gap, the Opinions specify for the first time that by 2025, the per capita disposable income of farmers in 26 mountainous counties will reach 37,000 yuan, while that of low-income households will reach 13,000 yuan.

Statistics show that in 2021, the increase rate of farmers' income, low-income farmers' income and rural collective economic income in 26 mountainous counties was 0.7, 0.8 and 1 percentage point higher than the provincial average, respectively. 

What's the next step in improving the development of the 26 mountainous counties? 

To make the "pie" bigger, the integrated reform of strengthening villages and enriching the people with the collective economy as the core is an important starting point. 

The Opinions put forward to highlight the market-oriented management of the rural collective economy. Take Qiangcun Company as an example, by 2025, the 26 administrative villages in mountainous areas should achieve an average investment income of more than 80,000 yuan.

"We have calculated that last year, the administrative villages of 26 mountainous counties invested in Qiangcun company with an investment income of about 50,000 yuan." Staff in charge of the policy reform department of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Areas said, "in order to further enhance the market competitiveness and comprehensive profitability of strong village companies, Zhejiang will encourage the mechanism of "state-owned enterprises plus village collective" to improve the integration of rural resources and the ability of transformation in rural areas. 

It is also an important point to increase the income of low-income rural households in 26 mountainous counties. The Opinions further iterated and upgraded the assistance mechanism for low-income farmers, proposing for the first time a "seven-one" assistance model of "1 low-income farmer plus 1 assisting cadre, 1 main assistance measure, 1 training program, 1 employed person, 1 medical supplementary insurance, and 1 list of well-beings and happiness".

According to Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs rural, at the household level, Zhejiang will also establish major projects to improve employment mechanisms, development of rural public welfare vacancies, and find various ways to promote low-income farmers to continue to increase their incomes; At the village level, Zhejiang will strengthen support for key villages in rural revitalization, and thoroughly implement the integrated support of "1 village plus 1 tutoring group in the village, 1 village-level development scenario, 1 featured leading industry, 1 property economic project, 1 village construction plan, and 1 village-level governance mechanism".

Author: Zhu Mei

Correspondent: Qiu Yunfeng

Translator and Editor: Ye Ke