2. We will consolidate and develop our achievements in agriculture and rural areas, ensure an effective supply of farm products and help bring about a steady increase in rural incomes.
Conscientiously following the guiding principles set out at the Third Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC Central Committee, we will ensure that our work relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers continues to be a top priority, and we will increase rural incomes and shore up the agricultural foundation as an important means of expanding domestic demand.
1) We will increase investment. We will greatly increase government investment in rural infrastructure and social programs, considerably increase the proportion of government land transfer income and the proportion of increased tax revenue from the non-agricultural use of farmland that is spent on agriculture, and substantially increase investment in rural public works projects in the central and western regions. Also, funds from the issuance of new treasury bonds will go disproportionately to rural areas. The central government will allocate a total of 716.1 billion yuan this year to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers, an annual increase of 120.6 billion yuan. In addition, we will make innovations in investment incentives and encourage and guide nongovernmental capital of all kinds to invest in agriculture and rural areas. Several large and medium-sized key water conservancy projects will be completed. A number of dangerous large and medium-sized reservoirs will be reinforced. We will accelerate development of key projects such as upgrading water-saving devices and building auxiliary facilities in large irrigated areas and building drought-relief water projects. We will do our work effectively in the five areas of water, electricity, roads, gas and housing. Work will continue on the project to provide safe drinking water for rural residents to solve the drinking water problems of another 60 million people. We will provide methane gas to an additional five million rural households and accelerate upgrading of rural power grids. Expansion and upgrading of rural roads will continue. Trials to build settlements for nomadic herdsmen and renovate dangerous rural houses will be extended to more areas. We will set up a system to compensate the major grain producing areas for the effects that growing grain has on their interests, increase general transfer payment and fiscal rewards to major grain producing counties and give them more support for their projects to develop the grain industry. We will improve the policy on grain risk funds.
2) We will maintain and increase grain and agricultural production. We will adhere to the strictest possible systems for protecting farmland and for using land economically and make sure that the total grain acreage is no less than last year. The plan to increase China's grain production capacity by 50 million tons will be implemented, and development of national bases for commercial grain production will be accelerated. We will carry out the project to industrialize production of high-quality grain crops. We will give support to demonstration projects of integrated technologies that produce high yields of grain and oilseed in large areas. Policies to support the production of grain, oilseed and hogs will be strengthened. Work will continue to rectify and revitalize the dairy industry. Oversight of fertilizer prices will be intensified. Large-scale, standardized practices for healthy production in animal husbandry and aquaculture will be developed. Development of the system for prevention and control of animal and plant epidemics, the system for quality and safety inspection and testing of farm products, and the system for cultivating superior varieties and breeds will be accelerated. Development of wholesale markets for farm products, grain and oil storage facilities, and modern logistics facilities will be stepped up. We will strive to keep the country's grain output stable at 500 million tons in 2009.
3) We will increase rural incomes. We will vigorously develop modern agriculture with distinctive features and rural secondary and tertiary industries, particularly the processing of farm products. Development of rural enterprises and small cities and towns will be accelerated. We will continue to run projects to develop model towns to demonstrate comprehensive economic development. We will strengthen local economies of counties. We will increase vocational education and technical training in rural areas to make it easier for rural residents to find non-farm jobs. State policies will be implemented to protect the legitimate rights and interests of rural migrant workers in cities, and those who return home will be encouraged to find jobs or start their own businesses in their hometowns.
4) We will keep farm product prices stable. We will stabilize the prices of major agricultural products such as grain, edible vegetable oil, cotton, sugar and hogs through a combination of control policies, including raising purchase price floors, manipulating reserves, temporary purchasing and stockpiling, shipping to other regions, and exporting and importing. The minimum purchase prices of wheat and rice in 2009 will be raised by 0.22 yuan and 0.26 yuan per kilogram respectively.
5) We will deepen overall rural reform. We will make township and town governments better able to provide social management and deliver public services. We will set up a sound government reward and subsidy system for village-level public works projects, the launching of which will be determined by the villagers through deliberation. We will comprehensively implement reform of collective forest rights. We will strengthen supervision of and services for trade in contracted land-use rights. We will make overall arrangements to reform the system of state-owned farms and carry out other rural reforms.