China is making significant strides in its rural revitalization efforts, as outlined in the \"No. 1 central document\" for 2025. Released on Sunday, this policy statement emphasizes the importance of deepening rural reforms and advancing comprehensive rural revitalization.
In 2024, China focused on consolidating work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, resulting in stable and increased grain production. Despite facing natural disasters such as high temperatures, droughts, extreme floods, and super typhoons, the country's total grain output surpassed 706 million tonnes, marking a 1.6 percent increase from the previous year. This achievement set a new record, according to China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
The bumper harvest was supported by an expansion in grain planting areas, which reached over 119 million hectares, up 0.3 percent year on year. Additionally, grain output per unit area grew by 1.3 percent. These advancements have contributed to the per capita disposable income of rural residents, which reached 23,119 yuan (approximately $3,186), reflecting a 6.3 percent year-on-year increase.
China has also made progress in expanding soybean and oilseed cultivation, with soybean output reaching 20.65 million tonnes. This improvement has enhanced the country's self-sufficiency rate for edible vegetable oils. The comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting has exceeded 75 percent, and significant efforts have been made to construct, renovate, and upgrade high-standard farmland. By the end of 2024, China had built more than 1 billion mu (around 66.7 million hectares) of high-standard farmland and over 10 million kilometers of various field irrigation and drainage channels, playing a crucial role in drought and flood prevention across different regions.
Reference(s):
Consolidating agricultural foundation to advance rural revitalization
cgtn.com
