Full Text: Report on China's economic, social development plan(15)

4. We will unwaveringly do a good job in work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and promote steady development of agriculture and sustained increase in rural incomes.

1) We will improve our capacity to ensure adequate supply of agricultural products. We will make proper arrangements to effectively implement the plan to increase China's grain production capacity by 50 million tons, strengthen our overall grain production capacity, and keep the areas sown to grain stable. We will implement policies for supporting the production of major agricultural products, including crops, livestock and poultry. We will strengthen fishery administration and improve fishing ports. In 2012, the grain-growing area is expected to reach over 106.67 million hectares with a total output of more than 500 million tons, and the total output of cotton, oilseeds, sugar crops and meat will reach 6 million tons, 32.8 million tons, 126 million tons and 81 million tons, respectively.

2) We will accelerate innovation in agricultural science and technology. We will continue to carry out the project to cultivate superior varieties and breeds and the crop protection project, and develop the animal epidemic prevention system and the system for quality inspection of agricultural products. We will move faster to research and spread the use of superior varieties and breeds as well as highly-efficient water saving techniques and other advanced technologies, and comprehensively carry forward reform and development of the system to expand the use of agricultural technology at county and township levels, so as to raise agricultural productivity.

3) We will strengthen agricultural infrastructure construction. We will continue to harness large rivers and lakes including the Yellow River, the Huai River and the Tai Lake; accelerate the implementation of major water conservancy projects such as the first phase of the eastern and central routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project; strengthen construction of key water source projects; and intensify efforts to harness small and medium-sized rivers, reinforce aging reservoirs and sluices, and develop a system for monitoring, forecasting and giving early warning of geological disasters from mountain torrents and adopt comprehensive measures to prevent and control such disasters. We will energetically proceed with projects to develop large irrigated areas and carry out water efficiency retrofitting, demonstrate synergy between water-saving irrigation techniques and high-efficiency agriculture, upgrade large irrigation and drainage pumping stations, and improve farmland. We will intensify efforts to develop, improve, and reclaim rural land and develop on a large scale basic farmland that meets high drought and flood resistance standards. In 2012, we plan to allocate 68.3 billion yuan from the central government budget for investment in water conservancy projects, 3.2 billion yuan more than last year.

4) We will improve working and living conditions in rural areas. We will step up the implementation of projects to provide safe drinking water in rural areas, vigorously develop renewable energy sources in rural areas, intensify efforts to upgrade rural power grids and build rural roads, actively advance projects to renovate dilapidated rural houses, and make steady progress in projects to build permanent homes for nomadic families. In 2012, we will ensure safe drinking water for another 60 million rural residents, raising the percentage of the rural population with access to safe drinking water to 81%, and build or renovate an additional 200,000 kilometers of rural roads.

5) We will implement and improve our policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and make rural areas prosperous. We will further raise the minimum purchase prices of wheat and rice on average by 7.4 yuan and 16 yuan per 50 kilograms, respectively, purchase and stockpile corn, soybeans, canola seeds, cotton, sugar and hogs on a temporary basis as needed, and implement and improve the price policy for purchasing sugar crops. We will increase subsidies for purchasing agricultural machinery and general subsidies for purchasing agricultural supplies, improve the policy of subsidies for purchasing improved crop varieties, and increase reserves of chemical fertilizers in the off-season. We will vigorously develop rural secondary and tertiary industries, particularly agricultural product processing, and increase support for specialized farmers' cooperatives. We will attach importance to solving difficulties that rural migrant workers, particularly the new generation of them, have in securing employment, social security, pay, housing and children's schooling, and guide those rural migrant workers who are eligible for urban household registration in settling in cities in an orderly way.