Lots of people have recently been discussing the concept of
building a "new socialist countryside," which was put forward by
the central government late last year.
To attain such a goal, we need to take into account the real
situation in the countryside, while also tackling the issue from a
wider perspective than rural rejuvenation.
A number of policies have been suggested and drawn up since the
new drive was launched.
This is fine, but it has also resulted in an unwelcome side
effect creating false hopes that the goal of substantially
improving rural areas' social and economic landscape can be
achieved in a relatively short time.
Many experts have been quick to warn about this false sense of
optimism.
Realizing the complexity of the situation, China has changed its
concept of agricultural modernization, shifting from a blanket
approach to one where relatively prosperous coastal regions and the
suburban areas of big cities to take the lead, according to Wen
Tiejun, a renowned agricultural economist and dean of the School of
Agricultural and Rural Development at Renmin University of
China.
Given the low development level of China's rural areas, we must
be realistic about the situation in China's rural areas, Wen told a
recent seminar on rural development organized by Beijing Young
Journalists' Association.
Wen warned that people should not view rural issues from an
"urban or international perspective." Rural production conditions
have not fundamentally changed compared with two decades ago, so
how can we realize modernization in such circumstances? Wen
asked.
A Chinese farmer ploughs an average of 0.6 hectare of land,
while his US counterpart owns a farm covering more than 100
hectares. This means it will be very hard to improve the efficiency
of individual-based Chinese farming, no matter what modern methods
are adopted, said Wen.
"We should not copy the American model of agricultural
industrialization. Not only does it fail to provide a solution to
our problems, it is also a model that our environment can ill
afford," Wen added.
In answer to calls for agricultural industrialization, Wen has
proposed a new "organic agriculture," warning that
industrialization would harm the environment, while agricultural
production will fall if such methods are not used.
Wen and his colleagues, who are leading some teams experimenting
with the idea of building organic agricultural parks in rural or
suburban areas, have tried to organize farmers to form cooperative
associations and create self-recycled facilities in rural areas,
where chemical fertilizer and pesticides are not used.
This is part of the recycling economy, a new development
philosophy newly mapped out by Chinese policy-makers.
Wen said that the next step is to spread these experiences to
other regions, blazing a trail for rural sustainable
development.
Zhang Ming, a politics professor at Renmin University of China,
said he had a high regard for Wen's proposals, but said that they
would be difficult to implement.
The traditional environmentally friendly mode of farming has
been irretrievably changed by Western production methods, said
Zhang. The solution to China's rural problems does not lie in a
return to old traditions.
But Sun Liping, a sociologist at Tsinghua University, said Wen's
approach should not be ruled out. It could be one of many ways to
rejuvenate rural areas, but should not be regarded as a
panacea.
Sun said: "There is a potential danger lying in new things and
it is not so simple to return to the old practices (if they prove
inapplicable)."
Sun suggested that the relationship between rural and urban
areas should also be borne in mind when rural issues are tackled,
claiming the rural-urban gap is one of the major reasons for this
rural predicament.
Urban residents earn about 3.22 times as much as their rural
counterparts, according to official figures. But experts estimate
that if the non-salary benefits of urban residents are taken into
consideration, the gap could be up to six times.
"The really serious problem does not lie in the gap itself,"
said Sun. The income divide means vast differences in purchasing
power while they face the same integrated market with unified
prices, whether it is for higher education or healthcare.
Sun held that the gap in consumption power may brew a crisis as
consumers shift their focus from daily necessities, such as food,
to expensive consumer durables, such as houses and cars.
"The drive to build a 'new countryside', in my opinion, signals
a new and pragmatic policy outlook, in which different solutions
are applied to different problems," he said.
First, the policy encourages farmers to increase production
value. Chinese agriculture's rate of added value is currently about
38 percent, meaning the value can be increased by 38 percent after
production.
Second, the new policy encourages population flow from rural to
urban areas, creating more development opportunities for those
remaining in the countryside.
Third, the state will increase its rural spending. But it must
also ensure that these funds are not frittered away, Sun pointed
out. Sun proposed that part of the money the state is investing on
rural development should be earmarked to reduce or wipe out small
rural enterprises' tax burden.
"Those small rural enterprises are sources of stable employment,
something which helps improve the nation's overall purchasing
power," Sun said.
(China Daily June 13, 2006)