Development Model of Rural Complex against the Backdrop of Rural Revitalization Strategy: A Case Study of "Baixianggu" in Jing’an County

Ying YU*, Zhiming WANG, Jiangnan HUANG2, Simin XIONG

1.College of City Construction, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China; 2.Jiangxi Rongda Environmental Technology Consulting Co., Ltd. Nanchang 330000, China

Abstract Rural complex is a new type of rural revitalization and development model, and fully mastering the concept and connotation of this model is of great significance to the construction of rural complex in our country. This paper makes an all-round research and discussion on the basic situation, development advantages, model characteristics and existing problems of the rural complex development model of Baixianggu in Jing’an County, and puts forward the corresponding optimization path in view of the existing problems of Baixianggu project, in order to provide scientific and objective reference basis for the construction of national rural complex.

Key words Rural revitalization, Rural complex, Baixianggu, Jing’an County

1 Introduction

With the rapid development of economy and the acceleration of urbanization, the problems of rural hollowing-out, agricultural marginalization and aging of labor force are becoming more and more serious. The report of the 19th CPC National Congress pointed out that the issue of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" is a fundamental issue related to the national economy and the people’s livelihood. Solving the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers is of great significance to the realization of high-quality and balanced development of China’s economy. Against the backdrop of the new era, the implementation of rural revitalization strategy is the only way to solve the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. The key of the rural revitalization strategy is to realize the industrial revitalization, the industrial prosperity leads to the economic prosperity, and by invigorating the rural real economy, we can make the rural areas rich, and the farmers happy.

Rural complex is a new type of rural industrial development model. The model is dominated by agriculture, makes full use of rural resources, integrates the concept of sustainable development, and improves public facilities and services. It combines pastoral production, life and ecology, and is a replicable rural production and life style[1]. In 2017, the Central No.1 Document clearly stated that it would support qualified villages to build "rural complexes" and carry out pilot demonstrations through different paths. The development model of "rural complex" organically integrates the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. It can effectively improve the rural ecological environment and the quality of life of farmers, improve the level of rural economic development, so as to achieve rural prosperity and revival. Against the backdrop of the current rural development situation, a full grasp of the concept and connotation of the rural complex development model is of great significance to the realization of rural revitalization. This paper will take the rural complex of "Baixianggu" in Yongfeng Village of Jing’an County as an example to show the development advantages of this model in an all-round way against the backdrop of rural revitalization. Based on the main problems existing in this development model, this paper puts forward the optimization path in order to provide scientific and objective reference for the construction of national rural complex.

2 Basic situation of rural complex of "Baixianggu" in Jing’an County

The full name of the rural complex project of "Baixianggu" is Baixianggu Agricultural, Travel, Medical and Health Industrial Park. The project, invested by Jiangxi Baixianggu Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., is located in Yongfeng Village, Jing’an County, Yichun City, Jiangxi Province. It is in the "Nanchang Half-Hour Economic Circle" and "Poyang Lake Rim Economic Circle", and has convenient transportation, and superior geographical location. A total investment of 300 million yuan is planned, covering an area of 286.7 ha. The Baixianggu rural complex project actively responds to the development strategy of "Innovation Leading, Green Rise, Practical Work, Enriching Jiangxi and Its People" of Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee. It adheres to the concept of green development and embodies the development orientation of the combination of tourism and production. Taking agricultural tourism and medical care as the theme and the national 5A scenic spot as the standard, it aims to create an agricultural tourism and health care industrial park with leisure agriculture, eco-tourism and health as one, in order to create a "Jing’an Sample of Healthy China" for the construction of national rural complex.

Baixianggu in Jing’an County is mainly composed of four parts, namely, medical care and rehabilitation, pastoral leisure, family entertainment and integrated service. These four parts organically combine health care, leisure and entertainment, agricultural activities, agricultural and sideline products, and fully reflect the development model of Baixianggu in Jing’an County with the theme of agricultural travel and medical care. Medical rehabilitation area includes rehabilitation service center, residential health care area, social health care area and other rehabilitation service facilities. And it plans to cooperate with Jing’an Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital to invest in the construction of two major medical support bases: Jing’an County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and Nursing School of Jing’an Vocational Middle School. It strives to become a fully equipped medical and health care base by 2020. The pastoral leisure area is composed of three parts: Baiguo Orchard, Baiwei Garden and Baicui Garden. It cooperates with local rural production cooperatives to form a new development model of "cooperative+rural household+company+Internet+industry", which effectively increases the income of local farmers. Family entertainment area is mainly composed of open-air cinema, eco-hotel, catering center, parent-child racecourse and other facilities, in order to provide modern facilities for tourists to meet the basic needs of tourists. The integrated service area is composed of tourist reception center, administrative service building and other service facilities, which can solve all kinds of problems in the process of tourists’ recreation.

At present, Baixianggu rural complex project has won the title of National Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism Four-Star Demonstration Park, Provincial Leisure Agriculture Demonstration Site and Provincial Modern Agriculture Demonstration Park. It is expected that by the end of the year, the number of tourists will exceed 10 000, and the annual business income will reach more than 1 200 000 yuan, leading at least 80 farmers to embark on the road of getting rich in leisure agriculture. Baixianggu will continue to take agriculture, tourism, medical care and health care as the theme, constantly innovate on the road of development, and strive to become a beautiful landscape in Jiangxi Province.

3 Development advantages of rural complex of "Baixianggu"

3.1 Location advantagesLocation factors have an important impact on the rural complex project. Good location conditions can bring a large number of visitors to the rural complex project, and the number of tourists affects the economic income of the project. Through the reasonable planning of the project site, the effect of low input and high output can be achieved. The rural complex project of "Baixianggu" is located in Yongfeng Village, Gaohu Town, Yichun City, Jiangxi Province. It is in "Nanchang Half-Hour Economic Circle" and "Poyang Lake Rim Economic Circle". Tourists are from Nanchang, Yichun, Jiujiang and other cities, with a wide range. Sufficient source of visitors for the sustainable development of Baixianggu has created a continuous driving force, and reasonable site selection has greatly reduced the investment of Baixianggu project, so that it can obtain a good return on investment. The impact of traffic conditions on the rural complex project is also very important. Whether the traffic is convenient or not directly determines the tourists’ choice of the project. The local government gave strong support to the construction of the project. The construction of Gaoxi Highway passes through Baixianggu, which creates good traffic conditions for the project. The convenient traffic conditions have further increased the attraction of the Baixianggu project to tourists and promoted the stable development of the project.

3.2 Ecological advantagesEcological resources are the driving force for the development of rural complex model. The development model of rural complex revolves around the unique eco-environmental resources in rural areas. High-quality ecological environment provides fundamental support for the development of rural complex project, and making full use of local eco-environmental resources can lay a solid foundation for the construction of rural complex model[2]. Jing’an County has a subtropical humid climate, the annual average temperature is about 17 ℃. Rain water is sufficient, and the temperature is suitable. It is mainly mountainous and hilly, and there are only a few river valley plains in the southeast. Although the local geographical conditions lead to the slow process of agricultural development, the superior natural conditions have created a good ecological environment for Jing’an County. In 2018, the forest coverage rate of Jing’an County was as high as 84.1%, and there were more than 2 000 plant species, of which more than 20 species were protected at the national level. Jing’an County was listed as a national demonstration park as early as 1985, and it is also one of the key forest areas in China. Good ecological conditions not only lay a solid foundation for rural tourism, but also bring development opportunities for the construction of rural health industry. The fresh air, sufficient sunshine, beautiful natural environment and unique local culture in rural areas can greatly cultivate people’s sentiment and maintain people’s physical and mental health.

4 Characteristics of rural complex model of "Baixianggu"

4.1 Integrating three industries to promote rural revitalizationThe integration of three industries against the backdrop of rural complex development model is based on agriculture to reasonably allocate capital, technology and resource elements through the extension of industrial chain, industrial integration, technology infiltration and so on. Then it broadens the channels of increasing farmers’ income, constructs the modern agricultural industrial system, speeds up the transformation of the mode of agricultural development, and achieves the all-round integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas[3].The integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas is one of the core policies in the strategy of rural revitalization. Against the backdrop of the current era, the main reason for the emergence of the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers lies in the slow development of rural industry, which leads to the low level of rural economy as a whole. Through the development model of integration of three industries, we can well solve the problems of agricultural marginalization and rural hollowing-out, and promote the stable growth of the local economy[4]. This model conforms to the policies of rural supply-side reform and rural industrial innovation, and is a new model of sustainable development. Relying on its pastoral and natural environment, Baixianggu in Jing’an County organically combines leisure and entertainment, vacation, health, farming activities, and so on, and employs the emerging Internet technology to create a development model of "Internet+", so that the multiplier effect of industrial value is realized.

4.2 Strengthening revitalization of industries to promote a new model of poverty alleviationThe rural complex model is mainly based on rural tourism to make an analysis of the tourism market, in order to know the real needs of customers. And based on its own internal resources, it designs tourism products suitable for tourists, and then promotes the development of the local economy. In this process, it is bound to give rise to a lot of related industries, and the development model of rural complex will organically combine these industries, so that it can carry out the linkage development. With the basis of industrial development, it can bring many development opportunities for local farmers and lift them out of poverty. Yongfeng Village in Jing’an County has developed a poverty alleviation model of "cooperative+rural household+company+Internet+industry" with the help of the Baixianggu project. On the basis of rural production cooperatives, Yongfeng Village brings the poor households in the village into the cooperatives to carry out vegetable cultivation and tourist reception for Baixianggu Ecological Co., Ltd. At the same time, farmers in Yongfeng Village can also cultivate their original land. Baixianggu Ecological Co., Ltd. sent professionals to guide it, and then acquired the products, and built these products into a brand, and sold these products through the Internet and other channels. This has fundamentally solved the worries of farmers and led to the development of local farmers. Today, more than 70 farmers in Yongfeng Village have joined the cooperative, which has an annual income of more than 2 million yuan. The average annual income of members has increased several times, and within a year, most farmers have been lifted out of poverty.

4.3 Building ties to promote the integration of urban and rural areasWith the acceleration of urbanization, the phenomenon of rural hollowing-out is becoming more and more serious, and the development of rural and urban areas is becoming more and more unbalanced. The fundamental reason is that rural development has failed to keep up with the process of urban development, and the rapid development of urban economy has brought many development opportunities. A large number of farmers are attracted into cities for the urban development, resulting in the decline of rural industries, and hollowing-out problems become more serious. Realizing the integrated development of urban and rural areas can help to fundamentally solve the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and then realize the revitalization of rural areas. And urban-rural integration is the necessary stage of urban development[5]. Urban-rural integration means industrial integration, production resources integration, personnel integration and so on. Rural and urban areas complement each other and make common progress in the process of development. The development model of rural complex fully integrates the resources of rural and urban areas, constructs a link between urban and rural areas, and then promotes the integrated development of urban and rural areas. With the help of the unique resources of the countryside, the rural complex of Baixianggu is based on agriculture, takes rural tourism as the development theme, and integrates the derived industries, to attract a large number of urban tourists to enter the countryside and experience pastoral life, contributing to local economic growth. And as a result of the substantial development of rural industries, the urban and rural industrial integration is realized, and a large number of farmers who went out to work in the past returned to the countryside because of homesickness, and chose to work in their hometown, which fundamentally changes the siphon effect of cities and towns.

5 Problems in the development model of rural complex of "Baixianggu"

5.1 Single development model and insufficient innovationThe development model of rural complex is different from that of traditional tourism. It is not a kind of simple rural leisure tourism, but based on agriculture, with rural leisure tourism as the theme, to effectively integrate rural land, funds, talents and other resources. It shows its own development characteristics, promotes agricultural modernization, and then realizes the great goal of rural revitalization. The development model of Baixianggu project in Jing’an County is relatively simple. At present, the development model of rural tourism is still in the form of traditional agritainment. Daily activities are mainly dominated by picking vegetables and fruits in the field, having a rural dinner, enjoying pastoral scenery,etc., and it fails to combine the unique folk customs and local culture of Yongfeng village to form their own unique development characteristics. When the development model of rural complex is lacking in development characteristics, due to the failure to form a unique brand effect, the attraction of the project itself to tourists will be greatly reduced with the birth of the surrounding rural complex. The benefits of the project will be affected to a large extent, resulting in the collapse of the original development system.

5.2 Lack of brand effectBrand effect can reflect the inherent value culture of the product, and it is a unique logo of a product. After the brand effect of the product is formed, the customer can easily identify the product and distinguish other competitive products. When the product has a brand effect, it can greatly enhance its competitiveness, thus bringing considerable economic benefits. The products of Baixianggu rural complex are mainly agricultural products, although Baixianggu Ecological Co., Ltd. has a good brand awareness, it has not yet formed a good brand effect. At present, the brand shaping mode of agricultural products in Baixianggu is relatively simple, and it does not reflect the characteristics of agricultural products very well. It simply put it in the online shops and the county "Shiwuguan+ Baixianggu" agricultural product stores for sale. However, there are a large number of similar products on the Internet, and customers are strange to the product, resulting in its poor sales status. The fundamental reason is that Baixianggu has not yet formed a good marketing consciousness for product sales, which makes its agricultural products fail to form a good brand effect.

5.3 Single form of financingThe financing form of Baixianggu rural complex project is relatively simple. All the sources of funds are invested by Baixianggu Ecological Co., Ltd., the capital structure is relatively simple, and the financing risk is great. At present, the main problem in financing of Baixianggu rural complex is the lack of social capital participation. A good form of financing is able to share the risk of investors and maximize the return on investment. At this stage, the risk of the Baixianggu project is fully borne by Baixianggu Ecological Co., Ltd., once there is a certain market fluctuation, it is easy to lead to the bankruptcy of the project company, resulting in the suspension of the project. And the financing structure of Baixianggu project ignores the participation of local farmers. The local farmers can not effectively participate in the financing process of Baixianggu project, so the project failed to form a good equity incentive for local farmers. At present, the financing channels of most rural complex projects are relatively simple. Most of them are carried out in the form of sole proprietorship, and investors tend to consider the project in a multi-dimensional way, so that the model cannot be effectively carried out everywhere.

5.4 Lack of standardization of servicesThe rural complex of Baixianggu has brought the local farmers into its development process, fully solved the employment problem of the local farmers, realized the poverty alleviation work for the farmers, and promoted the stable growth of the rural economy. However, this development model of bringing farmers into the daily operation and management is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this development model has led to the development of the local economy. On the other hand, due to the lack of specialization of local farmers, it is easy to lead to the lack of standardization of their corresponding services, thus affecting the reputation of the Baixianggu project. Due to the influence of the background of the times, the vast majority of farmers in rural areas in China have failed to receive a good education, and have not formed a good concept of service, and are not aware of the role of service quality in promoting consumption[6]. At the same time, the vast majority of farmers are only good at farming. Before they are trained in good professional services, if they are rashly put into the daily operation of the project, it can easily make Baixianggu fall into development difficulties, thus affecting the normal development of Baixianggu rural complex project.

6 Optimization path of development model of "Baixianggu" rural complex

6.1 Having clear thinking and innovating development model

If we want to build a good rural complex project, first of all, we must make clear the development ideas, and we must first clarify the problem of what kind of rural complex to build. And we should be able to accurately distinguish the differences between the rural complex model and other development models, and the rural complex and the traditional agritainment is essentially different. The traditional rural development model of agritainment is to make use of the unique resources and environment of the countryside to attract urban tourists, make them away from the noisy city, go into the countryside and enjoy life. Farmers provide these tourists with corresponding services to meet their needs. On the other hand, the rural complex model is dominated by agriculture, which combines pastoral production, life and ecology, and is a new type of rural production and life style. At the present stage, the development model of Baixianggu is more inclined to the development model of agritainment, staying in the form of picking vegetables and fruits, having a rural dinner and providing services for tourists. Baixianggu should integrate the local unique folk customs and characteristic culture into the current development model, so that it can get rid of the development form of traditional agritainment.

6.2 Stepping up publicity to promote brand effectBaixianggu rural complex project has a good brand awareness, but its products failed to form a very good brand effect, and the reason lies in the lack of good marketing awareness. To simply put the product in the Internet and brick-and-mortar stores for sales is not feasible. Because of the lack of characteristics of the product, the market is fraught with more similar products, and it makes the product lose its competitiveness. Baixianggu should package its products accordingly, seize the advantages of the products, and choose appropriate publicity methods, such as advertising, media publicity and Internet publicity, and can design a series of activities around the product to attract consumers. Secondly, improving the quality of the product also helps to form the brand effect. When the product has excellent quality, consumers use the product and recommend it to others, forming a word-of-mouth effect. At this time, even if we do not carry out a lot of publicity, we can achieve a very good brand effect.

6.3 Integrating multiple social entities to enrich forms of financingA good financing structure should not be in the form of sole proprietorship, but should have the participation of multiple investors to share the risk and maximize the income at the same time[7]. Baixianggu rural complex project can appropriately change the financial structure and bring multiple social entities into it. If farmers can be included in their own capital structure, local farmers can invest in Baixianggu project, and the company will pay dividends at the end of the year. In this way, not only the risk is shared, but also the enthusiasm of local farmers is improved. It can also be financed by issuing bonds to the society for Baixianggu project, making full use of social idle capital for the operation of Baixianggu project. In the context of rural revitalization, only relying on the form of private investment to build rural complex is not feasible, and the financial funds of most governments are limited, and the choice of a good form of financing is helpful to solving the problem of funds. At present, many scholars have studied the application of PPP model in rural complex, and confirmed that this model is feasible[8].

6.4 Introducing specialized teams to improve service quality

The introduction of specialized teams is not meant to replace all local farmers. If the model of rural complex does not have the participation of local farmers, it will deviate from its essence dominated by agriculture. The purpose of introducing professional team is to introduce advanced management ideas and make use of advanced management experience to break the operational difficulties of rural complex projects. As the cultural quality of local farmers is not high, they do not form a good sense of service, so that the corresponding service model has not formed a very good standard system. With the help of the introduced professional team, we can build a good standard system for the current service model. The introduction of professional teams into the daily operation process can greatly improve operational efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction. At the same time, it is necessary to carry out the corresponding specialized training to the local rural household, and put the rural household into the actual work post at the same time, so as to form the development model of the combination of learning and practice. In this way, we can not only improve the service quality of Baixianggu project, but also train a team of professional talents of our own.

7 Conclusions

The development model of rural complex is a new type of rural production and life style, it can fundamentally solve the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers and realize the revitalization of rural areas. Baixianggu rural complex project organically combines the primary, secondary and tertiary industries with the help of good location and ecological advantages. It has led to the stable growth of the local economy, solved the local poverty problem, and promoted the construction of urban-rural integration. However, there are still some problems in the current Baixianggu project, such as simple development model, insufficient brand effect, single form of financing and lack of standardization of service. In the future, Baixianggu should make clear the development thought, innovate the development mode, make use of the good financing channels to create a set of characteristic new development models, and strengthen the publicity, improve the service quality, and form its own brand effect, to promote the development of Baixianggu rural complex and the revitalization of local villages.