Exploration of Development Status and Trend of Three Elements of Rural Areas in the New Era to Protect Achievements in Poverty Alleviation

Changjie XIE, Xiaoyu JIANG, Manchu QI, Jing REN

Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130, China

Abstract The three rural issues of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers are important strategic issues in China’s development, are an important foundation for the agricultural country to realize the modernization of agriculture and rural areas and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Under the new situation of great victory in poverty alleviation, it is necessary to protect the fruits of victory and strengthen the construction of new countryside in the new era. From the current development situations of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, this paper explored the development trend of three elements, to provide a feasible path for protecting the achievements in poverty alleviation, and provide certain ideas for workers engaged in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

Key words Achievements in poverty alleviation, Rural revitalization, Agriculture, Three rural issues, Development trend

1 Introduction

On February 25, 2021, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping declared a complete victory in the fight against poverty. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, through hard work, all 832 national-level poverty-stricken counties in China were lifted out of poverty. This is undoubtedly a major event in China and even in the world. It is not easy to win a stage victory, but there is a long way to protect the achievements. Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua stated that consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation is the primary task of rural work in poverty-stricken areas during the transition period, effectively connecting the achievements of poverty alleviation with rural revitalization is a realistic goal, and promoting rural development and improving people’s livelihood are the main goals[1]. Under these goals, how to protect the achievements and realize the rural revitalization as soon as possible in the new era? In view of this, we discussed the current development situations of three rural issues, namely, agriculture, rural areas, and farmers from the perspective of the development trend of the rural areas in the new era, and finally put forward pertinent recommendations for promoting the rural revitalization.

2 Rural areas: policy inclination provides a solid political guarantee for rural development

Mao Zedong once said: "policies and tactics are the life of our party"[2]. Since the reform and opening up, Xiaogang Village, Fengyang County in Anhui Province, has taken the lead in the country to implement a household responsibility system, which increased the land utilization rate and increased the yield, increased farmers’ income, and also improved the production enthusiasm of local farmers. This system also prompted the state to attach great importance to the revision of agricultural policies. This also stimulated the formulation of a series of agricultural assistance policies, such as land nationalization, farmers paying lower rents to use land, abolishing agricultural taxes, and issuing agricultural subsidies,etc.Many policies have greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of farmers to participate in agricultural production and rural development, and promoted the rapid development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. According to the Marxist thought on the farmer issue, the key to rural development is to promote the development of productive forces. However, in view of the actual situation of rural development, it is necessary to strengthen policy support as the main task, keep a firm grasp on it, and make up the short board of rural development through policy "blood transfusion", so as to make them become an important force in promoting rural revitalization[3].

2.1 Rural revitalization strategyAs one of Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, the rural revitalization strategy is the latest theoretical research result of the Chinalization of Marxism, it opens a new chapter in the development of Chinalization of Marxism in rural areas. The rural revitalization strategic plan is a major decision and deployment made by the central government focusing on the development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" under the historical background of the transformation of the main contradiction between China’s economic and social development. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued theOpinionsontheEffectiveConnectionbetweentheConsolidationandExpansionofPovertyAlleviationandtheEffectiveConnectionofRuralRevitalization, which emphasized that consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation and comprehensively promoting rural revitalization are major political tasks personally deployed by General Secretary Xi Jinping and one of the main goals of economic and social development during the 14thFive-Year Plan period[4]. In order to further stimulate the vitality of entrepreneurship and employment in poverty-stricken areas, it is necessary to improve the long-term mechanism, implement policy sorting and policy support, at the same time, focus on all-round participation, improve the enthusiasm of forces from all walks of life to participate in and consolidate the victory of poverty alleviation, and give feedback in a timely manner.

2.2 Construction of rural talent teamGeneral Secretary Xi Jinping once stated that it is necessary to improve the quality of farmers and cultivate a new type of farmers[5]. Whether it is to win the battle against poverty or implement the rural revitalization strategy, efforts from all walks of life are needed. However, the main body of practice and direct beneficiaries are always farmers, and farmers are the driving force of rural development. Therefore, only by creating an excellent rural talent team can we fundamentally "create blood" for rural development. TheOpinionsoftheCentralCommitteeoftheCommunistPartyofChinaandtheStateCouncilontheImplementationoftheRuralRevitalizationStrategyclearly pointed out that "to implement the rural revitalization strategy, we must break the bottleneck of talents"[6]. At the present stage, there are not a few talents returning to their hometowns to drive the development of their hometown industries. No matter for the realization of personal value or the favorable external development conditions provided by the encouragement and support of national policies, they all contribute to the construction of the rural talent team. At present, the rural talent cultivation is still confronted with problems of "going out", "not willing to return", "failure to introduce", and "failure to retain"[7]. However, with the aid of the government’s welfare policies for various talents, it is feasible to attract rural personnel to employment and entrepreneurship, and using the guide policy and mechanism innovation of government, it is able to effectively adapt to the problem of rural talent loss. In addition, using the high efficient advantages, a number of "three rural" work teams that love the rural areas, agriculture, and farmers have been cultivated and formed. Further, it is necessary to support agricultural colleges and universities and rural scientific and technological personnel education and training bases that have certain resource advantages in cultivating talents for serving agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. The long-term mechanism formed from this is helpful for breaking down the barriers of local governments, opening up ways for migrant workers to return to the rural areas, and absorbing the urgently needed personnel for rural and agricultural production.

3 Farmers: new farmers play the mail role

3.1 Multi-channel transformation of farmers’ thinking-subject consciousnessThe agricultural production activities engaged in by farmers meet the most fundamental material guarantees, such as food and clothing, and are a prerequisite for engaging in other activities. As the main force in production activities and the bearer and main force of production practice, farmers play a fundamental role in the all-round development of society, which is irreplaceable. Government leaders attach great importance to and actively take measures to ensure the subjectivity of farmers. However, in the long history of society, farmers have always been at the bottom of society. Trapped in the small peasant economy, freedom and interests are exploited, farmers have few opportunities and low levels of education, and it is difficult for them to correctly position themselves in the development process. The unclear subject consciousness leads to slow in rural development.

3.2 Agricultural vocational education: improving quality and self-development abilityRural revitalization is inseparable from high-quality talents, and improving quality is inseparable from education. Improving farmers’ quality requires scientific, cultural and ideological and moral education. Firstly, it is necessary to change the thinking of small farmers and cultivate their subject position. Secondly, farmers should learn scientific and cultural knowledge, improve the technology of agricultural planting and breeding, and scientific management. Therefore, only flexible training methods can be adopted. Local government departments and cooperatives can engage professional experts in planting and breeding technology to carry out publicity activities and give lectures in rural areas, and subsidies can be given to farmers who actively master the technology to support and promote the enthusiasm of all farmers for training.

3.3 Innovative talents returning hometown to start businesses: playing the leading and demonstration role and injecting fresh vitalityAt the same time of implementing the new rural revitalization strategy, college students have adopted the method of innovation and entrepreneurship to give full play to their resource advantages. They use their own professional knowledge and basic skills to help the construction of new socialist countryside. Under the dual background of the national rural revitalization strategy and the innovation and entrepreneurship training strategy of Chinese college students, many colleges and universities seized the opportunity of national policy dividend and actively launched various technological entrepreneurship competitions, including Internet + agriculture, new channels for agricultural product marketing, inventions and creations of agricultural tools and agricultural technology, and so on. For example, the seedling breeding skills, cultivation techniques, and harvesting skills to help rural areas displayed in this year’s China University Students Science and Technology Culture Festival integrate the two well, which can not only realize students’ entrepreneurial dreams, but also effectively help rural revitalization and effectively realize personal value.

4 Agriculture: participation of science and technology accelerates the development of rural agriculture

The intelligent and modernized agricultural machinery empowers modern agriculture. It not only reduces labor costs, but also greatly increases agricultural production efficiency. Taking seedling breeding technology as an example, at present the main seedling breeding techniques in rural areas of China are plug seedling breeding, electro-thermal hotbed seedling breeding, and tissue culture seedling breeding.

The plug seedling breeding, suitable for the seedling production of vegetable crops, flower crops and fruit tree crops, can greatly increase the success rate of seedling breeding, effectively save the cost of seedling breeding, and facilitate large-scale and commercial seedling breeding. The electro-thermal hotbed seedling breeding has been widely used, especially for cultivating warm-season vegetable seedlings in lower temperature seasons. Seedling breeding technology has made great breakthroughs and progress, but the accuracy is still deficient. With the advancement of science and technology and the cultivation of innovative talents, the invention of new seedling boxes will greatly remedy this defect, and agricultural development will make further progress.

The development strategy of three elements (agriculture, rural areas, and farmers) in the socialist countryside in the new era is a major strategy that not only adheres to the Marxist theory of all-round development of people, but also conforms to the fundamental principle of people-oriented construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will definitely promote the development of new socialist countryside. Therefore, we believe that the victory of poverty alleviation is not the end, but a new start for the development of modern agriculture.