Improving the Support System for Strengthening Agriculture, Benefiting Rural Areas, and Enriching Farmers

Institutions concern the fundamental, the stable, and the long-term, and comprehensively advancing rural revitalization concerns the peace and security of the nation. To promote the building of an agricultural powerhouse through agricultural and rural modernization, particular attention must be paid to the construction of rural institutions. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC[1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC: held in July 2024, it focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization. made the decision and deployment to "improve the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers." [2]2 The term "strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers" (强农惠农富农) is a policy slogan used by the CPC to denote three interrelated goals for rural work. Recently, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave important instructions on the work concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, [3]3 "Agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" (三农) is a standard Chinese abbreviation for the three rural issues that are the focus of CPC policy. requiring "further deepening rural reform, improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers, and comprehensively advancing rural revitalization." To further deepen rural reform, it is necessary to adhere to major principles such as being people-centered and taking institutional construction as the main line, to improve the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers with an innovative spirit, and to consolidate the institutional foundation for promoting the building of an agricultural powerhouse through agricultural and rural modernization.

制度关乎根本、稳定和长远，全面推进乡村振兴事关国泰民安。以农业农村现代化推进农业强国建设，尤其需要重视农村制度建设。党的二十届三中全会作出“完善强农惠农富农支持制度”的决策部署。近期，习近平总书记对做好“三农”工作作出重要指示，要求“进一步深化农村改革，完善强农惠农富农支持制度，全面推进乡村振兴”。进一步深化农村改革，必须坚持以人民为中心、以制度建设为主线等重大原则，以创新精神完善强农惠农富农支持制度，夯实以农业农村现代化推进农业强国建设的制度基础。

1. Improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers is an urgent need for building an agricultural powerhouse.

1.完善强农惠农富农支持制度是建设农业强国的迫切需要

As is well known, China's economic system reform originated in the countryside and achieved great success. From the household contract responsibility system [4]4 The household contract responsibility system (家庭联产承包责任制) is a rural economic reform launched in the late 1970s that allocated collectively owned land to individual households for long-term use, greatly boosting agricultural productivity. unleashing the enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of farmers, to the reform of the rural tax and fee system reducing the burden on the peasant masses, to the construction of a new socialist countryside [5]5 The construction of a new socialist countryside (社会主义新农村建设) was a policy initiative introduced in 2005 to improve rural infrastructure, living standards, and agricultural modernization. fully releasing rural vitality, and up to the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, [6]6 The rural revitalization strategy (乡村振兴战略) was adopted at the 19th National Congress of the CPC in 2017 as a comprehensive plan to transform China's rural areas. it has driven the vigorous development of vast rural areas. The great achievements of rural reform fully demonstrate the advantages and power of institutional innovation, and fully demonstrate that sound institutions are the basic support for releasing rural vitality and maintaining a good development momentum. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, based on the overall situation of modernization, has made solving the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers the top priority of the whole Party's work, adhered to giving priority to the development of agriculture and rural areas, continuously improved the Party's rural institutions, continued to exert efforts in measures to "strengthen weak links and shore up areas of weakness," [7]7 "Strengthen weak links and shore up areas of weakness" (补短板强弱项) is a common phrase in Chinese policy discourse, referring to targeted measures to address deficiencies. and China's comprehensive agricultural production capacity has stepped up to a new level, rural people's livelihood has improved significantly, and the appearance of the countryside has taken on a new look. Fundamentally, this is a manifestation of our Party's continuous deepening of rural institutional construction and promotion of high-quality development in rural areas, and an inevitable result of the Party Central Committee's compliance with the call of the times and continuous strengthening and improvement of modern rural institutional construction with strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers as important content. Under the new situation, it is necessary to further comprehensively deepen reform, deeply implement the rural revitalization strategy, take institutional integration and innovation as a breakthrough, focus on strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers, grasp the key points and difficulties of rural institutional construction, and build a solid institutional foundation for building an agricultural powerhouse, so as to promote the steady and long-term advancement of Chinese-path modernization.

众所周知，我国的经济体制改革发端于农村并取得巨大成功。从家庭联产承包责任制激发亿万农民的积极性，到农村税费制度改革减轻农民群众负担，再到社会主义新农村建设全面释放农村活力，直到实施乡村振兴战略，推动广大农村蓬勃发展。农村改革的巨大成就充分彰显了制度创新的优势和威力，充分说明良好的制度是释放农村活力、保持良好发展势头的基础支撑。党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央立足现代化建设全局，把解决好“三农”问题作为全党工作的重中之重，坚持农业农村优先发展，党的农村制度不断完善，“补短板强弱项”措施持续发力，我国农业综合生产能力迈上大台阶，农村民生显著改善，乡村面貌焕然一新。从根本上说，这是我们党不断深化农村制度建设、推动农村高质量发展的体现，是党中央顺应时代呼唤、不断强化完善以强农惠农富农为重要内容的现代农村制度建设的必然。新形势下，必须进一步全面深化改革，深入实施乡村振兴战略，以制度集成创新为突破口，聚焦强农惠农富农，抓住农村制度建设重点难点，筑牢农业强国建设的制度根基，才能推动中国式现代化行稳致远。

Improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers is an inevitable requirement for the full implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. Constructing the institutional system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers covers agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, links industry, ecology, and culture, and involves development, governance, and people's livelihood. It is a systematic project for promoting the building of an agricultural powerhouse through agricultural and rural modernization. Its basic logic is to achieve the beautiful vision of strong agriculture, rich farmers, and beautiful rural areas by establishing high-quality and efficient modern agriculture, building livable, workable, and harmonious and beautiful villages, and cultivating new-type farmers who are both rich in pocket and rich in mind. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC clearly proposed "improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers," which is the practical necessity of the Party leading the peasant masses in promoting agricultural and rural modernization, and raises our Party's understanding of the laws of work concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers to a new level. If China is to be strong, agriculture must be strong; if China is to be beautiful, rural areas must be beautiful; if China is to be rich, farmers must be rich. To fully implement the rural revitalization strategy, it is necessary to follow the requirements of high-quality development, strengthen institutional guarantees, promote universal and balanced development, and promote the comprehensive upgrading of agriculture, the comprehensive progress of rural areas, and the comprehensive development of farmers.

完善强农惠农富农支持制度，是全面实施乡村振兴战略的必然要求。构建强农惠农富农制度体系涵盖农业、农村、农民，联结产业、生态、文化，涉及发展、治理、民生，是以农业农村现代化推进农业强国建设的系统工程。其基本逻辑是，通过建立高质高效的现代农业、建设宜居宜业和美乡村、培育既富口袋又富脑袋的新型农民，实现农业强、农民富、农村美的美好愿景。党的二十届三中全会明确提出“完善强农惠农富农支持制度”，是党领导农民群众推进农业农村现代化建设的实践必然，把我们党对做好“三农”工作的规律性认识提升到新高度。中国要强，农业必须强；中国要美，农村必须美；中国要富，农民必须富。全面实施乡村振兴战略，必须按照高质量发展的要求，强化制度保障，推动普惠均衡，促进农业全面升级、农村全面进步、农民全面发展。

Improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers is an urgent need to solve the current practical contradictions in agricultural and rural development. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that solving various contradictions and problems facing agricultural and rural development fundamentally depends on deepening reform. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee has adopted a series of effective policies and measures to promote agricultural and rural modernization, driving comprehensive changes in the appearance of vast rural areas and achieving great results in agricultural and rural development. At the same time, we should also clearly recognize that the current rural reform and development still face many new situations and new challenges. For example, the institutional foundation for effectively consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation [8]8 Poverty alleviation (脱贫攻坚) refers to the CPC's campaign to eliminate absolute poverty in rural areas, declared successful in 2021. and linking them with rural revitalization still needs to be consolidated, the task of helping low-income rural populations is arduous, and the difficulties and shortcomings of agricultural and rural modernization remain prominent; and so on. Responding to these challenges places new and higher requirements on further deepening rural reform and improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers.

完善强农惠农富农支持制度，是解决现阶段农业农村发展现实矛盾的迫切需要。习近平总书记强调，解决农业农村发展面临的各种矛盾和问题，根本靠深化改革。党的十八大以来，党中央围绕推进农业农村现代化采取了一系列行之有效的政策举措，推动广大乡村面貌发生全方位变化、农业农村发展取得巨大成绩。与此同时，我们也应该清醒认识到，当前农业农村改革发展仍面临不少新形势新挑战。如，巩固拓展脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴有效衔接的制度基础还有待夯实，农村低收入人口帮扶任重道远，农业农村现代化建设的难点和短板依然突出；等等。应对这些挑战，对进一步深化农村改革、完善强农惠农富农支持制度提出了新的更高要求。

2. Improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers must give play to the principal role of farmers.

2.完善强农惠农富农支持制度必须发挥农民主体作用

Rural revitalization is for farmers, relies on farmers, and its fruits are shared by farmers. This is the basic concept our Party has run through rural reform and development. Farmers are the main body of rural revitalization. Whether rural revitalization can be achieved on schedule fundamentally depends on farmers. The practical explorations and experience accumulations of farmers in rural revitalization are the living source for improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers. It is necessary to respect the farmers' pioneering spirit, make efforts in policy integration, institutional perfection, and smooth mechanisms, use a more democratic and scientific institutional formation mechanism to gather institutional development synergies, and let farmers play the leading role and take the main responsibility in the construction of the system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers.

乡村振兴为了农民、依靠农民、成果由农民共享，这是我们党贯穿农村改革发展的基本理念。农民是乡村振兴的主体，乡村振兴能否如期实现，根本在于农民。农民的乡村振兴实践探索和经验积累，是完善强农惠农富农支持制度的活水源头。必须尊重农民首创精神，在政策集成、体制完善、机制通畅上做文章，以更加民主科学的制度形成机制，凝聚制度发展合力，让农民在强农惠农富农制度建设中唱主角、挑大梁。

Adhere to the positioning that farmers are the main beneficiaries of reform, and effectively protect the fundamental interests of farmers. Interest drive is a causative force for endogenous institutional change. Improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers requires taking safeguarding, realizing, and developing the fundamental interests of farmers as the starting point and driving force, and the key lies in implementing the policy measures for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers. First, optimize the supply of agriculture-related policies, improve the benefit-farmer institutions and mechanisms, build an agricultural development chain, maintain stable growth of farmers' income, and narrow the urban-rural gap. Second, adhere to the positioning of "top priority" [9]9 "Top priority" (重中之重) is a phrase often used in official documents to indicate the highest priority. in work concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, establish a guarantee mechanism for the interests of grain production entities, improve various preferential subsidy policy systems for rural areas, stimulate farmers' enthusiasm for grain production, and ensure national food security. Third, improve the agriculture-related protection system with basic livelihood security as the core, improve guarantee mechanisms such as infrastructure and public services, raise the level of rural construction, and enhance farmers' sense of gain in an all-round way.

坚持农民是改革受益主体的定位，切实保障农民根本利益。利益驱动是制度内生性变革的诱致性力量，完善强农惠农富农支持制度，需要以维护好、实现好、发展好农民根本利益为出发点和动力源，其关键在于把强农惠农富农政策措施落到实处。一是优化涉农政策供给，完善利农体制机制，构建农业发展链条，保持农民收入稳定增长，缩小城乡差距。二是坚持“三农”工作“重中之重”定位，建立粮食生产主体利益保障机制，健全农村各项优惠补贴政策体系，激发农民种粮积极性，确保国家粮食安全。三是完善以基本民生保障为核心的涉农保护制度，健全基础设施、公共服务等保障机制，提高农村建设水平，全方位增强农民获得感。

Adhere to the thinking that farmers are the main body of rural development, and explore a variety of effective agricultural economic organizations, management forms, and operational mechanisms. Since reform and opening up, it is precisely because our Party has fully respected the enthusiasm and pioneering spirit of hundreds of millions of farmers, promptly elevated the practical explorations of the peasant masses into policies, and solidified them into institutions, that the reform and development of vast rural areas have obtained sustained momentum and shown a good momentum of comprehensive rural revitalization. In the process of agricultural development's transformation towards modernization, exploring and establishing a complete set of agricultural institutions that effectively connect small farmers with modern agriculture and suit China's national conditions and agricultural conditions, and fully stimulating farmers' endogenous motivation to manage and use collective assets well, are of great significance for the development of rural productive forces, the improvement of comprehensive agricultural benefits, and the growth of farmers' income, and should become the focus and direction of rural institutional reform.

坚持农民是乡村发展主体的思路，探索多种行之有效的农业经济组织、经营形式和运行机制。改革开放以来，正是由于我们党充分尊重亿万农民的积极性和首创精神，及时把农民群众经验探索上升为政策，固化为制度，才使得广大农村的改革和发展获得持续性的动力，展现出乡村全面振兴的良好势头。在农业发展向现代化转型的过程中，探索建立一整套小农户与现代农业有效衔接、适合中国国情农情的农业制度，充分激发农民管好用好集体资产的内生动力，对于农村生产力发展、农业综合效益提升、农民收入增长具有重要意义，应该成为农村制度改革的重点和发力方向。

Adhere to the thinking that farmers are the main body of rural governance, and improve the rural governance model of joint construction, joint governance, and shared benefits. Improving the social governance system of joint construction, joint governance, and shared benefits is an important deployment made by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC. The concrete manifestation of farmers' subjectivity in social governance is to adhere to the principal status of farmers in rural governance, build a rural governance system combining autonomy, rule of law, and rule of virtue, and through the improvement and optimization of institutions, stimulate and mobilize the enthusiasm and drive of hundreds of millions of farmers to care for the countryside, love their homeland, and build their homeland. Encourage them to devote themselves to rural governance with a spirit of bold practice and good exploration, and enhance the effectiveness of rural governance.

坚持农民是乡村治理主体的思路，完善共建共治共享的乡村治理模式。完善共建共治共享的社会治理制度，是党的二十届三中全会作出的重要部署。农民主体性在社会治理方面的具体体现，就是要坚持农民在乡村治理中的主体地位，构建自治、法治、德治相结合的乡村治理体系，通过制度的完善和优化，激发调动起亿万农民关心乡村、热爱家园、建设家园的热情和干劲。鼓励他们以勇于实践、善于探索的精神投身乡村治理，提升乡村治理效能。

3. The focal points for improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers

3.完善强农惠农富农支持制度的着力点

Based on institutional construction, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC made comprehensive deployments from aspects such as improving the investment mechanism for rural revitalization, optimizing the agricultural subsidy policy system, improving the long-term management mechanism for assets formed by national investment in poverty alleviation, and improving the long-term mechanism for promoting comprehensive rural revitalization, thus clarifying the direction for improving the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas, and enriching farmers.

党的二十届三中全会立足于制度建设，从完善乡村振兴投入机制、优化农业补贴政策体系、健全脱贫攻坚国家投入形成资产的长效管理机制、健全推动乡村全面振兴长效机制等方面作出了全方位部署，为完善强农惠农富农支持制度明确了方向。

Further improve the system for strengthening agriculture, and continuously activate the endogenous driving force of rural revitalization. Rural revitalization requires both shaping the form and forging the soul. To improve the system for strengthening agriculture, it is necessary not only to increase policy support in economic development, guide resource elements to flow to the countryside in a rational and equal manner, and narrow the urban-rural gap, but also to take more institutional measures in spiritual culture, tilt towards rural areas with greater policy intensity, smoother operational mechanisms, and more convenient and efficient operational methods, continuously and deeply carry out the construction of rural customs and civilization, and eliminate the obsolete and backward ideas and behaviors that still exist in the current countryside. Implement the project of building civilized rural customs, further strengthen the construction of farmers' ideology and morality, promote and practice core socialist values, make full use of the New Era Civilization Practice Centers [10]10 New Era Civilization Practice Centers (新时代文明实践中心) are community-level institutions established after 2018 to promote socialist core values and cultural activities. and village libraries, extensively carry out diversified cultural and sports activities, cultivate good social customs in rural areas, vigorously cultivate rural civilization, and inject inexhaustible spiritual strength into the construction of rural cultural-ethical progress.

进一步完善强农制度，持续激活乡村振兴内生动力。乡村振兴，既要塑形，又要铸魂。完善强农制度，不仅要在经济发展上加大政策支持，引导资源要素平等合理地流向乡村，缩小城乡差距，也要在精神文化上采取更多制度性举措，以更大的政策力度、更通畅的运行机制、更便捷高效的运行方式向农村倾斜，持续深入开展乡风文明建设，消除当前乡村还存在的陈旧落后的思想和行为方式。实施文明乡风建设工程，进一步加强农民思想道德建设，弘扬和践行社会主义核心价值观，充分利用新时代文明实践中心、村图书室等，广泛开展多样化的文体活动，培育农村社会良好风尚，大力培育乡村文明，为农村精神文明建设注入源源不断的精神力量。

Further improve the system for benefiting rural areas, and promote the universal and balanced distribution of rural public services. It should be noted that rural infrastructure mainly including roads, water, electricity, gas, logistics, communications, and sanitation still has problems such as focusing on construction over maintenance and focusing on use over management; rural public services mainly including education, medical care, elderly care, assistance for the needy, and assistance for the disabled still have problems such as low quality and imbalance; these problems all need to be solved by strengthening institutional construction. To this end, it is necessary to improve the guarantee mechanism for rural basic public services, systematically construct a coordinated and supporting institutional system of "construction, use, management, and maintenance" for rural infrastructure and public services by establishing and improving the institutional mechanisms and policy matching for rural infrastructure construction, continuously improve the rural living environment, and constantly enhance the quality of people's lives. Continue to promote the extension of public services to rural areas, advance the equalization of rural public services through institutionalized and legalized means, so that the peasant masses can live more comfortably, walk more smoothly, eat more safely, and enjoy richer lives, constantly increasing their sense of gain, happiness, and security.

进一步完善惠农制度，促进农村公共服务普惠均衡。应当看到，以路、水、电、气、物流、通信、环卫等为主要内容的农村基础设施还存在着重建轻养、重用轻管等问题；以教育、医疗、养老、帮困、助残等为主要内容的农村公共服务还存在着质量不高、不够均衡等问题，这些问题都有待通过强化制度建设加以解决。为此，要完善农村基本公共服务保障机制，通过建立健全农村基础设施建设体制机制和政策配套，系统构建农村基础设施和公共服务“建、用、管、养”协调配套制度体系，持续改善农村人居环境，不断提升群众生活质量。持续推动公共服务向农村延伸，以制度化法律化手段推进农村公共服务均等化，让农民群众住得更舒适、走得更平坦、吃得更放心、用得更丰富，不断增加获得感、幸福感、安全感。

Further improve the system for enriching farmers, and promote the development of rural industries. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the key to rural revitalization lies in industrial revitalization. The prerequisite for enriching farmers is to accelerate the development of rural industries, increase the cultivation of new rural industries and new business forms, open up new tracks for rural economic development, increase farmers' income through multiple channels, and strengthen the collective economy through multiple measures. It is necessary to improve the promotion mechanism for the development of county-level industries that enrich the people, use a combination of marketization and policy incentives, further guide and support the development of rural industries, smooth the channels for urban-rural integration, promote the free flow and equal exchange of various factors, and build an industrial ecology with a complete system, reasonable layout, and full vitality. Identify the focal points for the development of rural industries, guide farmers to base themselves on local advantages, make good use of "local specialties," [11]11 "Local specialties" (土特产) literally means "local products," but here it is a policy term encouraging rural areas to develop distinctive industries based on local resources. vigorously develop new rural industries and new business forms such as green food, characteristic agricultural products, integration of agriculture, culture and tourism, and health and wellness, create an institutional environment conducive to building a county-level economy with complete industrial chains, reasonable value chains, urban-rural linkage, and radiating inside and outside, and diversify the channels for increasing farmers' income.

进一步完善富农制度，促进乡村产业发展。习近平总书记指出，乡村振兴关键在产业振兴。富农的前提是加快乡村产业发展，加大乡村新产业新业态培育力度，开辟农村经济发展新赛道，多渠道增加农民收入，多举措壮大集体经济。要健全县域富民产业发展促进机制，运用市场化和政策激励相结合的手段，进一步引导、扶持乡村产业发展，畅通城乡融合渠道，促进各种要素的自由流动和平等交换，构建体系完整、布局合理、充满生机活力的产业生态。找准乡村产业发展着力点，引导农民立足本地优势，做好“土特产”文章，大力发展绿色食品、特色农产品、农文旅融合、康养健康等乡村新产业新业态，创造有利于构建产业链条完整、价值链条合理、城乡联动、辐射内外的县域经济制度环境，多元化拓展农民增收渠道。

(The author: Zhou Qisen, Distinguished Researcher of the Shandong Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Researcher of the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences)

（作者：周其森，系山东省习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员、山东社会科学院研究员）

Online Editor: Huihui

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