III. Major Contents of the Document

The first major policy document of 2012 has a Foreword, Conclusion and 23 articles in six other chapters. Targeting next year's central task of ensuring effective supplies of agricultural products, the document specially focuses on the progress of agricultural science and technology on the basis of stressing on the simultaneous implementation of various measures and joint efforts from all walks of life.

The beginning of the document highlights three key areas on the basis of fully affirming achievements in agriculture, farmers and rural areas this year and deeply analyzing current difficulties and challenges: First, we should categorically not be sluggish because of the successive increase of grain production, reduce investment because of the improvement of rural areas or become lax because of the good turns in rural development; second, the document affirms the importance of agricultural science and technology: Agricultural science and technology is the basic support to ensure national food security, the necessary option of breaking through the limitations of environmental resources and the decisive force of accelerating construction of modern agriculture; it has clear public nature, basic nature and social nature; third, the document also clarified the general ideology of strengthening science and technology to ensure development, strengthening production to ensure supplies and strengthening people's livelihood to ensure stability.

The main body of the document reflects our considerations in five aspects: First, in terms of document framework, the document stresses on and strengthens support from three aspects. Around the issue of building up the capacity to guarantee agricultural product supplies in the next year and in the future, the first part stresses on the work of increasing investment and work efforts and pragmatically working on agricultural production; after that, the second, third and fourth parts put focus on sci-tech support for agriculture; the fifth part talks about infrastructural support and the sixth part discusses support from market circulation; second, in terms of the policy system of agriculture, farmers and rural areas, the document clarifies guidance in three aspects. In the past, we stressed on "supporting farmers," and later "supporting and benefiting farmers." At the Third Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee, we put forward the idea of "strengthening and benefiting farmers." In the new document, we upgrade the idea to "strengthening, benefiting and enriching farmers." This idea enriches and develops the strategic ideology of giving top priority to agricultural development, details and materializes the ideas of industry supplementing agriculture and urban areas helping rural areas, and is the precise summary of strengthening agricultural basis, benefiting development in rural areas and enriching farmers' lives. Third, in terms of investment to agriculture, farmers and rural areas, the document requires constant increases in investment in three aspects: Constantly increasing financial expenditures on agriculture, farmers and rural areas; constantly increasing the state fixed asset investment to agriculture and rural areas; and constantly increasing investment to agricultural science and technology so as to ensure growth in increment and proportion. Fourth, in terms of strengthening service of agricultural technology promotion, the document puts forward three policies in a collective manner, namely, increasing the salary of registered agricultural technicians to the same level of those working for grassroots institutions; promoting the reform of the grassroots agricultural technology promotion system and the program of constructing demonstration counties to basically cover agricultural counties (cities, districts and farms); and making the qualification construction of agricultural technology promotion organization cover all towns. Fifth, in terms of fostering new type of farmers, the document mainly adopted "three measures," namely, further increasing the fund allocation standards for students of agricultural disciplines; the state compensating the tuition fees and paying study loans for the qualified university graduates who work in rural areas; accelerating the pace of free secondary vocational education and implementing subsidy policy for vocational training so that every backup worker in rural areas can master a skill.

In conclusion, the document puts forward the general requirement on strengthening and improving the leadership of the CPC on the work of agriculture, farmers and rural areas, promoting integrated cultural development in urban and rural areas, pragmatically protecting and improving people's livelihood in rural areas and strengthening and innovating social management in rural areas.

Now, the floor is open.