On September 29, the State Council Information Office held a press conference in its series on starting the 15th Five-Year Plan, briefing on accelerating agricultural and rural modernization and solidly advancing comprehensive rural revitalization. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Zhang Zhu stated that agricultural and rural development has maintained a steady and improving momentum, providing strong support for the national economy to continue its overall stable and positive trajectory.
China's grain production has continued its good momentum of stable and increasing output this year, with summer grain output exceeding 300 billion jin for the first time and early rice output stable above 56 billion jin for six consecutive years. Autumn grain is the largest component of annual grain production, accounting for about three-quarters of total output. This year's autumn grain area is expected to increase steadily, with a notable rise in high-yield crops such as corn. Currently, more than 20% of the autumn grain harvest has been completed, and a bumper harvest for the year is in sight. Zhang Zhu said, "We will make every effort to secure a bumper grain harvest."
Regarding the current and 15th Five-Year Plan period grain supply and demand situation, Zhang Zhu noted that China's food security is fully guaranteed, but grain supply and demand remain in a tight balance, and the grain supply structure still needs optimization. The "15th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating Agricultural and Rural Modernization" sets comprehensive grain production capacity as a binding indicator, explicitly proposing that by 2030 comprehensive grain production capacity should reach around 1.45 trillion jin. Zhang Zhu stated that a new round of the action to boost grain production capacity by 100 billion jin will be intensified, adhering to both stabilizing area and increasing per-unit yield. It is necessary to tighten and solidify the shared responsibility of Party and government for food security, strictly guard the farmland red line, and ensure grain area remains stable at around 1.75 billion mu; greater efforts will be made to promote the integrated增效 of good farmland, good seeds, good machinery, and good methods, and to raise per-unit yield in a large-scale and balanced manner.
On how to gradually optimize the grain supply structure, Zhang Zhu explained that in terms of regional structure, it is necessary to adapt to changes in resource endowments and supply-demand situations, rationally optimize the regional layout of grain production, better leverage the functions of advantageous areas, study and launch a new round of agricultural resource zoning, and promote better matching of agricultural production with water and soil resources. In terms of variety structure, stabilize staple grains, increase production of corn and soybeans, and expand edible oil supply through multiple channels. In terms of quality structure, guide farmers to grow good grain and improve the premium rate.
Farmland is the lifeblood of grain production. In recent years, despite frequent extreme weather, the proportion of China's crop disaster-affected area to sown area has dropped from 27.7% during the 11th Five-Year Plan to about 7% during the 14th Five-Year Plan, achieving reduced减产 in severe disasters, stable output in mild disasters, and increased output in disaster-free years. "Without these 1 billion mu of high-standard farmland, it would be difficult to reach the new level of 1.4 trillion jin in grain output," said Chen Bangxun, Director of the Development Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the construction, operation, and management mechanisms will be accelerated and improved, ensuring high-standard farmland quality is given top priority, and promoting the implementation of construction tasks.
To ensure 1.4 billion people eat enough, eat well, and eat nutritiously and healthily, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period efforts will also focus on building a diversified food supply system, seeking food from facility agriculture, from rivers, lakes, and seas, from forests and grasslands, and from biological agriculture.
After five years of transitional period efforts, the endogenous development momentum of poverty-stricken areas and people has continued to strengthen, effectively consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation achievements, Zhang Zhu said. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, a new stage of regularized assistance will begin. The Party Central Committee and State Council have issued documents on establishing a regularized mechanism to prevent returning to poverty, relevant departments have issued 23 supporting policy documents, and localities have refined measures based on actual conditions, basically forming a "1+23+N" policy system for regularized assistance. This year, the central government arranged 177 billion yuan in regularized assistance funds, focusing on industrial assistance, employment assistance, and developmental assistance for underdeveloped areas. Regularized assistance will be incorporated into the rural revitalization strategy for coordinated implementation. Monitoring areas and targets will cover all provinces and all rural populations. Assistance methods will emphasize combining online and offline approaches, optimizing farmer self-application, departmental big data early warning, and grassroots cadre daily inspections, achieving early detection, early intervention, and early assistance, ensuring that all who should be included are included and all who should be helped are helped. Management will implement "entry and exit" dynamic management, directing limited assistance resources to those most in need. Currently, 160 national key assistance counties for rural revitalization and 390 provincial-level key assistance counties have been identified in central and western regions, and statistical monitoring, regular evaluation, and dynamic adjustment mechanisms will be further improved, with tilted support in finance, banking, land, and talent.
Industrial revitalization is the top priority and foundation of rural revitalization. Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Maierdan Mugaiti stated that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will guide localities to leverage distinctive resources, expand multiple functions of agriculture, tap diverse rural values, and accelerate the construction of a modern rural industrial system. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, rural industries improved quality and efficiency, with new industries and formats such as rural e-commerce and rural leisure tourism flourishing. In 2025, there were over 100,000 large-scale agricultural product processing enterprises nationwide with operating revenue of nearly 18 trillion yuan, leisure agriculture operating revenue reached 950 billion yuan, and online retail sales of agricultural products reached 783.3 billion yuan. "We will continuously broaden channels and methods for farmers to participate in rural industrial development, improve mechanisms linking farmers and driving agriculture, keep more jobs in rural areas, and leave more value-added benefits of the industrial chain to farmers," said Maierdan Mugaiti.
Rural reform in recent years has continued to deepen, with achievements such as the "separation of three rights" for rural contracted land and reform of the rural collective property rights system benefiting the broad masses of farmers. Chen Bangxun explained that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the main line of rural reform remains handling the relationship between farmers and land. Regarding contracted land, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the second round of land contracts for the vast majority of farmers will expire, and the pilot program to extend the second round of land contracts for another 30 years after expiration must be solidly advanced. Currently, this work is being piloted province-wide in 29 provinces, and more than 30 million farmers have smoothly signed extension contracts. Regarding homestead land, efforts will continue to focus on "ensuring housing, controlling unauthorized construction, and revitalizing idle assets," promoting reasonable land use for rural residential construction, guiding localities to strengthen homestead approval management, strictly investigating and preventing illegal and disciplinary actions, and strictly adhering to legal and policy bottom lines; guiding localities to revitalize and utilize idle rural houses through leasing, shareholding, cooperation, and other methods on the basis of fully respecting farmers' wishes, giving farmers an additional source of property income. Regarding reform of the collective property rights system, the focus is on confirming rights, empowering rights, and activating rights. There are approximately 930 million members of rural collective economic organizations nationwide, with 6.58 billion mu of collective land resources. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, localities will be guided to accelerate the construction of operating mechanisms for rural collective economic organizations with clear property rights and reasonable distribution, promote standardized construction of rural property rights trading markets, revitalize collective assets and resources, and develop new rural collective economies steadily according to local conditions. Regarding the construction of the operating system, moderately scaled operating entities will be developed in a coordinated manner alongside support for ordinary farmers. China still has about 200 million small farmers, while new agricultural operating entities continue to grow, with about 6 million family farms and farmer cooperatives, and about 1.08 million commercial social service entities serving about 89 million small farmers. "During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will continue to adhere to 'large where appropriate, small where appropriate,' cultivate and strengthen new agricultural operating entities, improve the convenient and efficient agricultural social service system, establish and perfect a modern agricultural operating system that supports industrial development and drives farmers' income growth, and promote the organic connection between small farmers and modern agricultural development," Chen Bangxun stated.