How to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas? Dang Guoying: Part-time work is an important way to increase peasants' incomes

Reporter | Xi Xiaodan

Edit | Zhai Ruimin

An important breakthrough point in the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy is to increase farmers' incomes, so what is the way to achieve it? Dang Guoying, a senior researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that part-time work is an important way to increase farmers' incomes.

On October 26, 2021, the "2021 Rural Revitalization Summit Forum" with the theme of "Industrial Empowerment and Rural Revitalization" was held in Beijing. Experts attending the meeting held that to revitalize the rural areas, we must first revitalize the industry, pay attention to whether the peasants' incomes can be raised, and solve the problem of how to narrow the gap between urban and rural incomes.

The outline of the national "14th Five-Year Plan" issued this year has made a comprehensive deployment for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. At the same time, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Rural Revitalization has been implemented since June 1, 2021. All these have created a better institutional and legal environment for China's rural revitalization strategy.

At present, China's rural revitalization is still facing many difficulties. Dang Guoying said that the more specialized, large-scale and modern agriculture is, the more farmers need to work part-time.

Dang Guoying mentioned that the total scale of China's economy is currently 100 trillion yuan, and the country's demand for nearby part-time employment is 64 trillion yuan, that is to say, if the economic scale below the urban level reaches 64 trillion yuan, then the income level of farmers can compete with that of urban residents.

"However, it is basically impossible to achieve a level of income for farmers to be similar to that of cities." Dang Guoying said that the current problem of rural revitalization is how to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas and increase peasant incomes through development and industry.

From the experience of some developed countries, the main labor force can earn more income by working part-time near the farm. For example, Dang Guoying said that the income of rural households in the United States is slightly higher than the income level of urban residents, which requires four conditions: First, the peasant household must be in the vicinity of the industry; second, the nearest concurrent industry must have an industry; third, there is an organization that carries the economic activities of the agricultural industry chain; and fourth, the rural population is several times that of the agricultural population.

"The problem of part-time employment in the vicinity of our country is quite prominent." Dang Guoying believes that the proportion of non-agricultural income in the income of peasant households in China is getting larger and larger, but compared with the United States, the four conditions mentioned above are not sufficient.

He introduced that the distance between farmers and farmers can not be too far from the countryside, "At present, China calls farmers working part-time as 'rural transfer labor', which is essentially separated from the countryside, if you live in the city for more than half a year, you belong to urban residents." Therefore, he believes that to balance agricultural production and farmers, it is necessary for the farmer's family farm to be not too far away from the location of the part-time business, that is, the town.

At the same time, part-time industry needs to rely on industrial development, and the organization that carries the economic activities of the agricultural industry chain is preferably agricultural professional cooperatives. "Because farmers' own professional cooperatives can sign long-term part-time contracts with farmers, in this way, farmers can directly work near the industrial chain, and the economic activity organization in the industrial chain is the farmer's own organization, and farmers can obtain benefits outside of land agriculture by working part-time here." Dang Guoying said.

Dang Guoying stressed that to achieve the expansion of the value of the rural industrial chain, the rural population should be several times the agricultural population, if the scale of the rural population is not large enough, then the economic scale is not large enough, and the opportunity for part-time employment will be less.

As for the basic issue of rural industrial development, Song Hongyuan, former director of the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and dean of the Rural Revitalization Research Institute of Huazhong Agricultural University, said that the high-quality development of agriculture needs to promote the integrated development of rural first, second, and third industries.

Yuan Wenxian, president of the China Association for Poverty Alleviation and Development, said, "Industrial revitalization is an important measure to consolidate the effective connection between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. "Rural industries are thriving, and we need to do a good job in five aspects," First, the breeding and breeding industry is the top priority in all industries; second, the government should guide the construction of the whole industrial chain and form an industrial cluster; third, industrial products must be marketized, and the industry can have a way out; fourth, the tilt and support of funds are very important; fifth, agriculture-related services should be standardized, supervision should be strengthened, and the ecological environment should be protected. ”

In addition, Ren Tiemin, former director of the Planning and Finance Department of the National Rural Revitalization Bureau, also pointed out at the forum that the core problem of rural revitalization is "how to retain people", "In a sense, retaining people is more important than industry." ”