[Guangming Forum]

This year is the fifth year of the transition period for consolidating and expanding the results of poverty alleviation and effectively connecting with rural revitalization, and it is also a critical last year. After years of continuous assistance, infrastructure and public services in poverty-stricken counties have continued to improve, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents has increased from 14,051 yuan in 2021 to 17,522 yuan in 2024, and the growth rate has been faster than the national average for rural residents for four consecutive years. It is the key to continue to maintain this good development trend and continuously enhancing the endogenous development momentum of poverty-stricken areas and people who have been lifted out of poverty.

Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Plan for Accelerating the Construction of an Agriculture Power (2024-2035)", emphasizing "enhancing the endogenous development momentum of poverty-stricken areas and people who have been lifted out of poverty." The endogenous development momentum is the core engine driving the high-quality economic and social development. Cultivating and strengthening this source of power is not only a strategic task to effectively connect the results of consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, but also an essential requirement for building an agricultural power and promoting common prosperity.

The continuous increase in income of people who have been lifted out of poverty is an important symbol of consolidation of the results of poverty alleviation. From the perspective of income structure, operating income and wage income are the main sources of income for poverty-stricken areas and people who have been lifted out of poverty. To improve the ability of people who have been lifted out of poverty to increase their income and become rich, we must firmly grasp the two key points of industry and employment, continue to encourage, cultivate and enhance the endogenous motivation of people who have been lifted out of poverty and promote the qualitative change from "blood transfusion assistance" to "hematopoietic revitalization". During the five-year transition period, all regions and departments will focus on increasing the income of people who have been lifted out of poverty as the main focus, and promote various resources and assistance measures to promote industrial development and expand employment, so as to make the foundation for poverty alleviation more stable.

Let’s find more ways to help the high-quality development of the industry. Developing industries is the fundamental solution to cultivating the endogenous development momentum of poverty-stricken areas. During the five-year transition period, various regions further adjusted and optimized the industrial structure of the leading industries for assistance. The top ten leading industries such as herbivorous animal husbandry, fruits, vegetables, grain and oil, Chinese medicinal materials, pigs, tea, edible fungi, poultry, and potatoes stood out, leading to a large number of people and a significant driving effect. To further promote the quality and efficiency improvement of leading industries, we need to seize two major opportunities. First, seize the empowerment of digital technology. Make good use of the digital and intelligent technology advantages of large enterprises, encourage and promote the construction of digital rural and smart agricultural projects, and promote the quality and efficiency improvement of the leading industries to assist in through production efficiency optimization. The second is to make good use of the connecting funds. The Ministry of Finance has issued in advance the central government’s financial coordination and promotion of rural revitalization subsidy funds in 2025, with a total national funding scale of 159.3 billion yuan. We must take the development of the industry that connects agriculture and brings agriculture and enriches agriculture as the priority support content for the central government's financial coordination and promotion of rural comprehensive revitalization, make full use of the connection funds, accelerate the filling of rural infrastructure shortcomings in poverty-stricken areas, and give priority to the layout of supporting facilities required for industrial development.

The implementation of employment of people who have been lifted out of poverty is the top priority. Actively expanding employment is an important way to enhance the endogenous development momentum of people who have been lifted out of poverty. To expand employment for people who have been lifted out of poverty, we should pay attention to implementing policies according to the region and person. On the one hand, for the weak laborers among the people who have lifted out of poverty and laborers with local employment needs, we must use public welfare positions, employment assistance workshops, etc. to absorb the poverty-stricken people to find employment locally. In the construction of rural engineering projects, the implementation of labor-for-relief is carried out, public welfare jobs are expanded, and farmers can find employment and increase their income at their doorstep. On the other hand, for the transferred poverty-stricken employed people in counties, we will increase efforts to develop county-level industries with obvious comparative advantages, strong driving capacity and large employment capacity, and use digital and intelligent technology to establish a regional labor cooperation platform, cultivate regional labor brands, and promote employment expansion and income growth of people who have been lifted out of poverty.

Combining aspiration and intelligence support is an important starting point. Doing a good job in ambition and intellectual support is related to the fundamental improvement and long-term development of the people who have been lifted out of poverty to increase their income and become rich. Only when the ideological understanding changes can the endogenous development momentum of the people who have been lifted out of poverty be stimulated. The combination of aspiration and aspiration for wisdom also requires the use of wisdom to lead aspiration and promote wisdom with will. With wisdom and ambition, we should focus on cultivating a group of leaders in getting rich with strong leading and exemplary role, high scientific and technological literacy, a sense of responsibility and affinity, leading and driving the people who have been lifted out of poverty to change their production methods and improve production and operation efficiency. In order to seize the opportunities of rural talent cultivation such as "leaders" industry leaders and new professional farmers in poverty-stricken areas, it is necessary to strengthen school-local cooperation, promote the cultivation of new farmers and new agricultural talents, and build a group of new forces leading the industrial development of poverty-stricken areas. To this end, we must develop vocational education for poverty-stricken areas, encourage people who have been lifted out of poverty to actively participate in the development of modern rural industries such as agricultural product processing and circulation, rural leisure tourism, green agriculture, and ecological agriculture, activate and mobilize all talent capital and labor resources in poverty-stricken areas, realize the benign interaction between talent leadership and mass participation, improve the ability and level of new agricultural business entities to connect and drive small farmers, and effectively improve the ability of people who have been lifted out of poverty to increase their income and become rich.

Author: Zhang Qi (Director and Professor of the Research Center of Rural Revitalization and Development of Beijing Normal University)