On February 2, the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee Conference on Rural Work was convened in Chengdu. Wang Xiaohui, Secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, attended the Conference and delivered a speech. He highlighted that it is necessary to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statements on efforts concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers while earnestly putting into practice the visions outlined at the Central Rural Work Conference. He asked relevant parties to learn from and apply the experience from the Green Rural Revival Program, make all-around efforts to promote rural revitalization, vigorously advance the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and accelerate the transformation of Sichuan from a major agricultural province to a powerhouse in this sector.

Huang Qiang, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Governor of the People's Government of Sichuan Province, presided over the first session.

The Conference conveyed visions outlined at the Central Rural Work Conference and read out the Notice on Praising Advanced Cities and Units for Rural Revitalization in Sichuan Province in 2023 and the Decision on Naming Advanced Counties (County-level Cities and Districts), Counties (County-level Cities and Districts) with Remarkable Achievements, Excellent Key Counties (County-level Cities and Districts) to Receive Assistance, Advanced Townships, Demonstration Villages, and Excellent Key Villages to Receive Assistance in Rural Revitalization in Sichuan Province in 2023 issued by the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and the People's Government of Sichuan Province, as well as the Decision on Naming Star-rated Modern Agricultural Parks in Sichuan Province in 2023 issued by the People's Government of Sichuan Province. Wang Xiaohui, Huang Qiang, and other provincial officials awarded plaques to the commended and newly named advanced representatives.

In his speech, Wang Xiaohui pointed out that General Secretary Xi Jinping has put great importance on work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Last year when making local inspections and attending relevant important meetings, he delivered significant speeches and put forward requirements in this regard. Especially at the Central Economic Work Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping said that sustained efforts should be made to do a good job in the work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers and designated it as a key task of this year's economic work. Before the Central Rural Work Conference, he delivered an important instruction, underscoring that to advance Chinese modernization, the country must make unremitting efforts to strengthen the foundation of the agricultural sector and advance rural revitalization across the board. This has clarified the path for the work on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers on China's new journey in the new era. General Secretary Xi Jinping is very concerned about the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in Sichuan. During his visit to the province in 2023, he clearly proposed that we should make all-encompassing efforts to advance rural revitalization. The new mission he gave to Sichuan and the higher expectations he had for Sichuan demanded we make concrete efforts to do a good job in the work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

According to Wang Xiaohui, since last year, the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee has thoroughly put into practice the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee. It has insisted on taking agriculture, rural areas, and farmers as the top priority. Sichuan then achieved another bumper harvest in grain production, continuously consolidated the achievements of poverty alleviation, accelerated the development of modern agriculture, consistently improved the living standards of farmers, and made solid progress in building a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in, securing remarkable results in various aspects. In the face of the new situation and tasks, we must have a deeper understanding that against the backdrop of Chinese modernization, the modernization of agriculture and rural areas is the basic support. We should focus on shoring up weak links in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers and speed up the leap from a major agricultural province to a powerhouse in this sector so that Sichuan's modernization can be more solidly based with better quality and achievements. Under the general situation of economic recovery, the status of agriculture as a fundamental industry is more prominent. Only by consolidating and enhancing the positive trend of Sichuan's agricultural development can it be more supported to stabilize growth, employment, and prices across the province and better grasp the strategic initiative to cope with risks and challenges. Following the general logic of urban-rural integrated development, we should tap into the huge potential of rural areas as soon as possible. With the flow of production factors between urban and rural areas and the opening up of the economic cycle, the huge consumption and investment demands in rural areas will be further released, which is conducive to expanding our development space and accelerating modernization. To accomplish the general goal of promoting common prosperity, it is particularly important to increase farmers' income continuously. We need to give more priority to increasing farmers' income and do everything possible to help them increase their income so that they can have a more tangible sense of gain. All departments at all levels in Sichuan should always follow the right path in pursuing the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers and apply General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statements concerned in Sichuan. It is required to thoroughly learn from and apply the experience from the Green Rural Revival Program, build a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in, promote rural revitalization on all fronts, hold the bottom line of safeguarding food security and avoiding a large-scale return to poverty, develop a higher-level Tianfu Granary in the new era, and catalyze the modernization of agriculture and rural areas in our province.

Wang Xiaohui noted that it is crucial to keep improving the ability to ensure food security. Increasing per unit crop yield needs to be prioritized. The province should launch campaigns to increase the per unit yield of major grain and oil crops, vigorously develop the modern seed industry, support the development of agricultural science, technology, and equipment, fully mobilize the enthusiasm for grain production, and coordinate the supply of important agricultural products such as pigs and vegetables. Arable land should be better protected and developed. Offsetting cultivated land used for other purposes should be standardized. Greater efforts await to be invested in the regular management of abandoned land and fragmented farmland. It is demanded to make substantial progress in the cultivation of high-standard cropland and make sure that the cultivated area increases every year. We should intensify efforts to shore up weak links in irrigation and drainage, coordinate and promote the planning, construction, and management of large and medium-sized water conservancy projects and "five small water conservancy" facilities, and effectively enhance the ability to cope with extreme weather.

Wang Xiaohui highlighted that it is imperative to continuously consolidate and expand the achievements in poverty alleviation. Relevant parties should put the monitoring and assistance mechanism for preventing relapse into poverty in place, further improve the regular monitoring grid management system, and discover and solve all kinds of emerging and tendentious problems in time. The effectiveness of assistance work needs to be steadily improved. No effort should be spared to improve the quality and efficiency of the industries receiving assistance, and we should initiate employment campaigns to prevent relapse into poverty, make solid progress in follow-up support for relocation, and try every way to maintain the rapid growth momentum of income for people who have been lifted out of poverty. It is necessary to invest more in supporting key areas while coordinating resources such as collaboration and paired assistance between the eastern and western regions, resident officials in villages to work on poverty relief, and social assistance. Priority should be given to the revitalization and development of key counties and villages receiving assistance. We will help meet the basic needs of underdeveloped counties and keep improving the development conditions and enhance the development momentum of areas that have just shaken off poverty.

According to Wang Xiaohui, it is of vitally important to make substantial progress in building a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in. We should upgrade the living environments in rural areas across the province, carry out regular village cleaning campaigns, and implement plans to improve weak aspects of basic conditions. It is demanded to integrate the conservation and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, continuously enhance the capability and level of rural governance, and constantly improve rural production and living conditions. Efforts should be made to see a higher level of rural industrial development, better results in local product development, and progress in modern agricultural park construction. We should contribute to the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas, launch campaigns to upgrade the intensive processing of agricultural products, and encourage the high-quality development of agricultural product circulation. We will be committed to boosting the stable increase of farmers' income, implementing measures for high-quality and full employment of migrant workers, exploring all possible ways to increase farmers' income, improving the mechanism to cooperate with and drive farmers, and taking multiple measures to increase farmers' operating and property income. The focus should be laid on pilot and demonstration projects, encouraging the cultivation and construction of top villages and demonstration villages in building a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in, to see more satisfying results on all fronts.

Wang Xiaohui emphasized the need to proactively and steadily deepen the reform of agriculture and rural areas. We should move faster to shape a modern agricultural management system, prioritize the development of family farms and farmers' cooperatives, perfect the commercial agricultural services system, and effectively connect small-scale farmers and modern agricultural development. With deepening pilot reform of urban-rural integrated development in counties, we should strive to take the lead in making breakthroughs in key areas and links. To better benefit local farmers, we have to step up efforts to develop new rural collective economies, deepen the reform of the rural collective property rights system, and innovate the model for developing the collective economy.

Wang Xiaohui clarified that the key to advancing rural revitalization across the board and accelerating the construction of Sichuan as a powerhouse in agriculture lies in the Party. It is necessary to uphold and strengthen the Party's overall leadership over the work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, make sure Party secretaries at five levels shoulder their responsibilities for rural revitalization, continuously improve the effect of work, and promote the implementation of various plans with the spirit of perseverance. We should intensify efforts to see the Party's conduct improved and its discipline enforced, roll out targeted measures to fight against formalism and bureaucracy, standardize and optimize all kinds of agriculture-related supervision, inspection, and assessment, resolutely control the "micro power" at the primary level in rural areas and punish the "micro corruption" around people. We should be brave enough to shoulder heavy responsibilities, tackle hard tasks, implement all measures in an uncompromising and vigorous manner, be realistic and pragmatic, and do good deeds, to continuously forge new prospects for developing agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in Sichuan.

In the form of video and telephone conference, sub-venues of the Conference were set up in all cities and autonomous prefectures. At the second session chaired by Hu Yun, Vice Governor of the People's Government of Sichuan Province, Yu Lijun, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Director General of the Organization Department of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, made work arrangements and representatives of Chengdu, Panzhihua, Deyang, Mianyang, Guangyuan, Leshan, and Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture delivered speeches. Relevant provincial officials, as well as heads of relevant provincial departments (units), some central units in Sichuan, provincial scientific research institutions, universities, and state-owned enterprises also attended the event at the main venue.