Madam Chairperson,
President Kanayo Nwanze,
Distinguished Governors,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am delighted to visit Rome and join you at the Thirty-sixth Session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development to discuss ways to advance global agricultural development and poverty reduction.

This year marks the Thirty-fifth anniversary of IFAD. Over the past 35 years, IFAD has been active in raising funds, promoting global agricultural cooperation, supporting grain production in developing countries, and improving nutrition for the poor. It has made important contributions to the global endeavour for grain production and poverty reduction. The Chinese Government applauds IFAD for its untiring efforts and fruitful work.

Also 35 years ago, China launched its historic drive of reform and opening up. It marked the beginning of a new period in China, featuring fast development in grain and agricultural production and rapid decline in the population of the rural poor. Over the past 35 years China’s total grain output has almost doubled, increasing from 300 million tons to 590 million tons. Grain yield per hect are has doubled from 2.5 tons to 5.3 tons. Farmers’ per capita net income has increased by 10.8 times, representing an annual average growth of 7.5 per cent. Moreover, major headway has been made in rural infrastructure development. All villages are connected by roads. Water and electricity services, living conditions and school and hospital facilities in rural areas have seen marked improvement. Nine‑year compulsory education is now available nationwide. 130 million rural students have been exempted for miscellaneous and textbook fees. Some of them have also received subsidies for boarding accommodation and nutritious meals. The new rural cooperative medical scheme has been put into comprehensive operation, benefiting 805 million farmers. The rural subsistence allowance has been fully introduced, bringing effective assistance to more than 53 million farmers. We have also put in a place a new type of rural old-age insurance system, enabling more than 120 million farmers to receive pensions. It is fair to say that we have set up the biggest social safety net in the world.

The development of agricultural and the rural areas have lent a strong boost to our poverty reduction endeavour. Our rural population in absolute poverty has been cut by 250 million, making China the first country to attain the UN Millennium Development Goal of “halving the proportion of poor population”. By mainly relying on our own efforts, we have solved the problem of food and clothing for 20 per cent of the world population. It is one of our most important contributions to the global endeavour in reducing poverty and promoting peace and development of mankind.

What we have learned from our efforts in promoting agricultural and rural development and reducing poverty is as follows:
First, keep agriculture and poverty reduction at the top of our economic and social agenda. China is a big developing country, and the Chinese Government gives top priority to its effort in providing sufficient food supply for over 1.3 billion people. We have worked persistently to strengthen the role of agriculture as the foundation of the economy and promote agricultural modernization. We always give high priority to rural areas in developing infrastructure and social programmes and support the all-round development of the poor regions and poor people.

Second, actively support farmers’ household operation. We must make such operation the main form of agricultural operations, respect the principal role of farmers’ households in agricultural production, formulate and improve relevant laws to enhance and better protect their land rights and interests. At the same time, we need to vigorously develop farmer cooperatives and a system of agriculture-related services so as to provide more services to rural residents and develop large scale agricultural operations in diverse forms.

Third, persistently improve agricultural production conditions. We have extensively upgraded low- and medium-yield farmland to high-yield standards, enhanced irrigation and water conservancy facilities and raised the effective irrigation rate of farmland to over 50 per cent. In our effort to promote agricultural mechanization, we have raised the overall mechanization level for ploughing, planting and harvesting to 57 per cent effectively compensating for the shortfall created by shrinking workforce and increasing the efficiency. We have widely applied advanced and appropriate agricultural technologies. As a result, the contribution of scientific and technological progress to agriculture has reached 54.5 per cent. All this has substantially improved the overall agricultural production capacity.

Fourth, step up our efforts to support and protect agriculture. We have launched the reform of rural taxes and fees and fully abolished agricultural tax, greatly reducing the burden on farmers. We have promoted market-oriented agricultural development in an all-round way, by enhancing the distribution system of agricultural products, setting a floor price for the purchase of grain, and adopting the policy for temporarily purchasing and stockpiling major agricultural products. We pursue an agricultural subsidy policy consistent with WTO rules. This has effectively increased farmers’ returns and incomes.

Fifth, attach great importance to the well-being of the rural poor. We have steadfastly made development the basis of poverty alleviation, formulated three 10-year rural poverty reduction and development programmes, and carried out large scale poverty reduction and development programmes in an organized and well-planned manner. While increasing assistance for the poor people, we have, with strong government support and extensive social participation, vigorously promoted infrastructure development and supported industrial development in poor areas, as well as stepped up skill training for poor people. In so doing, we have ensured poor people’s basic livelihood and enabled poor areas to pursue sustainable development.

China has made major achievements in agricultural development and poverty reduction. However, we remain the biggest developing country in the world with a big population, a weak economic foundation and uneven development. To address issues concerning food, agriculture, poverty and development will be a long-term task. The Chinese Government will continue to give top priority to addressing issues related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, accelerate the development of modern agriculture and ensure national food security and effective supply of major agricultural products. We will work for sustained and fast growth of rural income. Efforts will also be made to integrate urban and rural development and gradually narrow the urban-rural gap. We will comprehensively improve rural production and living conditions and move faster to ensure equal access to basic public services. We will continue to carry out programmes of poverty alleviation through development, and focus our efforts in contiguous areas with particular difficulties so as to reduce the number of people living below the poverty line by a large margin by 2020.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Food is the source for the survival of mankind and agriculture is the foundation for economic growth. In recent years, the international community has made great efforts to help developing countries with agricultural production, food security and poverty reduction. However, international agricultural development is still confronted with severe challenges. There are still 870 million people in the world who suffer from malnutrition, and the outlook for food security is not optimistic. In particular, the international food prices remain high, making it very difficult for developing countries to improve nutrition and eliminate extreme poverty. There is little time left before the deadline of the MDGs, and the task before us is daunting. We need to strengthen cooperation and meet challenges together.

In line with the purpose of IFAD and the theme of this conference, I would like to take this opportunity to make the following observations on the grain production and poverty reduction in developing countries:

First, developing countries need to give priority to agricultural development, in particular grain production. It is the basic responsibility of all governments to increase grain production, enhance self-sufficiency in food supply and eliminate poverty. Governments of developing countries need to adopt strategies and policies conducive to agricultural development and poverty reduction, and  increase fiscal input in agriculture. We need to focus on supporting irrigation, water conservancy and other agricultural infrastructure programmes, introducing and applying advanced and appropriate agricultural technologies, training the farmers, and improving rural public services. While increasing public investment, we also need to leverage the role of the market actively develop rural financial services and encourage more private investment in agriculture.

Second, the international community needs to focus its cooperation on helping developing countries achieve food security and eliminate rural poverty. We should vigorously push forward North-South cooperation. Developed countries should provide long-term, stable and predictable official aid in agriculture to developing countries, pay attention to cooperation in knowledge and step up technology transfer and experience sharing. Efforts should also be made to advance South-South cooperation to encourage and promote the exchange of experience and practical cooperation between developing countries in agriculture and poverty reduction.

In addition, we must fully harness the role of international organizations, and support international organizations such as IFAD in playing a bigger role in promoting agricultural development and poverty reduction in the developing world. We need to increase the resources of these organizations to enhance their financial capacity. All countries must work together, reject trade protectionism, improve market access, and build a fair and reasonable international order for agricultural trade, so as to create a sound external environment for developing countries to develop agriculture and reduce poverty.

Third, we need to give more support to smallholders in developing countries. In these countries, smallholders remain the main force for agricultural production. To increase efficiency in poverty reduction, all parties must pay particular attention to supporting smallholders. Policy, financial and technological support must be made to help them increase productivity and income. And it is also important to promote innovation in agricultural production and operation systems in light of the national conditions of different countries. We should help smallholders get better organized in agricultural production and market access through farmer cooperatives and other means to enhance their resilience against risks.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China has taken an active part in international exchanges and cooperation in agricultural development and poverty reduction and enjoyed sound cooperation with other developing countries as well as IFAD and other international organizations. Many countries and international organizations have supported us in developing agriculture and reducing poverty, and helped us in the wake of serious natural disasters. We have also provided help to other developing countries within the realm of our capabilities through bilateral and multilateral channels. Starting from 2001, China has helped African, Asian and Latin American countries build more than 20 agricultural science and technology demonstration centres and over 10 demonstration centres for quality and high-yield agricultural produce. We have sent over 1,200 experts and technology personnel to help other developing countries with agricultural production and trained for them more than 5,000 professionals in agricultural management and technology. Going forward, China will continue to expand cooperation with other developing countries and international organizations such as IFAD.

To achieve food security and poverty alleviation on a global scale is the shared cause of developing countries and the ardent aspiration of the poor. It is also an arduous and challenging task. China is ready to work with the international community to promote global agricultural development and poverty alleviation and to contribute its share in building a more inclusive and harmonious world.

Thank you.