Rural Agenda
Stories
Internet link to prosperity
The Internet is beginning to make its presence felt in China´s countryside. A village outside Beijing where the people are surfing the high-tech tide. The farmers know you don´t have to understand advanced technology to be able to use the Internet.
Free films for villagers
Watching movies used to be a luxury for many in China´s countryside. But under a government project, farmers can watch a movie at least once a month, more often than many city dwellers do. And even better, it´s free.
Keeping students in school
The Chinese government has been promoting nine-years of compulsory education nationwide for decades. But in the vast poor rural areas, poverty causes many youngsters to drop out.
Fees waived for rural students
Starting this year, the Chinese government will scrap charges for rural students during their nine-year compulsory education. This spring semester will be remembered by Qi Qin and her family, as it marked the start of Qin´s free education for the next two years.
Students head to countryside
Many students are taking advantage of new government policies by heading to the countryside to work. Compared to his colleagues in the village, Su Yunjia is younger and less experienced. But no one will deny his sincerity.
Democracy in the countryside
Democratic management in China´s rural areas got underway 20 years ago and awareness among farmers has continued growing since.
Wasteland into forest
It´s been 7 years since China began its nationwide policy to turn both arable land and wasteland into forest. Gansu Province, the windy, sandy front of China. Farmers here have been working for years on the loess plateau to tame the environment.
Good harvest, good environment
Protecting the environment and reducing pesticide residues have become important tasks for China´s farmers. Efforts are beginning in some regions to improve the situation.
Sustainable eco-farming
A small county in East China´s Zhejiang province has put itself on the map thanks to a thousand-year old method of raising fish in rice fields. The United Nations has listed the method as a Globally Important Ingenious Agricultural Heritage.
Social security challenge
Due to China´s accelerated industrialization and urbanization, tens of millions of farmers have lost all or part of their farmland. Let´s now take a look at the situation the country´s landless farmers are facing.
Medicare in the countryside
China has never faced a bigger task than providing a sound health care system for its nearly one billion farmers. Market reforms have seen the rural population struggling to maintain basic medicare benefits. Now, a new cooperative system is giving Chinese farmers a chance of better health care.
Left to look after themselves
And many children of migrant workers have been left to fend for themselves when their parents head to the cities in search of work.
Rural economy revival
As the drive to build "a socialist new countryside" continues, the Chinese government is working out its policy priorities to help its nine hundred million rural residents.
Migrant workers´ identity crisis
Millions of farmers flock to the cities in pursuit of a better life. But the harsh reality they find with their jobs often leaves them bewildered and discouraged. In today´s segament of "Rural Agenda".
Tax cuts help farmers
Starting from January first, 2006, agricultural taxes in the northern province of Hebei, the eastern province of Shandong and the southern province of Yunan were no more. The move marked the complete abolishment of the farm tax in China, which has been in place in the country for thousands of years.
Cradle of rural reform
Nearly thirty years ago, Xiaogang Village, in East China´s Anhui Province, was a pioneer in rural reform. And nowadays, with a growing awareness of the market, local farmers are looking for a new path to revitalize their economy.
