Xi Charts Rural Course as 15th Five-Year Plan Era Opens

On the eve of China’s ninth Farmers’ Harvest Festival, President Xi Jinping sent congratulations and greetings to the country’s farmers and agricultural workers, using the occasion to lay out the strategic priorities for agriculture, rural areas, and farmers—known in Chinese shorthand as sannong—during the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). The message, released by Xinhua on September 22 and published in full by People’s Daily, frames rural revitalization and food security as foundational to national development as the country enters what officials call the critical period for basically achieving agricultural and rural modernization.

A Message on the Autumn Equinox

The festival falls on September 23, the autumn equinox, and marks nine consecutive years of presidential greetings since the event was established in 2018. In his message, Xi reported that summer grain output had reached a new high, early rice remained stable, and the autumn grain harvest was “in sight” (丰收在望).

The congratulatory note carried six core directives for party committees and governments at all levels: solidly advance comprehensive rural revitalization; improve the effectiveness of policies that strengthen, benefit, and enrich farmers; raise comprehensive agricultural production capacity and quality-efficiency; broaden channels for farmers to increase income; build livable, workable, and beautiful villages suited to local conditions; and strive to make farmers’ lives happier and better.

The guidance arrived on the same day the autumn equinox festival began, and a follow-up Xinhua roundup the next day captured reactions from farmers and officials across the country who said they would translate the directives into practice.

From Volume Targets to Quality and Efficiency

The most consequential signal in the message, according to a Xinhua analysis, is its emphasis on shifting agriculture “from meeting total-volume targets to the dual improvement of quality and efficiency” (从总量达标向质效双升转型). After years in which grain self-sufficiency was measured largely by output, the 15th Five-Year Plan period pushes a broader agenda: stable oil and grain production, higher-quality “vegetable basket” products, and the development of technology-driven, green, quality, and brand agriculture.

The policy architecture behind the message was set in June 2026, when the State Council issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating Agricultural and Rural Modernization. The plan sets 2030 targets including grain comprehensive production capacity of roughly 1.45 trillion jin, up from the 1.4 trillion jin milestone achieved under the 14th Five-Year Plan; added value of agriculture and related industries of 25.8 trillion yuan; an agricultural science and technology contribution rate of 67 percent; a self-sufficiency rate of 85 percent for core agricultural seed sources; and a comprehensive mechanization rate for crop cultivation, planting, and harvest above 80 percent. Rural modernization targets include a domestic sewage treatment rate of 70 percent and service coverage of township and sub-district regional elderly care centers of 80 percent.

A People’s Daily policy interpretation quoted agriculture and development officials who described the targets as a scientific setting that accounts for China’s development base, supporting conditions, and practical needs.

Income, Technology, and a ‘Beautiful Countryside’

The message treats farmer income as a central task of rural work. Xi called for strengthening the coordination of price, subsidy, and insurance policies so that growing grain becomes “profitable,” and for expanding channels for stable income growth through industry and employment—measures the analysis links directly to the broader goal of advancing common prosperity.

Technology figures prominently. The State Council plan, for the first time, proposes cultivating emerging and future industries in agriculture, including intelligent design breeding, new-energy agricultural machinery, the agricultural low-altitude economy, agricultural bio-manufacturing, and new-type foods, alongside “AI + Agriculture” initiatives. Chen Wenfu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering at Shenyang Agricultural University, told Xinhua that the emphasis on production capacity “makes me feel the weight of responsibility,” adding that his team would keep pursuing seed innovation “to provide solid support for holding China’s rice bowl steady.”

Lu Xiutao, a deputy director at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said the plan period would pursue both sown area and per-unit yield gains, deepening the strategy of “storing grain in the land and in technology” and strengthening disaster prevention and mitigation capacity.

On the rural living environment, Xi’s call to build “livable, workable, and beautiful villages” maps onto the plan’s commitments on rural roads, water supply, sewage treatment, energy, logistics, and information infrastructure, along with continued efforts on rural toilet upgrades and waste management. Zhou Pihong, party secretary of Siwu Village in Hanchuan, Hubei, said a sound ecological environment is “the most inclusive public welfare for people’s livelihoods,” vowing to continue improving the village’s living conditions.

Normalized Assistance and the Road to 2030

The message also arrives in the first year of “normalized assistance” (常态化帮扶), a mechanism intended to institutionalize poverty prevention. The Central No. 1 Document for 2026 made its first systematic deployment of normalized, precision-targeted assistance, and the 15th Five-Year Plan outline calls for a normalized mechanism to prevent a return to poverty. The shift signals a move from campaign-style poverty alleviation toward a permanent governance framework.

In the reactions collected by Xinhua, Yu Shulei, a large-scale grain grower in Dezhou, Shandong, recalled a June visit by Xi to his village. “This time, on the Harvest Festival, greetings and congratulations came again—I feel warm in my heart,” he said. “We are confident we can hand in a good answer sheet for a full-year grain harvest.”

One thread running through the messaging is the “Thousand Villages Demonstration and Ten Thousand Villages Improvement” project, a rural renewal program repeatedly invoked as a model. Jin Jing, a rural operation manager in Lizu Village, Yiwu, Zhejiang, said she was confident the village could grow better “and also drive more surrounding villages to develop together.”

What to Watch

With the 15th Five-Year Plan now underway, attention turns to implementation. The State Council plan deploys seven major tasks and a set of supporting measures, including annual monitoring, mid-term evaluation, and performance assessments tied to local party committees and governments. Whether the quality-and-efficiency shift produces measurable gains in farmer incomes—and how the new normalized assistance mechanism performs as growth pressures persist—will be key indicators over the coming five years.

As Xinhua’s analysis put it, the direction is set: along the course Xi outlined, the goal is a countryside with fuller granaries, more beautiful villages, and more prosperous farmers.