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Rural poverty approaches, policies & strategies in China

Over the past 30 years China has emerged as one of the world's leading powers, and it boasts the world's second largest economy. Since the late 1970s, as a result of a series of more open and market-oriented macroeconomic policies China has seen impressive economic growth. This has enabled the rural population to benefit considerably from opportunities in the agricultural sector and in off-farm activities. China is now one of the world's top exporters, and the country is attracting record amounts of foreign investment. The government has stepped up investments in rural areas to meet the growing market demand for agricultural products and to improve the livelihoods of rural people. One result has been a dramatic decrease over the last 30 years in the number of people living in absolute poverty.

But the country continues to face the challenge of reducing poverty. Vulnerability to poverty is still widespread in China’s rural areas. According to the World Bank’s 2005 survey-based estimates, there were still 254 million people in China living on less than US$1.25 per day. These people have low incomes and are considered to be at risk of slipping back into extreme or absolute poverty. Increased and innovative efforts are needed to tackle poverty because of its severity and its persistence in remote areas. Environmental fragility and growing disparity in income and in non-income aspects across regions and households make it even more difficult to reduce the remaining poverty.

Off-farm employment is an important source of rural income, but over 50 million rural workers are currently unemployed, and the situation is likely to deteriorate in the wake of the recent financial crisis, which may have a negative impact on the poverty situation in the country.
 
To further reduce extreme poverty, the government's new policy on “building a new socialist countryside” includes a pledge not only to boost its anti-poverty and sustainable development campaigns, but also to spend more money on rural infrastructure such as water control systems and power grids, and to cut farmers' taxes while promoting agricultural modernization and grass-roots participation. And the country has recently adjusted its poverty threshold to include about 28 million low-income people in the national poverty reduction programme.

China’s intermediate plan is basically to eliminate extreme poverty by 2020. The next 10-year poverty reduction and development plan (2011-2020) is currently being formulated.

Source: IFAD

For more information read:

• Country assistance strategy
• China's 8-7 National Poverty Reduction strategy