China’s annual No.1 central document for 2026 sets a pragmatic, income‑centred agenda for rural policy, aiming to anchor agricultural modernization and accelerate comprehensive rural revitalization. The policy package, released as a CPC State Council opinion, frames four priority tasks — boosting agricultural capacity and quality, implementing sustained precision assistance, promoting stable farmer income growth, and tailoring efforts to make rural areas livable and business‑friendly — backed by two institutional supports focused on governance innovation and strengthened Party leadership.
Officials presenting the document told state media that the package is both short‑term and strategic: it identifies tasks to be completed by 2026 while laying down direction through the coming Five‑Year period. That dual focus is reflected in a cluster of measures designed to tackle immediate pressures — soft commodity prices, employment strain for migrant workers, and under‑utilized rural assets — alongside longerterm moves to build county economies and institutionalize protections for grain producers.
A central plank is explicit support to stabilize farmers’ returns from grain and staple production. Beijing will “pool” tools of price policy, subsidies and insurance: using minimum purchase prices, target prices and policy reserves to prop up market levels; continuing arable‑land and crop‑specific subsidies for rice, corn and soybeans; and maintaining machinery purchase and application subsidies. Local pilots for interest‑subsidized loans to grain and oilseed planting are also encouraged to deliver cash support directly to growers.
Beyond price supports, the document pushes county‑level industrial development as the principal route to higher rural incomes. Local governments are urged to harness distinct regional resources to cultivate differentiated county economies, avoid homogenized competition, and strengthen project planning. New economy channels such as rural e‑commerce and livestreaming are singled out for regulation and standardization so they contribute to, rather than hollow out, sustainable farmer income streams.
Labour income — which forms a large share of rural household earnings — receives intense attention. The opinion promises measures to stabilize migrant‑worker employment, support firms to expand hiring, run large‑scale vocational training aligned to market demand, and provide services for both outbound workers and returnee entrepreneurs. The central authorities also emphasize wage protection, promising stepped‑up enforcement against arrears during the Lunar New Year wage settlement peak and stronger organized labour‑market matching after the holiday.
Politically, the document reiterates a familiar but consequential line: rural policy is a matter of Party leadership and governance innovation. That signals Beijing’s priority to lock in rural stability and livelihoods as part of its broader legitimacy compact, while using institutional tools to try to prevent future shocks to farmer incomes. For international observers, the moves matter for food security signalling, possible impacts on commodity flows and prices, and the ways China aims to convert rural reforms into domestic demand.
The package is technically detailed and operationally wide‑ranging, but its success will depend on implementation at the prefectural and county levels. Key risks include local fiscal strains, duplication of subsidies, and the limits of short‑term price supports if global agricultural markets continue to depress returns. Still, the document marks a shift from rhetorical rural support to a menu of concrete instruments designed to shore up incomes, protect grain production and coax structural transformation at the county level.