Ways to improve rural living conditions
Tar road innovation project greatly improves transportation efficiency in Lianshui Village, Shuangfeng County, Loudi City, Hunan Province. Photo: CFP
Upgrade of the rural living environment is closely related to improving farmers’ well-being and the construction of a beautiful China. Since China adopted a three-year action plan to improve the rural living environment in 2018, the long-standing description of China’s rural areas as “dirty, disordered, and poor” has been reversed. At the end of 2021, a five-year campaign was launched to upgrade villages to a more livable, beautiful, and clean setting.
At present, there are still some problems with the improvement of China’s rural living environment. To this end, we propose that we can improve the quality of rural living environments through farmers’ active participation in the whole process, targeted mechanisms, and an emphasis on local culture, so that the “small intervention” of improved rural living environments can contribute more to the “grand strategy” of rural vitalization.
Part of rural vitalization
Improving the rural living environment is of great significance to the realization of rural vitalization. On the one hand, the rural vitalization strategy is a systematic project that requires not only economic prosperity and social development, but also a beautiful and livable environment. In the Strategic Plan for Rural Vitalization (2018-2022), China’s rural ecological environment protection has received unprecedented attention. It proposes creation of an “eco-livable” rural area by means of strengthening infrastructure, improving village aesthetics, and creating long-term mechanisms, to enrich the deeper meaning of, and expand, the rural living environment.
Since this rural vitalization strategy was introduced, the concept of layered development of villages, and orderly agricultural and rural modernization in villages, through different regions and at different stages of development, has become an important guideline for the improvement of rural living environments.
On the other hand, in efforts to improve rural living environments, we also focus on solving practical problems such as toilet waste, rural garbage collection, sewage systems, and rural landscapes, to make rural areas more ecologically sound and livable. A good rural living environment not only attracts more talent to return home and start their own businesses in villages, but also promotes the transformation of rural ecological resources into economic resources by tapping rural ecological potential, and expands a new space for rural industrial development while improving the value of ecological products. In the process of improving the rural living environment, we help farmers form modern lifestyles, enhance their health and environmental awareness, and promote social etiquette and dignity.
In addition, effective rural governance consists of an environmental evaluation system and village-level senior-dominated organizations formed in the governance process. That said, improving the living environment in villages and strengthening rural infrastructure and services will greatly contribute to the common prosperity of farmers and rural areas.
Encouraging farmers’ participation
The government has invested a large amount of capital and policy support in projects to build a more beautiful China, improving rural environments, and establishing model villages. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the central government allocated a total of 25.8 billion yuan in special funds for rural environmental improvements. However, top-down government-led projects improving rural living environments are likely to create a scene where “the government is toiling while people are simply watching.” For example, some local governments tend to bundle all tasks or take a “one-size-fits-all” approach, making some construction projects impractical. On the other hand, farmers are mostly passive participants in this construction, and their sense of responsibility, public awareness, environmental awareness, mutual assistance, and self-discipline all need to be improved. In some areas, the idea of “waiting for things to be taken care of and relying on others” has not fundamentally changed.
Therefore, to continue to improve the rural living environment, the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of farmers must be stimulated and their role must be highlighted, to transform them from “passive recipients” to “active participants” and from a “supporting role” to a “leading role.”
To be specific, farmers must become planners. In the early stage of the plan, farmers’ opinions and views should be fully consulted because they have the most direct and extensive experience in solving rural living environment problems. Second, farmers are builders. We need to fully mobilize farmers to improve the environments in front of and behind their houses by means of labor and material supply, and actively support the development of infrastructure and public service facilities. Third, farmers must be treated as supervisors. They can be employed as rural environmental inspectors to delineate responsibility zones in detail and supervise landscaping, public environment maintenance, garbage disposal, sewage discharge, and other local issues. Next, farmers are the evaluators. They can be guided to regularly score the cleanliness and tidiness of public spaces in front of their houses and behind, and conduct regular “clean courtyard” and “healthy family” evaluations. Finally, farmers should be taken as beneficiaries. We need to encourage people to work together, jointly build, manage, and evaluate rural living environments, so that the benefits of improving rural living environments will be shared by farmers, and their sense of gain, happiness, and security will be enhanced.
Better maintenance is key
Since 2018, China stepped up efforts to improve rural infrastructure, by building toilets, domestic sewage, and household garbage treatment systems. By the end of 2020, more than 68% of rural households in China had access to sanitary toilets, 25.5% of rural domestic sewage was treated, and more than 90% of rural households had their domestic waste collected and transported. However, in the process of improving rural living environments, the phenomenon of “emphasizing construction but neglecting management and protection” and “infrastructure is here but no one uses it” still exists. Due to the lack of long-term maintenance mechanisms, some rural public toilets, sewage treatment facilities, street lights, and other early stage infrastructure, have not been put into good use or even gone idle.
In this light, we need to classify the construction, management, and protection of rural projects in line with their nature. Either as a public welfare good, quasi-commercial, or commercial project, on top of which the physical geographical conditions, residents’ living customs, economic and social development levels and other attributes, including construction content, technical difficulty, and funding scale should also be taken into consideration to prolong the usage of these investments.
For public welfare projects with low technical difficulties, such as the micro-renovation of existing agricultural houses, construction of new houses, demolition of idle buildings, greening and beautification of house exteriors, farmers can make their own choices, raise funds by themselves, build by themselves, and manage themselves. But for village lanes and road renovation, garbage sorting facilities, and the environmental beautification of public areas, people must rely on joint efforts from “county-level planning+township implementation and management+village-level construction and maintenance.”
For large-scale public welfare projects that require large investments, and quasi-commercial projects with complex technical schemes, such as rural roads, bridge construction, public toilets, garbage sorting centers, sewage treatment plants, water supply modification, and so forth, the work must be handled in the form of government projects and by professional organizations. Upon completion, the local government should be responsible for operation and maintenance, and gradually third party management can be used.
For rural B&Bs, leisure farms, agricultural parks, pastoral complexes, and other commercial projects, we can encourage social capital to support the countryside, and explore operating modes such as “village cooperatives+village collective companies+talent returning to the countryside,” to invigorate rural resources and stimulate rural vitality through market-oriented operations.
Value of local culture
On the whole, through the improvement of rural living conditions and the construction of a more beautiful countryside, the ecological environment has been notably better in China’s rural areas, and those formerly under the grip of dirt and disorder were relieved, boosting the quality of life for farmers. By the end of 2020, more than 95% of villages across the country have launched a clean-up campaign, 100% of towns and administrative villages—where conditions permit—have paved roads and bus lines, and more than 50,000 beautiful and livable villages have been built.
However, with the basic shaping of the rural ecological pattern, some rural cultural functions have degenerated, especially as kinship relationships weaken and as our current rural society experiences changing geographical characteristics, some of the natural rural collectivism culture and strong public sentiments have faded away. In practice, some locations only focus on external lighting projects for villages, overlooking the villagers’ intellectual and cultural needs for entertainment, neighborhood relations, community governance, and other aspects. The inheritance and protection of rural handicrafts and folk culture are also inadequate.
Going forward, rural ecology should be the priority, while rural cultural functions must also be enhanced. First, the protection and inheritance of cultural resources are key. We need to comprehensively categorize rural cultural resources, blend cultural symbols and traditions as we improve and upgrade rural living environments, and inject more cultural “soul” into rural construction and development. Traditional villages, traditional houses, ancient buildings, ancient roadways, and farming tools can be used to build cultural exhibition sites such as agriculture museums, folk custom museums, and village heritage museums, to better protect and inherit intangible cultural heritages such as local operas, traditional handicrafts, and local family culture, and enhance the meaning of rural culture.
At the same time, integrated development of agriculture, culture, and tourism represents a future trend. Based on rural cultural traditions and ecological and natural resources, we can develop various agricultural functions, promote the mutual penetration of agricultural production with cultural tourism, cultural creativity, educational research and practice, and create other new forms of business, to build the economic strength of rural living environments by enhancing rural industries development levels.
Last but not least, the role of culture must not be underestimated in rural social governance. With the help of ethics, knowledge, beliefs, and customs, rural social governance will be broader and deeper. For example, the planning, design, construction, and management of rural household garbage, sewage treatment, and village landscape beautification projects can be translated into village rules and regulations to standardize rural living environment improvement.
Lu Qing is from the Institute of Rural Economy at Hubei Academy of Social Sciences.
Edited by YANG XUE