Focus on farmers' well-being

A new countryside in terms of villagers was put forward at the Central Rural Work Conference that concluded on Tuesday. This shifts the emphasis from rural infrastructure construction alone to more care for villagers and more attention to their benefits.

To some extent, this can be considered an antidote to what many localities have done in the construction of the new countryside, despite the fact that the living environment is an integral part of rural development.

The message being delivered is the lack of attention to the well-being of aged farmers, women and children left behind in the rural areas should not continue, and neither should the lack of protection for rural traditions and culture.

An investigation by an institute on the study of rural culture based in Central China's Hunan province found that on average 1.6 traditional villages have disappeared each day in recent years. From 2004 to 2010, the total number of traditional villages has declined from more than 9,000 to about 5,000. At the same time, the increasingly large number of rural laborers leaving for urban areas to earn livelihood has sapped the vigor of villages, which are now primarily home to the elderly, women and children.

For the sustainability of rural areas and the maintaining of traditional rural culture and traditions more attention must be paid to the establishment of a social services system to take care of the aged villagers, women and children.

For local governments, instead of coveting the money they can make from turning rural land into commercial land for real estate development, a vision is needed for the long-term development of traditional villages, many of which have great potential for tourism and sightseeing in the near future.

Improvements in the living conditions in rural areas is not necessarily in conflict with the protection of traditional villages that are unique in architecture and local traditional culture.

But the new concept requires that a local government should not make rural development plans without giving any thought to the concerns and well-being of rural residents.

They must make sure what they do in the construction of the new countryside will have a long-term positive effect on the life of villagers. They must make sure that rural residents are also beneficiaries of its construction.