Now that China has eradicated abject poverty across the country — by lifting some 55 million rural residents out of that dire situation over the past five years — the time is ripe for the government to shift its policy focus to vitalizing the vast countryside. This intent has been reaffirmed in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, as well as the Government Work Report that Premier Li Keqiang delivered at the opening of the National People's Congress' annual session last week.

The recent establishment of the new national administration for rural vitalization, the successor to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, serves to provide an institutional guarantee that efforts at promoting rural vitalization in an all-around way — from modernizing the agricultural sector, upgrading countryside infrastructure, improving public services in rural areas, to raising farmers' incomes — will succeed in the years to come.

Yet the tasks ahead are daunting, given the huge population of around 550 million in rural areas.

This, in addition to the possibility that some of them may slip back into poverty due to misfortunes such as diseases or natural disasters, makes it imperative for grassroots government officials to always guard against such an eventuality and try to reverse it once it happens through early intervention and timely assistance.

Thus a five-year transition period has been designated for local governments to consolidate the achievements they have made in poverty alleviation and pave the way for the drive to comprehensively vitalize the rural areas. Special emphasis is to be put on policy continuity throughout the period to prevent any interruptions to the inputs of material, financial and human resources that have been indispensable to the success of the poverty relief programs.

How to markedly raise farmers' incomes will be pivotal to the success of the rural vitalization program, as well as the country's overall growth prospects which increasingly rely on domestic demand. The per capita annual consumption expenditure of rural residents was 13,713 yuan ($2,100) last year, about half that of urban residents. This means there is still huge potential waiting to be tapped in the rural consumer market, which can only be released if farmers' incomes steadily increase.

Thus rural work must center on policy support that can help farmers significantly raise their incomes, for example, through building agricultural product supply chains, training farmers for jobs in the service and industrial sectors, and boosting e-commerce for brand-name farm produce.

How fast farmers' incomes increase will in a way determine how enthusiastically they will embrace the rural vitalization program, and without their support and active participation it will be impossible to make any headway in the endeavor.