Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers a speech during the central rural work conference in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua]

The rural basic management system must improve

The rural land management rights transfer, land concentration and scale land use should move in proportion to urbanization and changes of rural labor, as well as technological progress and social service in agriculture.

safer food better villages

Central Economic Work Conference: The 2013 Central Economic Work Conference, an annual tone-setting economic meeting attended by top Chinese leaders, opened in Beijing on Dec 10, 2013. The four-day meeting reviewed China's economic progress in 2013 and listed six major tasks for 2014. It concluded with a statement calling for deeper reforms and steady growth.

The government has vowed to improve agricultural product quality and food safety. The environment where agricultural products grow will be improved, the statement said.

If any farmland or water is seriously polluted, the area should be taken out of use, and supervision should be stepped up on food safety.

The government has also pledged to enrich the peasantry and take care care of their children, women and the aged left behind in villages, as many of their families might be working in cities.

"Soil culture" shall not be ruptured, as villages were sources for the Chinese traditional civilization and the countryside shall by no means turn into "desolate villages, left-behind villages or hometowns alive only in memory," the statement said.