The Seventh Session of Colloquium Series on Policy and Realities was held at Liangxiang Campus on the afternoon of November 29th, 2019. Chaired by Prof. Lin Wei, Vice President of UCASS, the talk was delivered by Prof. Zhang Xiaoshan, Member and research fellow of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and former Director of the Institute of Rural Development of CASS.

Prof. Zhang shared with the audience his research outcomes and interpretation of the Compilation of Xi Jinping's Discourses on the Development of Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers under the title of On Agricultural and Rural Reform and Development.In retrospect, Prof. Zhang first recapitulated the policy transformation China has went through from a binary system (Urban and Rural Dual Structure）to the integrated development for rural-urban areas since the founding of the People's Republic of China. He then elaborated on the current distribution patterns of national income to explain the underlying logic of President Xi's statement on “The overarching task to deepen rural reform in today's new context still lies with addressing relationships between farmers and their land” at the 2016 Symposium on Rural Reform. By further raising the intriguing question of “Who will till the land in China”, the speaker analyzed the realities of agriculture and rural areas in China to demonstrate the prevailing and long-lasting trend of coexistence of diversified agricultural business models and entities. Considering the continued predominance of small-holder farming through rural households, new requirements have been put forward for farmers on reskilling and upskilling.

In particular, Prof. Zhang looked into the challenging topics of protecting rights and interests of smallholders and development of new types of agricultural operation entities in the context of urban-rural integration. To put the discussions into perspective, he analyzed ways to ensure efficient supply and food security against the backdrop of the ongoing debate around soybean and rising pork prices triggered by China-US trade frictions. He concluded with a proposition of 5 priorities for 2020 to consolidate results of the poverty eradication campaign.

Following his talk, Prof. Zhang gave a personal touch to his dialogue with the students by reflecting on his own experience, highlighting the importance of researcher awareness. By staying sharp to problems one has encountered, researchers stand a better chance of identifying innovation at the grassroots level. He also underscored the value of seeing through complexity by understanding the framework of a topic and the need to recognize one's own stance as a potentially strong determinant of one's perspective.