At team meetings of the First Session of the 10th CPPCC National Committee, members from agricultural fields proposed to set up an independent agriculture committee to strengthen work in the area, enhance research and facilitate information services in the establishment of bills on agriculture.

They put forward the following list of reasons for its establishment:

First, the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward a target of building an “affluent” society. The nation has 900 million farmers and a large part of them still live in poverty, some not even having enough to eat. What is called the “3 Agricultural Affairs” of agriculture, rural development and farmers’ living standards comprise an important part of the government’s work.

Second, although the CPPCC deals with agricultural matters through its economic committee, the “3 Agricultural Affairs” is not simply an economic issue. It also includes the lives of the farmers and their families, poverty levels, grass root organization building, education and dissemination of farming technology and cultural knowledge; all of which requires research and management, which is why the members have suggested a committee.

Third, modern macro-agriculture not only includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing but also zoology, environmental protection, poverty relief, development studies and education. It would be a task of the committee to liaise a relationship between these sub-sectors, however difficult that would initially appear.

Fourth, the National People’s Congress already has a rural agriculture committee and the establishment of a CPPCC agricultural committee would not compete with the work of the NPC but simply attempt to address other real needs of the sector. While the NPC focuses on agricultural law and regulation, the CPPCC committee will research special problems and situations and provide solutions as many of its members are specialists in various fields within agriculture. In this way they would act as a special “working committee” within the overall sector requirements.

(China.org.cn by Staff Reporter Chen Chao, translated by Feng Yikun, March 15, 2003)