On September 7, reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs confirmed that six departments, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Central Agricultural Affairs Office, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China, and the financial regulatory authority, have jointly released an implementation plan focused on prioritising agricultural and rural development. The document, which aims to refine the funding mechanism for rural vitalisation, proposes active support for eligible agriculture-related enterprises seeking listings and financing on the capital market.

The plan clarifies the commitment to prioritising agricultural and rural development, establishing a diversified investment structure that includes fiscal guarantees, financial sector emphasis, and active social participation. This approach is designed to ensure that investment intensity in rural vitalisation continues to grow and that the structure of spending in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers steadily improves. By 2030, the goal is to have essentially established a rural vitalisation investment mechanism that matches agricultural and rural development levels, with a rational structure, scientific methods, and balanced focus on quality and efficiency. This will provide robust support for consolidating achievements in poverty alleviation, accelerating the remediation of shortcomings in agricultural and rural modernisation, and steadily advancing comprehensive rural vitalisation.

The plan calls for broadening the funding channels for agriculture and rural areas by strengthening the multiple investment framework. This includes enhancing the priority guarantee of government funds, leveraging the supportive role of bond funds, improving the efficiency of credit fund support, utilising insurance policy tools effectively, stimulating private investment vitality, and activating the use of rural resources and assets. These six aspects aim to promote a stable increase in total investment scale. Additionally, the plan emphasises strengthening coordination among government investment, financial support, and private investment, while also promoting alignment between agricultural industry policies, investment policies, and trade policies. It also highlights the reinforcement of policy support and coordination through pricing mechanisms, subsidies, and insurance, offering effective measures to boost investment returns.

To ensure implementation, the plan outlines a system of responsibilities, detailing measures such as clarifying duties, securing resource guarantees, optimising the investment environment, and enhancing oversight, incentives, and constraints. In terms of utilising bond funds for agricultural support, the plan requires the coordinated use of various types of bond funds to back eligible rural infrastructure projects, industrial development, and public services. It advocates for a top-down, integrated approach—combining hardware and software—to advance major national strategic projects in the agricultural sector. Local governments are encouraged to channel special bond funds into qualifying agricultural and rural projects, improve the quality of project reserves, and better leverage bonds to strengthen foundations, address shortcomings, and improve livelihoods in these areas. General bond funds may also be used by local governments based on actual conditions to support eligible projects, and qualified companies are encouraged to issue rural vitalisation bonds.

The plan also focuses on elevating the effectiveness of credit funds. It aims to deeply implement special actions for financial support in rural vitalisation, using monetary policy tools to support financial institutions in providing credit for these efforts, provided there is no increase in hidden local government debt. Credit allocation will be optimised to direct resources from various financial institutions toward major grain and oil-producing counties, seed production hubs, and key counties receiving vitalisation assistance. Priority will be given to sectors like stable grain production, vital rural industries, agricultural infrastructure, and agricultural tech innovation. The policy on micro-loans for poverty alleviation will be upheld to precisely assist those at risk of returning to poverty and registered households that have been lifted out of poverty, aiding them in boosting production and income. Banks are encouraged, within legal compliance, to innovate and promote credit products suited to agricultural needs, expanding access to first-time loans, credit-based loans, and loan renewals. Credit support will extend to eligible produce brokers and farmer cooperatives in the circulation sector.

Furthermore, the plan calls for improving the mechanism for evaluating agricultural assets, exploring management systems for ownership confirmation, value assessment, mortgage registration, and asset disposal. This includes promoting mortgage financing for livestock and agricultural facilities, as well as innovative financing models using agricultural equipment, warehouse receipts, and rights to asset operations and usage. It also seeks to enhance digital financial services in rural areas, broadening the connectivity of investment and financing service platforms such as credit market service platforms, direct credit channels for agricultural business entities, and a project library for agricultural and rural infrastructure financing.

Regarding private investment, the plan explicitly aims to stimulate vitality in this area, guiding private capital to invest in rural vitalisation in a legal, regulated, and orderly manner. Following the principles of rule of law and market orientation, measures such as loan interest subsidies and bond-equity linkage will be used to attract patient capital into agriculture. Improved measures will encourage public welfare and charitable social forces to contribute, and the plan supports establishing rural vitalisation funds through market-oriented approaches to pool financial capital and social resources. Critically, it endorses active support for eligible agriculture-related enterprises to pursue listings, enabling leading agri-tech companies and other business entities to leverage the multi-tiered capital market for accelerated, high-quality development.