China holds first harvest festival to promote farmers’ cause; time for India to take note?

Beijing, Sept 24: China might have dashed towards rapid industrialisation and economic reforms in the last four decades but that it hasn't forgotten its farmers became evident when it came up a new festival of its farmers recently which left several of them astonished.

According to a report sourced from Xinhua, the farmers' festival was created in June to honour the agriculturalists and it coincides with the Autumn Equinox - the country's most important harvest season - every year.

Several farmers joined the inaugural harvest festival which was on Sunday and felt hopeful about the future. The 2018 event was particularly special since this year has seen the beginning of the government's new rural vitalisation strategy, the report added.

The strategy was forwarded last year at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to resolve issues that are related to agriculture, farmers and the rural areas and through the festival, these solutions are aimed to be promoted.

"A good environment should be fostered to support the development of agriculture, rural areas and to care about the wellbeing of farmers," Vice Premier Hu Chunhua was quoted as saying while he attended activities in Beijing Sunday to celebrate the festival. He also called for a strong implementation of the rural vitalisation strategy and win the battle against poverty.

China has made rapid progress towards industrialisation and urbanisation since the days of Deng Xiaoping and rose to become the second largest economy in the world. However, the country still has a big agricultural sector with its rural residents constituting a major part of its population. It has only seven per cent of the world's arable land but manages to feed 20 per cent of the planet's population.

Time for India to take note?