Seeds of change in rural China

[FT_news]

Reforms in finance, the monetisation of land and social welfare appear poised to turn the countryside from a backwater to a driver of economic growth over the next decade.

Much media coverage of rural China remains preoccupied with rustic icons from the past.

Village life is portrayed as sequestered in a bygone age, with farmers trailing water buffalo through postage-stamp paddies and rural labourers trudging home in the twilight from Dickensian factories.

Such scenes can still be found, and in some areas are not uncommon. But they do not reflect changes under way in a rural economy that embraces 720m people. Reforms in rural finance, the monetisation of agricultural land and social welfare appear poised to turn China’s countryside from an indigent backwater to a driver of national economic growth over the next five to 10 years.

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