since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, the development of China's agricultural finance has been mainly divided into recovery stage, expansion stage, gradual improvement stage and deepening reform stage in the new century. At present, China's rural finance has formed a rural financial system including commercial, policy and cooperative financial institutions, with formal financial institutions as the leading factor, rural credit cooperatives as the core and other rural financial institutions as the supplement.

I. Evolution of China's rural financial system

After the founding of New China, agricultural production has been initially developed, and the demand for funds for agricultural expansion and reproduction has also been increasing. The situation of exchanging needed private funds can no longer meet the actual needs of agricultural development, so * * * has reappeared in many places. In order to restrain * * * and strengthen the management of rural finance, in March 1951, the central bank held a national rural financial work conference, and put forward the task of strengthening rural financial work and actively developing rural credit cooperation. As a result, a large number of banking institutions went to the countryside, and many financial institutions also set up their own business offices in market towns. At the same time, rural credit cooperative organizations also got opportunities for camera development. By 1957, the national rural credit cooperatives had covered 8% of the townships in China. In the next 2 years, the development of rural finance was slow. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, China's rural economic system attracted new opportunities for development. Under the rural household contract responsibility system and the vigorous development of township enterprises, the reform of rural financial system, mainly rural credit cooperatives and agricultural banks, was also carried out simultaneously. Specifically, it can be divided into the following stages.

(1) Recovery stage (1978-1984) In order to meet the needs of rural economic system reform, in February 1979, the State Council officially issued the "Notice on Restoring China Agricultural Bank", which made specific provisions on the nature, tasks, business scope, sources of funds and institutional setup of the Agricultural Bank, and pointed out that China Agricultural Bank, as the superior institution of rural credit cooperatives, In this way, a rural financial system with Agricultural Bank as the main body and rural credit cooperatives as its grassroots institutions has been formed. After the establishment of Agricultural Bank, the credit business has been greatly expanded and broken through? Agricultural loans are only used to maintain simple agricultural reproduction and for relief? Limited, expand the business scope to the industrial and commercial fields related to agriculture and rural economic development, and embark on the road of fully supporting the development of rural commodity economy. At the same time, the Agricultural Bank of China also broke the old pattern of unified deposit and unified loan by reforming the credit management method, in order to change the rural credit cooperatives? Official? Style: In 1983, Document No.1 of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Several Issues on Current Rural Economic Policies, clearly pointed out that credit cooperatives should adhere to the nature of cooperative finance, and emphasized that rural credit cooperatives should be truly turned into mass cooperative financial organizations and restored? Three natures? (mass organization, democratic management and flexible operation), on the premise of ensuring the needs of agricultural loans, it can be allowed to operate rural industrial and commercial credit business, and the loan interest rate can fluctuate. Under the leadership of the Agricultural Bank of China, rural credit cooperatives have carried out a series of supporting reforms, strengthened the internal management of credit cooperatives, strengthened the audit and inspection work, and expanded their independent management rights.

(II) Expansion stage (1985-1993) In January 1985, the Central Committee of China and the State Council pointed out in the Ten Policies on Further Activating the Rural Economy that the Agricultural Bank should implement enterprise management, improve the efficiency of capital operation, appropriately develop private credit and actively set up rural insurance undertakings. The People's Bank of China has also introduced policies and measures to allow professional banking business to cross and moderate competition. Under this policy background, banking institutions such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank gradually set up branches in rural areas, and some non-bank financial institutions such as finance companies, insurance companies and rural cooperative foundations also extended their tentacles to rural areas. At this point, the rural financial market has formed a situation in which various forms of financial institutions coexist, and the monopoly position of the Agricultural Bank has been gradually weakened. After the implementation of enterprise management, the four major state-owned banks pay more attention to the quality and economic benefits of loans. Therefore, compared with the previous stage, the growth rate of loans in rural areas by state banks dominated by the four major state-owned banks has slowed down, and their market share has gradually decreased, while rural credit cooperatives have become the absolute main force in the rural loan market due to the improvement of their operational autonomy. Compared with 1985, the rural loans of financial institutions nationwide increased by 5.18 times in 1993, with an average annual increase of 25.57%. Among them, the rural loans of national banks increased by 3.13 times compared with 1985, with an average annual increase of 19.34%, while the market share decreased from 53.22% in 1985 to 35.55% in 1993, with an average annual decrease of 1%; The rural loans of rural credit cooperatives increased by 6.8 times compared with 1985, with an average annual increase of 29.27%, and the market share increased from 51.1% in 1985 to 64.45% in 1993.

(III) Perfect stage (1994-1999)

In December 1993, the State Council issued the Decision on Financial System Reform, which proposed a series of important issues, such as establishing China Agricultural Development Bank, piloting urban cooperative banks, separating rural credit cooperatives from China Agricultural Bank, establishing rural cooperative banks step by step, and turning state-owned specialized banks into real state-owned commercial banks. Mainly manifested in the following aspects: (1) State-owned specialized banks have established the goal of transforming into commercial banks, and a large number of institutions have been merged, and state-owned commercial banks have begun to evacuate from rural areas on a large scale. (2) Agricultural Development Bank has become a policy bank specializing in agricultural product acquisition and financing. (3) Rural credit cooperatives separated from the Agricultural Bank of China and achieved a major reform of the management system. Its reform goal is further defined as a cooperative financial organization with farmers as shareholders and democratic management of members, mainly serving the shareholders. (4) Combating all kinds of informal financial activities. In January 1999, rural cooperative foundations were banned nationwide, and by the end of 2, 28,588 rural cooperative foundations had been cleared and rectified nationwide. At this stage, due to the commercialization reform of state-owned banks, a large number of grass-roots institutions have been merged since 1998, and rural credit cooperatives have become the main suppliers of rural funds. From 1994 to 1999, rural loans of rural credit cooperatives accounted for more than 64% of the country's rural loans, and in 1999 it was 65.98%.

(IV) Deepening the stage of reform Since 2, the reform of rural financial system has been gradually deepened, with the focus on the reform of rural credit cooperatives. Rural credit cooperatives actively promote the pilot work of establishing city (prefecture) level 1 associations and provincial associations. On June 27th, 23, the State Council issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Pilot Program for Deepening the Reform of Rural Credit Cooperatives", which established a new round of reform objectives of rural credit cooperatives with the reform of property rights system as the core. In 24, the reform of rural credit cooperatives was carried out nationwide, and it was extended to 29 provinces (cities) on a pilot basis. In the process of reform, the proportion of rural loans of rural credit cooperatives in rural loans in China has increased from 74.49% in 2. It has increased year by year to 8.64% in 24, and rural credit cooperatives occupy a dominant position in China's rural financial system.

second, the current pattern of China's rural financial system after more than 2 years of rural financial system reform, China has formed a rural financial system including commercial, policy and cooperative financial institutions, with formal financial institutions as the leading factor, rural credit cooperatives as the core and other rural financial institutions as the supplement. From a broad perspective, it mainly includes formal finance and informal finance or quasi-formal finance. Formal financial organizations mainly include China Agricultural Bank, China Agricultural Development Bank, rural credit cooperatives, rural commercial banks, rural cooperative banks and rural postal savings. (1) Agricultural Bank of China. In 1979, the Agricultural Bank of China was rebuilt with the original intention of providing services and financial support for rural economic development. Like other state-owned commercial banks, China Agricultural Bank has been carrying out commercialization reform since 198s. Before the establishment of China Agricultural Development Bank in 1994, the business of China Agricultural Bank was both commercial and policy-oriented. Since then, some policy loans, such as loans for purchasing major agricultural and sideline products, loans for poverty alleviation and loans for comprehensive agricultural development, have been transferred to China Agricultural Development Bank. In this way, the nature of Agricultural Bank of China was determined as a modern wholly state-owned commercial bank mainly serving the urban and rural economic development. (2) China Agricultural Development Bank. In 1994, China Agricultural Development Bank was announced as a policy bank, aiming at separating rural policy finance from commercial finance. China Agricultural Development Bank does not directly involve farmers. Its main task is to undertake the policy-oriented financial business stipulated by the state and to allocate financial funds for supporting agriculture. Its business mainly includes: national special reserve discount loans for major agricultural and sideline products; Purchase, marketing and wholesale loans of agricultural and sideline products; Poverty alleviation loans; Development of economic loans in poor areas; Poverty-stricken counties run industrial loans; Agricultural comprehensive development loans and other agricultural loans with financial discount; Loans for capital construction and technical transformation, etc. (3) Rural credit cooperatives. Rural credit cooperatives are the rural formal financial institutions with the largest number of branches in China, with branches in almost all towns and villages. They are the only financial institutions in rural formal financial institutions that have direct business dealings with farmers, and they are the core force of rural formal financial institutions to provide financial services to rural areas and agricultural economy. Rural credit cooperatives are the rural grass-roots organizations of Agricultural Bank of China, and they are a main channel to guide farmers' deposits to collective agriculture and township enterprises. (4) Rural commercial banks and rural cooperative banks. Rural commercial bank is a joint-stock commercial bank reformed and established on the basis of rural credit cooperatives in developed areas. It breaks through the original business model of rural cooperative financial organizations, and its operating mechanism is more flexible, which is conducive to business expansion and better service for the area under its jurisdiction. Agriculture, countryside and farmers Provide better service. Rural cooperative bank is a new form of bank organization based on the principle of cooperative system and absorbing the principles and practices of joint-stock system. It is a community local financial institution that implements joint-stock cooperative system. (5) Rural postal savings institutions. Rural postal savings institutions only absorbed farmers' deposits. In the late 198s and early 199s, there was a high inflation rate in China. The central bank adopted the policy of absorbing rural social funds and withdrawing money through postal savings, which was reasonable at that time. In August, 23, the People's Bank of China adjusted the policy of transferring postal savings to deposits. Some interest rates of new postal savings transferred to the People's Bank were lowered, and new deposits were used by postal savings institutions independently.

The capital supply of formal financial institutions is far from meeting the needs of rural finance. The harsh loan conditions and cumbersome loan procedures make farmers discouraged, so various informal finance came into being. (1) Rural Cooperative Foundation. Rural cooperative foundation is a quasi-formal financial organization that emerged in the mid-198s. It mainly relies on the capital injection of farmers as its operating cost, and its operating activities are directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture. Then, quite a number of rural cooperative foundations broke away from the original operating track and absorbed a large number of residents' deposits in the name of offering shares, which concealed huge financial risks. In August 1996, the State Council made a decision to clean up and rectify and close the merged rural cooperative foundation. In January 1999, the State Council officially announced the national unified ban on rural cooperative foundations. (2) Private financial institutions. Private financial institutions are mainly composed of private lending, various cooperatives and private banks. Private lending can be divided into three forms: mutual interest-free private lending among rural economic entities, private lending with medium interest rate and * * *; The cooperative association is a general term for all kinds of financial associations, which is usually based on kinship, nostalgia and other blood and geographical relations, integrating savings and credit, and basically not for profit; Private banks are usually developed by lending, mainly engaged in deposit and loan business and earning interest rate difference between deposit and loan. Because of its high deposit interest rate, easy to absorb idle funds from farmers and simple procedures, both borrowers and lenders need the existence of private banks and are willing to support their development.

III. Conclusions and Prospects

Agricultural finance is the main channel for farmers to invest and finance agricultural production. After the founding of New China, China's rural finance was gradually established. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, China's rural finance was developed and improved under the rural household contract responsibility system and the vigorous development of township enterprises. Specifically, the development of China's agricultural finance is mainly divided into recovery stage, expansion stage, gradual improvement stage and deepening reform stage in the new century. Up to now, China's rural financial system has become increasingly perfect, forming a rural financial system including commercial, policy and cooperative financial institutions, with formal financial institutions as the leading factor, rural credit cooperatives as the core and other rural financial institutions as the supplement. With the continuous breaking of the dual structure of urban and rural areas in China, we can boldly imagine that the business of major commercial banks including Agricultural Bank of China and other financial institutions in agriculture will be more and more liberalized, rural finance will be more developed and convenient, and the rural financial system will be more perfect.