China's Rural Financial Services Achieve Near-Universal Coverage; Agricultural Loans Exceed RMB 53 Trillion in

The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) outline emphasizes the need to 'improve the financial service system suited to the characteristics of agriculture and rural areas,' setting requirements for building a multi-tiered, broad-coverage, and sustainable rural financial service system. Currently, China's rural financial services have achieved near-universal basic coverage, with outstanding agricultural loans in domestic and foreign currencies exceeding RMB 53 trillion in 2025. However, challenges remain, including structural supply-demand imbalances, high operational costs, and significant risk prevention and control pressures. Credit, as the cornerstone of the modern financial system, is a key support for improving the efficiency of rural finance. Taking digital credit construction as a breakthrough, driven by both technology empowerment and institutional innovation, to help rural inclusive finance move from 'broad coverage' to 'high quality' has become an important focus for deepening rural financial reform.

Building a rural financial service system requires grounding in the characteristics of agriculture and rural areas to enhance the suitability of financial services. The targets of rural financial services are smallholder farmers and small-scale entities, with small loan amounts, high risk, and slow returns, so urban commercial models cannot be simply applied. On one hand, the credit foundation needs to be consolidated, and the transformation of asset value and integration of agriculture-related information should be promoted collaboratively. Land management rights and forest rights, due to imperfect value assessment and transfer mechanisms, are difficult to convert into credit carriers. Agriculture-related data is scattered across multiple departments, making it costly and difficult for financial institutions to obtain authentic dynamic credit information. A unified and standardized agriculture-related credit information platform needs to be built. On the other hand, industrial characteristics must be grasped, and risk control models and cost-sharing mechanisms adapted to agricultural risks should be innovated. Agriculture is inherently dependent on nature and subject to market fluctuations, so risk control models based on financial data and collateral guarantees are difficult to accurately identify risks. The solution lies in developing risk control technologies suited to agricultural cycles, incorporating remote sensing monitoring, agricultural insurance data, and industrial chain information into the risk identification system, and improving the 'government-bank-insurance-guarantee' multi-party linked risk-sharing mechanism.

Currently, rural financial products are still dominated by short-term homogeneous working capital loans, which do not match the medium- to long-term personalized needs of agriculture. Financial institutions need to deeply engage in scenarios such as agricultural production and the circulation of agricultural materials, developing credit products that match project cycles, and promoting a shift from 'extensive coverage' to 'precise adaptation' in financial supply. Insufficient credit is the decisive factor behind difficulties and high costs in financing, and financial institutions face a triple dilemma of being unwilling, unable, and unskilled in lending when conducting rural inclusive finance. Promoting digital credit construction can help address these issues systematically. Using technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and satellite remote sensing, financial institutions can deeply integrate multiple data sources including production and operation, living consumption, and rural governance, conduct in-depth mining and comprehensive evaluation of multi-dimensional credit information of rural business entities, and build dynamic and comprehensive credit profiles, providing a key lever for resolving deep-seated contradictions in rural financial services.

Using data integration to resolve risk concerns can build a solid foundation for 'daring to lend.' Relying on the national integrated financing credit service platform network, the construction of county-level agriculture-related credit information sharing platforms should be accelerated to break down data silos. Technologies such as satellite remote sensing and the Internet of Things can be used to dynamically monitor crop growth, achieving data-driven agricultural production processes. Innovative models for collateralizing rural contracted land management rights, live livestock, and agricultural facilities should be promoted to convert rural resources into credit assets. The loan due diligence exemption mechanism should be implemented to stimulate the enthusiasm of financial institutions. Using smart credit to improve cost-benefit ratios can generate the motivation for 'willingness to lend.' Based on multi-dimensional credit data, intelligent risk control and automated approval models can be built, integrating pre-loan investigation, credit approval, and post-loan monitoring to reduce operating costs. Chain-based financial services can be derived along the agricultural industry chain and supply chain, relying on core enterprise platforms to achieve closed-loop management of capital flow, information flow, and logistics, shifting services from policy-driven to commercial-driven.

With scenario-based innovation for precise services, the value of 'skillful lending' can be realized. By leveraging the digital credit system to precisely characterize agricultural industry cycles, business entity features, and specific scenarios, financial institutions can develop differentiated and scenario-based financial products. For specific areas such as high-standard farmland construction, facility agriculture, deep processing of agricultural products, and rural cultural tourism, relevant credit products should be innovated and improved. Digital channels can be used to disseminate financial knowledge and design simple and convenient operations for farmers, ensuring that financial resources are fairly and efficiently distributed to various agricultural business entities and all links of the industrial chain.