Rural development must fundamentally depend on peasants themselves, Xi said, noting reform and innovation should be promoted to boost farmers' initiatives and energy.

Xi urged advancing agricultural modernization, strengthening the position of agriculture, and ensuring food security and income growth.

Infrastructure and public service facilities in rural areas need to be improved, Xi said, and capital of the society should be encouraged to invest in these projects.

Social care for the left-behind rural population -- mostly children, women and the elderly whose fathers, husbands and sons have left for better-paying jobs in cities -- needs to be improved, Xi stressed.

Reform of the household registration system should be accelerated to ensure rural workers have the same job opportunities as urban workers and to let rural migrants settle down in cities, Xi said.

Governments at all levels should fully understand the importance and urgency of improving institutions and mechanisms for promoting the integration of urban and rural development, Xi said. Specific policies and effective measures should be rolled out to make progress on realizing integrated urban and rural development.

According to government data, the rural population of the Chinese mainland stood at 618.7 million by the end of 2014, accounting for 45.2 percent of the mainland's total population.

As one of China's most prominent development targets, the country aims to build "a moderately prosperous society in all respects" by 2020, but the gap between rural and urban populations remains large, especially between the poorest and most remote areas and booming megacities.