CRI听力： Government Continues to Raise Farmer's Income

With 900 million farmers, China has the world's largest rural population. And if the whole country is to become better-off, increasing farmers' incomes is a vital task for the government.

China's Ministry of Agriculture recently announced the introduction of various measures to improve the growth in rural incomes.

Our reporter Yixiu has more.

Report:

As China's rural population accounts for majority of the total, concerns surrounding their daily life have been given great consideration. A series of government documents have been issued to ensure the proper implementation of agriculture policies. The Sannong policy in related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers have been listed as a top priority of the government annual work report.

China's Vice Agriculture Minister, Yin Chengjie, told reporters at Thursday's press conference that governments at various levels have implemented policies set forth by the central government and focused on the main task of increasing farmer's income. Recent years in China can be seen as a golden period of agricultural development.

He says farmer's income has kept up rapid growth. In 2006, a farmer's net income per capita rose by 7.4 percent over the previous year, increasing by more than 6 percent year-on-year for 3 consecutive years.

"In the first half of this year, the cash receipts of farmers have climbed by 13.3 percent over the same period last year, the highest increase since 1995."

The official also says that the increase in farmers' incomes contain new features. While the agriculture income still remained the key source of household earnings, money from township enterprises accounts for an increasing part in farmers' total income. Another major factor is money sent back from cities by migrant workers, who are ex-farmers is on a rapid rise.

As the farmer's income increases, so does their life greatly improve. The Engel's coefficient, a main indicator for standards of living, dropped by more than 3 percent in last year.

Vice Agriculture Minister, Yin Chengjie says the reduction of the Engel's coefficient reflects changes taking place in agricultural production and farmer's income. He says the government will adopt comprehensive measures to benefit farmers.

"First we need to speed up the development of the rural economy, and bring about new channels to increase farmer's income. Secondly, more direct subsidies and integrated subsidies should be provided to farmers."

He says the government will also strengthen macro-control on the price of agricultural products and production means, keeping the cost at an appropriate level. And efforts will be made to enhance agricultural competitive efficiency, along with the utilisation rate and output rate of agricultural supplies.

Yixiu, CRI news.