Putting new focus on farmers' income
 Updated: 2004-02-10 08:53

Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Office of Central Financial Work Leading Group, said yesterday China will inject an additional 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) into agricultural development this year.

The move shows the consistent resolve of the central authorities to boost the rural economy and add to farmers' income.

It also conforms with the paper issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council in late December on policies for solving the chronic problem of farmers' slow income growth.

The specific focus of the so-called "No 1 document" from the central authorities this year testifies to the commitment of the nation to tackle the problem as well as the urgency of finding a better solution to the issue.

This is the first time in the People's Republic's 55-year history that such a high-profile document by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council highlights the specific issue of farmers' income growth.

There have been five previous No 1 documents in the past two decades. Drafted in the early 1980s, they charted the course of China's initial rural transition from the old people's commune system to a fledgling modern agriculture.

Like the previous ones, the new policy paper reflects the foremost demand of the times.

China's farming records have been remarkable, if not bewildering, in the past decades.

From 1978 to 2002, the nation's agricultural production registered an average annual growth of 6.2 per cent, far beyond the benchmark rate of 3 per cent for a country's sustainable long-term agricultural growth.

The past year also witnessed solid progress in the sector.

Against the backdrop of the sudden outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the country's agricultural reform unfolded steadily, with the rural tax-for-fee reform, which reduces farmers' financial burden, spreading to more regions.

But all this can but be seen as qualified success given the scenario of a ruthlessly widening income gap between rural and urban residents.

The ratio of urban residents' annual disposable income to farmers' annual income was 3.11 to 1 in 2002 and was projected to reach 3.2 to 1 in 2003.

If farmers, who make up more than 60 per cent of the total population, cannot prosper, the country's ambition to build itself into an all-round well-off society will lead nowhere.

This is not a political slogan, but a conclusion based on in-depth analysis of the current situation.

It is also reflected in the new document, which puts forward a spate of applicable solutions to the problem.

Among them, the document for the first time acknowledges that "farmers-turned-workers in cities have become an important component of the industrial work force."

The new respect for this group, which is long overdue, will hopefully lead to their better and equal access to employment, which will in turn contribute to their income increase and help transfer rural redundant labourers, a key to galvanizing the rural economy.

To protect the interests of farmers, the country will gradually establish a farmer-oriented direct subsidy system which abides by World Trade Organization rules.

The move sends a clear message that the central authorities are making unswerving efforts to promote farmers' interests.

(China Daily)

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