The Chinese government is expected to spend a record 150 billion
yuan (US$18 billion) on a move to fire the zeal of farmers for
grain production and ensure the country's food security this
year.
That means an average of 166 yuan per person among the 900
million rural people, according to an official in charge of the
Office of Financial and Economic Leading Group of the Communist
Party of China Central Committee.
The problems of agriculture, farmers and rural economy claim the
top priority in the state-of-the-nation address by Premier Wen
Jiabao to the annual session of the National People's Congress
(NPC), the top legislature of China, on Friday.
The record amount of investment in agriculture represents a shot
in the arm of the declining grain production and the rural economy,
said former vice minister of agriculture Wan Baorui.
Wan quoted the figures of the National Bureau of Statistics as
saying that the per capita average disposable income of rural
residents was only 1,000 yuan (US$121) and their per capita net
income increased at an annual rate of only 4 percent in 1997-2003,
barely half that of urban residents, with the urban-rural gap
enlarging from 2.47:1 to 3.24:1.
Zhang Peiyang, a farmer NPC deputy from the eastern province of
Anhui, said many farmers in remote villages are too poor to pay
their medical bills and children had to stay at home doing farm
work after finishing primary school.
Most grain growers in China have enough to eat but little money
to spend, Zhang said.
The government's move to boost the rural economy also has the
support from wealthy entrepreneurs like Li Guoqiang, another NPC
deputy from prosperous Guangdong Province, who live in a modern
high-rise equipped with sound systems, computers, digital video
cameras and other electronic gadgets and goes to work by car.
Increasing the income of the country's 900 million rural people
is of great importance to China, as it has a great bearing on the
country's grain security, rural development and national stability,
Li said.
In his government work report, Premier Wen promised to cut
agricultural tax by one percentage point every year from now on
until it is totally eliminated within five years. That means a
total of 7 billion yuan will be taken off the burdens of
peasants.
The waiver of taxes on rural specialty products can reduce
farmers' burdens by another 4.8 billion yuan. In addition, the
direct subsidies to farmers will not be less than 10 billion
yuan.
(China Daily March 7, 2004)