Yin Chengjie, vice-minister of agriculture, revealed yesterday
that rural villagers' income has been increasing at the rate of
more than 6 percent for three consecutive years. The per capita
cash income reached 2,111 yuan ($278) in the first six months this
year, an increase of 13.3 percent over the same period last year
and also the fastest jump in the past decade.
Underscoring these achievements are the down-to-earth policies
the central government has mapped out to relieve the burden on
farmers and to raise their incomes.
Statistics indicate that the scrapping of the agricultural tax
and some other taxes relieved rural people from a burden of 120
billion yuan ($16 billion) annually since 2006 and the input from
central finance to agriculture in the form of different subsidies
has reached 52.6 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) in 2007 alone.
Despite all of these steps, we still have a long way to go in
order to make substantial progress in narrowing the gap between
rural and urban areas.
Statistics show that the gap in income between urbanites and
rural villagers expanded in the past three years. The ratio of such
gap was 3.28 to 1 in 2006. To be exact, an urban resident got
8,172.5 yuan ($1,075) more than a rural villager, on the
average.
So the task ahead will be even more arduous. But it is a battle
we cannot afford to lose because development in agriculture,
improvements in rural areas as a whole and gains in the income of
villagers have been stressed as a key task by the central
government. How this task is fulfilled is believed to bear an
impact on the overall strength of the country.
Take less from farmers and give more to them, industry must
assist the development of agriculture and cities need to support
the progress of rural areas. It is a principle endorsed by the
central authorities and shows it's resolute to crack this hard
nut.
The drive to build a new socialist countryside and a social
security network involving a sound healthcare system and minimum
living allowances are all intended to push this drive.
As a matter of fact, our economic engine will run out of steam
if agriculture is left far behind and if farmers fail to share the
fruit of reforms.
(China Daily September 14, 2007)