Grain output, farmers' income still priorities

(peopledaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-08-09 14:45

Good harvest has been seen for the summer crops and early rice. Summer grain output reached 106.27 million tons, up 5.1 percent or 5.12 million tons for the first six months of the year whilst the a slight rise in early rice was expectable due to the expanded acreage. Half of wheat field was for quality wheat after an 18 percent increase.

Farmers found more cash in their pockets. From Jan. to June, the per capita cash income of farmers stood at 1,586 yuan, an actual increase of 12.5 percent after the price factor was considered. The increase was 1.6 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. Farmers earned 242 yuan per capital in cash from their business, run by households normally, in the second and tertiary industries. This was a year-on-year rise of 14.7 percent. Their salaries brought them 521 yuan per capita, 16.6 percent higher than the same period of last year, becoming the most important reason for more income for farmers.

Various sectors in the agriculture operate well. The structural adjustment for the plant-culture is progressing forward steadily; the stock raising is developing soundly; the fishery is growing; township enterprises are running well; the industrialization of the agriculture and the farm products processing industry are leaping forward; and the mechanization of the agriculture is accelerating. The production of the land reclamation is estimated to value 39.6 billion yuan over the first half of the year, up 10.5 percent.

Technologies for the agriculture are promoted and innovated faster. A series of advanced and appropriate techniques and quality breeds have been applied to the various sectors concerning the crops and agricultural production, thanks to the program making technologies accessible to farmers. Balanced fertilizer compounded on the basis of the property of land has been used on 130 million mu of land (about 21.66 million acre). This can save costs by 20 yuan per mu (about one-sixth of an acre). And super rice will be grown from an extra 60 million mu (about 10 million acre).

Capacity building for agricultural comprehensive production is pushed forward smoothly. The government has launched a series of key agricultural projects with more investment. Efforts on building an industrial belt for farm products with comparative advantages have beefed up. A program is underway to improve the land quality.

However, as the fundamental problems hindering the development of the agriculture and rural economy have not solved, some new challenging situations have emerged. Achieving increases in both grain output and farmers' income in 2005 is still a tall order.

The staggering upswing of grain yields last year makes it particularly difficult to go further. This unfortunately coincides with price sag of staples which damages farmers' willingness to grow crops. It is even more alarming that some places seem to have slacked off their efforts on grain production.

The 5 percent rise in farmers' income, a goal set for 2005, is a no easy task. Following a seven-year high income jump, farmers face rising production material prices and downward grain prices. According to a preliminary estimation, the rising prices of production materials have pushed grain production costs up by 30 to 40 yuan per mu, partly counter-balanced the increase brought by the policy.

The situation of major animal endemic remains severe. The endemics in neighboring countries constitute a serious threat to China. Some places are vulnerable to outbreak of latent endemics. Endemic prevention and fund are still lingering problems at the basic level.

And there are natural disasters which are unpredictable. The draught and floods have hit the country apparently harder this summer. And insect pests seem to plague the country more.

By People's Daily Online

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