Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said that the central
government's new policies to favor grain producers had taken
effect, a conclusion from his chats with farmers in north China's
Hebei
Province on Sunday.
Last year, Wen had impressed his people by shaking hands with
AIDS patients and helping a common rural woman obtain defaulted
wages for her husband. This time, the affable Premier squatted with
farmers to check the seedling growth.
"Do you know the central government has issued policies to
support farming?" he asked. Then he shifted to more specific
questions concerning the prices of the wheat and carbamide, a
chemical fertilizer, as well as grain reserves at the farmer's
home.
He was delighted when the farmer reflected that the local
government was helpful, the grain prices were climbing and farmers
were willing to grow crops.
The Premier even explained to these rural residents in detail
the government's new policies, including purchasing grains at
protected prices, cutting down on agriculture taxes and subsidizing
grain producers directly.
Problems concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers have
been listed as a top priority in all government work at the Second
Session of the Tenth National People's Congress early this
March.
The Chinese government will earmark 10 billion yuan (US$1.21
billion) this year from its grain risk fund to directly subsidize
grain farmers, to alleviate falling output and slow income
growth.
From 1997 to 2003, the per capita income of farmers rose four
percent annually on average, in sharp contrast to an eight percent
jump in the disposable income of urban dwellers. Farmers have
complained that planting grain crops is less lucrative than growing
fruit, fish or poultry, which experts fear as a potential threat to
the country's food security.
Wen also pointed to the government's work to cancel agriculture
taxes in five years, another testimony to the country's growing
concern for its 900 million rural population.
During his inspection, Wen stressed the basic way of ensuring
stable grain output is to protect the arable land. "All local
governments should carry out strict measures to forbid any illegal
occupation and damage of farmland, and should restore and expand
the acreage of sowing grains."
Late this March, the government issued new regulations to ban
conversion of cropland into orchards, fishery ponds, forests and
poultry sheds and limit the amount of land to be used for
greenbelts along rural roads, hoping to curb the fast loss of
arable land.
Statistics show that 2.5 million hectares of land were taken out
of cultivation last year, compared with 1.7 million hectares in
2002.
Wen also urged local governments to organize experts to offer
farmers technical training and to dispatch officials to publicize
the central policies among rural areas, in an effort to revive
farmers' motivation for grain production.
He reassured the farmers that the government would strengthen
supervision over the prices of production materials for farming,
especially the chemical fertilizers. "Severe penalties will be
given for production and sales of related fake or inferior
products."
(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2004)