Agriculture is the foundation of China's national economy and
social stability. As the biggest agricultural province in China, Henan views developing modern agriculture as
the top priority in the process of building a new socialist countryside, Deputy Liu Mancang
told china.org.cn on the sidelines of the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People's
Congress (NPC).
Liu is a member of the Henan Delegation and the Communist Party
secretary of Shangqiu City.
"For agricultural development, we must strengthen government
policy, funding, application of science and technology, and
reform," he said.
He disclosed that the central government will spend 391.7
billion yuan on agriculture, developing rural areas and the living
conditions of farmers this year, an increase of 52 billion yuan
from last year and 94.2 billion yuan from 2005.
In the case of Henan, Liu said: "We are taking steps to ensure
adequate irrigation for crops, so as to boost our crop yield. We
are also looking into employing multiple-cropping patterns and
greening methods."
He pointed out that despite a number of serious natural
disasters last year, China managed to maintain a rich grain harvest
with total output amounting to 497.45 billion kilograms, 13.44
billion kilograms more than the year before.
He attributed this stabilization to the twin effects of farmers'
willingness to farm grain and the government's support policies,
including the abolition of the millenium-old agriculture tax.
Figures from National Bureau of Statistics showed that the per
capita net income for the 900 million rural residents increased 7.4
percent to 3,587 yuan last year. Safe drinking water was made
available to another 28.97 million rural people and the use of
methane available to an additional 4.5 million rural families.
"Solving the problems related to agriculture, rural area
development and the living conditions of farmers is also very
important, but it will be a long arduous task," he said, and went
on to identify three important starting points:
"First, while continuing to increase budgetary support, we need
to make a very strong effort to solve financing problems in rural
areas.
"Second, we need to shift the focus of infrastructure
development to rural areas to deal with pressing problems such as
the need for more roads, methane facilities and water supplies.
"Third, we must develop more social programs for the rural areas
to resolve issues relating to access to proper medical care,
education for children, and social security benefits."
Citing Premier Wen Jiabao, Liu highlighted that agriculture is
so important that "if something goes wrong with the economy in the
future, it might occur in the agriculture sector, especially grain
production. It is what the premier told us".
"Therefore, we must seriously implement the policies of the
central government to consolidate, improve and intensify support
measures for agriculture and ensure the smooth operation of spring
ploughing and sowing," he added.
According to Liu's figures, things are looking on the up for
Henan's farmers. Per capita consumption of farmers grew by 16.2
percent in 2006 compared with the previous year, indicating higher
annual incomes, while that of their urban counterparts registered a
year-on-year increase of 9.4 percent.
This is the first time in the last 10 years that rural
consumption growth has surpassed urban growth in the province.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Wang Ke, March 16, 2007)
