A central working conference on rural issues was held
in?Beijing on December 24-25, focusing on ways to increase
farmers' income and grain production capacity, as well as on how to
deepen rural reforms. In a keynote speech, Vice Premier Hui
Liangyu summed up the government's experience in the problems
of agriculture and rural communities in 2003, and mapped out plans
for the government work in the field in 2004.
During the two days, participants discussed a proposal by the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State
Council on the efforts to help farmers earn more. The meeting
concluded that China's agriculture and rural economy have entered a
new stage of development, in which they face new opportunities and
challenges. The sluggish growth in farmers' income has long been
the main problem, and it is a long-term and difficult task to
resolve it, sources at the meeting said.
The meeting called for timely readjustment of the thinking and
methods for the promotion of farmers' income, in accordance with
the changes of the environment, conditions and tasks for the
development of agriculture and rural economy in the new period.
Efforts should be made to encourage farmers to increase their
income on their own, and increase government financial assistance
to agriculture, according to the meeting.
It also called for protecting and increasing the grain
production capacity. New ways of thinking and methods should be
adopted in dealing with the issue of grain in the new situation, it
said.
In addition, the meeting called for stepping up rural reforms,
in order to further spur productivity in the countryside.
(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2003)