Even though the new government put forward an ambitious plan to
develop the rural economy and increase farmers' income, some
experts say this year's target will be hard to achieve owing to the
outbreak of SARS, and floods and droughts across the country.
During the 16th Part Congress, Zeng Peiyan, minister in charge of
the State Development Planning Commission at that time, said in his
report that farmers' net income should increase 4 percent in 2003.
The per capita income was 2,476 yuan (US$298.78) in 2002, so there
should be an increase of 99.04 yuan (US$12) this year.
SARS
Data shows that farmers earned 70 to 80 percent of their total
income by working in cities in many places. SARS made some farm
workers lose at least one month's salary. China has nearly 100
million farm workers. Liu Jian, vice minister of agriculture said
on May 15 that 8 million farm workers returned home. Among them, 4
million returned routinely, while the other 4 million was because
of SARS.
Since the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Culture
released notices to identify public places where SARS was found to
stop business on April 23, most hotels, restaurants and
entertainment places in big cities stopped business to prevent the
spread of the disease. And most of their employees were farm
workers.
Zeng Wei is a 23 years old farm worker from Anhui Province. He
engages in house fitting in the Beijing suburbs. Zeng is a skilled
worker and can earn 1,500 yuan (US$181) per month sometimes. But
since SARS broke out, house fitting has stopped and he has had to
stay in rented accommodation while waiting for work to start.
"One month has passed and I do not know when I can start work
again," Zeng said worriedly.
Most farmer workers also suffer discriminations in the disaster
except from the disease itself. "SARS has certainly reduced
farmers' incomes and the task of increasing their income is harder
to realize in some places," said Wang Xiaoying, a worker with the
Rural Development Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences.
Flood and Drought Drive Farmers to the City
Floods in Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces caused
losses of 2 billion yuan (US$241 million) and left 4 million
suffering in Hunan Province.
The flood hit Yueyang, Hunan Province heavily. The city has a
population of 5.2 million and has 800,000 farm workers. Working in
urban places added farmer per capita income by 130 yuan (US$16) in
2002, which accounts for 48.4 percent of farmers' net income. The
labor service has become a main channel to increase farmers' income
and develop rural economy in the city.
Meanwhile, Inner Mongolia, northeast and northwest China suffered
heavy droughts. Northeast China was harassed by a five-year drought
and this year's situation is even worse than previous years.
"Floods and droughts drive more farmers to work in the cities, "
said Wu Jingxue, a worker of the Agricultural Economy Research
Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Wu
added that China at present has 250 to 270 million spare laborers
in the countryside and the number will continue to increase until
the Chinese population reaches 1.6 billion.
Government Measures
Premier Wen Jiabao held the second overall conference of the State
Council to research on the economic development plan after SARS on
May 21. In the meeting, he emphasized on "helping farmer workers
get jobs."
"We are researching and making regulations to protect farmers'
profits," said Zhang Hongyu, vice director of the Policy and
Regulation Department, Ministry of Agriculture. He added that the
government is estimating farmers' losses due to natural disasters
to carry out practical aids and compensation.
An
expert said China's rural problems could not be settled in the
short term. The present disasters will make people pay more
attention to farmers and help these settlements.
Yin Chenjie, vice head of the research office under the State
Council, said existing big and middle cities can not absorb rural
spare laborers in such a large scale, so we should develop more
small, middle and large cities and correspond their
developments.
Government planed skill training for farmers during industry
structural adjustments in the countryside. While because of costs
and farmers' low education level, the plan has not been implemented
well.
The Chinese government have realized farm workers' effects on
economic development and existing rural problems.
In
January, the State Council published a regulation to strengthen
management and services for farm workers. The regulation requires
to give farm workers equal treatment and abolish unreasonable
regulations.
The Hukou system also causes lively disputation on the
Internet.
Experts in farmer problems, Wen Tiejun said as there is no united
farmer workers' management organization and the market needs much
improvement, it is hard for farmer workers to get equal
treatment.
(China.org.cn by Feng Yikun, June 6, 2003)