An increasingly large number of farmers in north China's Hebei Province have come to employ agricultural technicians as their advisors for farming.
Wang Haibo, a farmer in Chengde whose total annual income used to be less than 1,000 yuan (abou US$120), earned more than 5,000 yuan (US$604.84) in 2001 through planting tomatoes grown under plastic sheeting, a technique he learned from local agricultural technicians.
Like Wang, more than one million farmers in the province have employed agricultural technicians as their farming advisors, sources said.
The agronomists have made remarkable contribution to the popularization of new farming technologies, officials said, adding the application of new technologies this year has brought the province an increased income of over l.5 billion yuan(US$181.45 million).
(People's Daily January 7, 2002)
