The key of the document is to boost incomes of rural residents. which has been climbing steadily in recent years, after income stagnation in the 1990s.

From 2004 to 2009, farmers' income rose at an annual pace of 8 percent. This is compared to only a 4 percent increase per year from 1997 to 2002. The income of rural residents reached 5,153 yuan in the year of 2009, nearly 400 yuan more than that of 2008. The Chinese government pledged to double the farmers' income based on 2008 figures by the year 2020. However, the pace of income increase still lags behind that of urban areas in China. Currently the income gap between rural and urban areas is descibed as large.