During the meeting, participants learned that Chinese President Jiang Zemin's recent instructions about agriculture and rural work were that in the new century, the country should not relax its efforts in nurturing the roots of agriculture.

Jiang said it is crucial to push forward agricultural reform, restructure the rural economy and increase farmers' incomes so as to guarantee national grain security and social stability in rural areas.

Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao also spoke at the meeting and the participants discussed the decisions put forward by the central government on this year's work in the agricultural sector and in rural areas.

Since the beginning of last year, the agricultural sector and rural economy have been developing steadily, the meeting was told. Marked progress has resulted from restructuring the rural economy, industrialization and market-orientated reforms in the agricultural sector.

The meeting pointed out that the slow growth of farmers' incomes has become a major problem.

It noted that lacklustre sales and low prices in farm produce have shown no sign of improvement, and in some grain production regions, farmers' incomes are declining. The income gap between urban and rural residents is continuing to widen.

The meeting urged the government to take agricultural restructuring and increasing farmers' incomes as central tasks.

Farmers' incomes need to improve to avoid them losing interest in production. If their purchasing power improves too slowly, demand for industrial products will be dampened.

The meeting pointed out that to increase farmers' incomes, increased spending in the agriculture sector was paramount, as well as improving the environment for the development of the rural economy.

The most effective approach to reach this goal is to increase the overall efficiency in agriculture by restructuring the sector and the rural economy, which is bound to create many new jobs for farmers, according to the meeting.

Strong measures should be taken to improve grain quality and process agricultural products, to speed up the development of the industrial and service sectors in rural areas, and to promote the restructuring of rural enterprises.

Small towns also needed to be developed, and surplus rural labourers transferred to co-ordinate development in urban and rural areas at the same time, the conference agreed.

Advances in agricultural science and technology has been called for to improve traditional methods, while the development of animal husbandry should be accelerated.

The restructuring of agriculture and the rural economy is a long process, it was noted.

Participants placed great importance on continuing poverty-reduction efforts in rural areas, confirming that after years of work, the problem of providing enough food and clothing for poverty-stricken people in rural areas has basically been solved in China.

"But this is by no means an end to work in alleviating poverty," the meeting noted, adding that many farmers who were no longer poor were still vulnerable to natural disasters.

It was announced that in the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), China will give priority to areas inhabited by ethnic groups and poverty-stricken regions in the middle and western regions of the country.

The conference also emphasized the importance of ensuring the grain safety of the State, saying agriculture has always supported economic development and social stability in strategically restructuring the national economy.

The agriculture sector will have to face many new challenges when the country joins the World Trade Organization. Governments at all levels were urged to render more support to it, especially in facing the current problem of an agricultural surplus.

"Providing sufficient food to more than 1.2 billion Chinese remains the top task of the country," the meeting stressed.

The Chinese Government will take concrete measures to ensure adequate food supply and food safety this year.

These measures include protecting the country's arable land, maintaining farmers' production initiatives, enhancing the grain output level in major production areas and improving the co-ordination system of grain reserves.

The relationship between restructuring the agricultural sector and stable grain production must be properly handled, it was stressed.

The recent reform of replacing arbitrary fees imposed by local authorities with taxes paid to the State is a key policy adopted by the central government to protect farmers' initiatives and interests.

It is also important to long-term rural development and stability, according to the meeting.

Maintaining stability in rural areas is a "prerequisite" for rural reforms and development, the meeting pointed out.

It also stressed that all policies must be strictly carried out in rural areas to safeguard the rights and interests of farmers.

(Xinhua 01/06/2001)