Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Friday called for more efforts to raise farm output and efficiency with the minimum consumption of resources.

"Although China has made remarkable achievements in developing rural areas, we are still faced with problems such as a fragile agricultural infrastructure and widening income gap between rural and urban residents. It remains an important yet arduous task," said Hui at a seminar on sustainable development of agriculture.

China must continue to implement all the preferential policies for farmers to increase their income steadily and put forward mechanism innovation and a shift of development mode of agriculture, he said.

Hui called for the improvement of agricultural technology and the rural market mechanism and to develop modern agricultural industries covering production, processing and distribution.

Given the vulnerable eco-system and severe pollution in the country, we should also strengthen ecological construction of agriculture and environmental protection, said Hui.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2007)