To increase the income for farmers, a key issue closely related to China's efforts to expand the domestic market to maintain rapid economic growth, could get a smooth go-ahead once the breakthrough is made in the industrialization of agricultural production, a lawmaker said in Beijing Thursday.

Boosting the industrialization of agricultural production can help farmers enter the market in a better-organized way and improve the comprehensive efficiency of agriculture, said Wang Zehong, a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), the Chinese legislature.

Wang, who is here attending the on-going annual NPC session, called on the government to get ready and be fully prepared for concepts and work mechanism that fit the industrialization of farming.

Xiao Zhuoji, a renowned economist and a member of China's top advisory body amid its own annual session in par with that of the national legislature, proposed that the government give more financial resources in support of agricultural production and to help increase farmers' income substantially.

Noting that the state fiscal income jumped 121 percent in the 1996-2000 period, Xiao said China's financial spending in agriculture was only up 75 percent, adding "this is irrational".

Although the Chinese government has taken a series of measures targeted at raising the farmers' income over the last few years, the income gap between urbanites and rural residents still keeps widening.

In 2002, the rural residents' per-capita net income amounted to 2,476 yuan (US$300), less than one-third that of urban dwellers.

"When the costs for chemical fertilizer and seeds are deducted, the farmers' per-capita disposable cash income fell to only 120 yuan (US$14.5) per month," said Qiu Xiaohua, deputy director of the State Statistics Bureau.

However, lawmakers and advisors are confident in and expecting a relatively faster increase in the farmers' income as the central authorities have been formulating more preferential policies for the development in agriculture and rural areas this year.

(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2003)