Beijing, China
December 27, 2009
News from the national working conference on agriculture has confirmed that China’s agriculture and rural economy have been better than expected, achieving stable and steady development. China’s grain output of this year is expected to exceed 530 million tons. Therefore, a new record has been created that the annual output is over 500 million tons for the third consecutive year and has been on the rise for six years in a roll. Farmers’ net income per capita has witnessed a growth of over 6%, exceeding 5000 yuan.
According to Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture, despite the international financial crisis, growing fluctuation of international and domestic agricultural markets, increasing pressure for rural labor to seek job in non-agriculture sector and frequent extreme weather events, agriculture and rural economy have maintained good development with sufficient supply of staple food and stable prices for agricultural products, laying the material foundation for efforts against the international financial crisis, and for maintaining stable and rapid development of the economy.
Apart from the harvest of grain, oil-bearing crops and horticulture crops have also achieved stable development, with the output of the former expected to reach 30.49 million tons, up by 3.2%. Animal husbandry has been stable and developing and annual output of meat is expected to exceed 75 million tons, up by 3.1%, with stable development of live pig raising, accelerated recovery of dairy, sufficient supply of poultry and eggs and higher proportion of scale-sized animal raising. The situation of major animal epidemics has been stable. Fishery has witnessed steady and stable development, with annual output of aquatic products expected to 51.2 million tons, up by 4.5%. The structure of agricultural production has been further optimized, with stable market supply and prices. The situation of the quality and safety of agricultural products has been improving, with 96.4% of vegetable, 99.5% of animal products and 97.2% of aquatic products passing relevant tests, up by 0.1, 0.8 and 1.5 percentage points over those of last year. The income of farmers has been growing rapidly, with per capita net income expected to exceed 5000 yuan, up by 6% in a real manner.
Next year, the Ministry of Agriculture will seek to stabilize and ensure food supply, enhance farmers’ income and well-being, advance reform for integrated arrangement, and consolidate foundations for better development. Every effort will be used to stabilize the production of major agricultural products, to ensure the output of grain of over 500 million tons, to increase farmers’ income by at least 6%, to guarantee not to occurrence of regional major animal epidemics and serious incidents concerning the quality and safety of agricultural products.
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