By staff reporter SHEN HONGLEI

Soilless cultivation.

The issue of farming, farmers and farming areas -- known as the Three F issue -- was a major concern of former premier Zhu Rongji, and remains so with his successor Wen Jiabao. On being asked in the golden hall in the Great Hall of the People two years ago what troubled him most, then premier Zhu Rongji answered without hesitation, "How to increase farmers' incomes." Not long ago, again at a news conference in the golden hall, new Premier Wen Jiabao answered questions as to what his major problems and challenges were. He replied, "Above all, the sluggish development of agriculture and slow increase in farmers' incomes."

China's Urban/Rural Schism

Mechanization now dominates harvesting in China.

The government report delivered at the 10th National People's Congress held last March cited the following statistics: "China's GDP increased from 7,700 billion yuan in 1997 to 10,200 billion in 2002." Foreign economic observers might interpret from this that the Chinese economy has an aggregate sixth world ranking. To the Chinese it means that per capita GDP stands around US $1,000. In all events, according to general standards, a country enters a well-off stage when its per capita GDP exceeds US $1000.

The term "well-off society" is commonly heard in China these days, and to some is a reality. It means they enjoy Internet access, and share information with the rest of the world, ownership of a spacious and comfortable apartment, and time for spiritual and cultural pursuits. To the 28.2 million people still living in poverty, most of them farmers, however, the concept of a well-off society is just a pipedream.

Despite rural households being awarded an annual income increase of 3.8 percent during the administration of the previous cabinet, living standards of the majority of farmers still lag far behind those of their urban fellows. As large cities like Beijing and Shanghai enter a period of secondary modernization, signaled by informatization and the knowledge economy, most of central and western regions are still undeveloped. Regional economic disparity is expanding, as is that between industrial and remote farming areas. Between 1997 and 2001 nine provinces/municipalities in prosperous coastal areas in eastern China achieved an average GDP growth of 9 percent. In central China, which is dominated by agriculture, only two provinces achieved this growth rate. A schism has thus occurred between rural regions of slow economic growth and booming large cities.

Yuan Longping (left) received a sizable state award for his development of high-yield hybrid rice.

When discounting the populations of Taiwan, Hongkong and Macao, China has a rural population of 935 million, accounting for 73 percent of the mainland's total. Its urbanization rate, inclusive of county seats and small towns, is only 37 percent -- 10 percentage points lower than the world average and 40 percentage points lower than that of developed countries. Chen Yiyu, NPC deputy and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says that farmers' weak purchasing power has made agriculture a bottleneck in China's economic development. He points out that unless agriculture develops, there will be no outlet for the increased production of industrial products.

From another perspective, China has always maintained an equal society and a large, commonly progressive family of different ethnic groups. Enriching farmers and achieving common prosperity for the Chinese people is not only a means of enhancing domestic demand, but also the common desire of the Chinese nation.

In response to a recent Internet survey conducted in Guangdong on "the issue commanding your greatest level of concern," 76 percent of university students cited that of farmers. At the 10th NPC the issue again entered the spotlight. Many deputies stood up expressing their wish to say a few words on behalf of farmers, and newspapers and TV programs frequently feature scholars specializing in the Three Fs. Building a commonly well-off society has become a nationwide concern.

Industrial Solution

Technology is playing an increasing role within agriculture.

"Resolution of the Three F issue needs the assistance of a developed national industry in addition to the efforts of the people and areas concerned," says Zhan Chunxin, NPC deputy and entrepreneur. Most state-owned industrial sectors have now turned losses into profits. In 2002 China's state-owned economy showed a 250 billion yuan profit -- an all-time high. The rejuvenation of China's national industry, particularly manufacturing, has provided a material guarantee for the realization of a commonly well-off society that includes both the rural population and urban poor.

Xu Shaofang, an NPC deputy from Jiangxi Province and board chairman of the Pingkuang Group, became a sought-after media subject after leading a depleted mining area into a new era of non-coal-related industrial prosperity. Many industrial enterprises have, in the process of generating social wealth, created jobs for unemployed urbanites and farmers seeking a living in cities. The Pingkuang Group provides jobs for 170,000 laid-off miners.

In recent years land for industrial development in cities has become very limited. Certain enterprises have hence set up their facilities in rural areas, and the appearance of industrial properties has propelled rural development. Many large industrial groups have made large investments in underdeveloped western China and become directly involved in agricultural products processing. Beijing's Delong Group took the plunge into agriculture in 1994. Today its sales volume of agriculture-related production exceeds 4 billion yuan, accounting for one-third of its total output value. The group's recent investment in the Tunhe Ketchup production line in Xinjiang has generated a production capacity of 240,000 tons. This is only 20,000 tons less than the world's largest ketchup producer, Heinz. Tunhe is now China's largest ketchup exporter, exporting mainly to the European and American markets, and the Tunhe project has brought benefit to at least 100,000 local households.

A prawn processing base for export established in an Anhui Province township.

The number of farmers currently working in cities stands around 120 million. They have proved to be another significant means through which to lead their home villages out of poverty. Many of those who have learned production skills in the city have returned home to embark on their own business endeavors. This kind of reverse migratory flow has in effect enabled many rural areas to help themselves. That the Three F issue does not exist in the countryside of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces is attributable to the two-way flow of farmers. Many local township enterprises and private enterprises are run by ex-farmers.

Developing cities ahead of the countryside is general world practice. In 2002 China's GDP reached 1,020 billion yuan, and its per capita GDP was US $1,000. This puts it on the scratch line marking a period when its industry feeds back into agriculture and its urban and rural areas embark on hand-in-hand growth. As China's national industry sails out of a difficult period into a boom, the Chinese government is leading the whole nation on a new Long March -- to solve the Three F issue.

Technological Solution

Township enterprises are a chief income source for farmers. Many of them, like Ningbo's Haitian Group shown here, have developed into conglomerates.

China is the world's largest rice producer. Hybrid rice developed by noted Chinese scientist Yuan Longping and his assistants has a per mu (1/15 hectare) yield of 500 kilograms. Its popularization in China has increased the country's average per mu yield to 400 kilograms. Yuan Longping believes that China can feed its huge population on the limited areas of arable land available. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has a strategic plan to popularize Yuan's hybrid rice around the world.

High and new technology has shed light on China's agricultural development. It is reported that the proportion of hi-tech industry in the Chinese economy has increased from one percent ten years ago to its present 15 percent. The number of agricultural hi-tech development areas and modern agriculture demonstration parks around the country now stands at 405. Bio-engineering and information technology play an increasing role in transforming China's traditional agriculture.

The Chinese minister of agriculture announced at a 10th NPC news conference that China is building regional agricultural production belts. The government is planning 35 advantageous regions for the production of special-use wheat and corn, high-oil soybeans, cotton, rape, sugar cane, oranges, apples, milk, beef, mutton, and aquatic products. Yili and Mengniu, both located in Inner Mongolia, are China's leading dairy producers and have a high level of technological input. Their annual sales incomes stand at 6 billion and 4 billion yuan respectively. To better use Inner Mongolia's resources and increase local farmer's income, the regional capital city of Hohhot employs high technology to reinforce China's dairy capital. Knowledge agriculture marked by technological innovation is in the making in China.

Human Support

These Gansu Province farmers have prospered by making use of local conditions to grow flowers.

Two years ago Yang Yuxue resigned from his government post in Beijing and volunteered to work as Party secretary of Tongren Prefecture in remote Guizhou Province. "What tourists see in Guizhou is its beautiful scenery, but at local farmers' homes I saw heart-rending poverty," says Yang. "One farmer told me that he hadn't slept a sound night's sleep for a year because he tied the cow, the family's only source of bread,  to his wrist before going to bed for fear it might be stolen." Seeing the rich water resources of the area, Yang Yuxue led local farmers in fish farming, and Tongren's salmon is now served in many large restaurants around the country. Tongren also has an environment suitable for grass cultivation, so Yang again led local farmers down the market economy road, growing grass, and raising and marketing cattle. Local farmers' pockets have gradually become gratifyingly heavy.

Today over 200,000 college graduates from cities have volunteered for a two-year term of service in 17 poverty-stricken areas in western China, including Xinjiang and Tibet, in the fields of basic education, public health and agricultural technological application. Beneficiary counties amount to 207. These young people have brought new ideas, vitality and creativity to these sluggish areas.

In the late 1920s a group of educated urban youths led the way to establishing a revolutionary base in the rural area of Jiangxi's Jinggang Mountains and kindled the Chinese Revolution. Today a new generation of educated youth has gone to backward rural areas to transform them through their knowledge.