Chinese leaders pledge to modernise agriculture and raise rural incomes
Leaders pledge to modernise sector and reduce rural-urban wealth gap, but are tight-lipped about long-awaited changes to rural land use
China's tight balancing act between supply and demand for agricultural products will become a "new normal" as the nation continues its urbanisation drive, Agriculture Minister Han Changfu said.
The central government also vowed to improve agricultural efficiency by modernising the farming sector, Han added.
Domestic demand for agricultural products was set to rise due to a growing urban population, Han told lawmakers yesterday in a report to the Standing Committee of National People's Congress in Beijing.
He also said the urban-rural wealth gap had continued to widen, as had regional differences in farmers' incomes.
In 2013, the average urban resident earned 18,059 yuan (HK$22,800) more than the average farmer, while farmers in coastal provinces earned 5,218 yuan more than those in western regions.
Li Guoxiang , a researcher at the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said there would remain a gap between China's demand for agricultural products and what it could produce domestically, due to resource limitations, making it necessary for the country to continue to rely on imports to meet the shortfall.