BEIJING: Zhu Yanfen spent decades farming in her rural hometown in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, once relying on traditional crops and the weather to make ends meet. Now employed by a local agricultural company, she grows specialized produce and earns significantly more — over 10,000 yuan (about 1,437 U.S. dollars) per month during the busy season.
Her story reflects a nationwide drive to promote steady income growth for farmers, one of the priorities outlined in a key policy document released by China’s central authorities on Tuesday, which outlined plans to advance agricultural and rural modernization and promote all-around rural revitalization this year.
In the document, China commits to safeguarding and incentivizing farmers’ participation in grain production, cultivating county-level industries that benefit rural residents, stabilizing employment for rural migrant workers, and implementing measures to expand rural consumption.
These measures will serve to improve people’s livelihoods, boost consumption, and energize the broader economy from the ground up, analysts said.
Official data showed that rural residents’ per capita disposable income reached 24,456 yuan in 2025, up 6 percent year on year.
While progress has been made, challenges remain for sustaining income growth, as prices of some agricultural products stay low and pressure on stable employment for migrant workers persists, noted Zhu Weidong, deputy head of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, at a press conference on Wednesday.
Zhu said measures, including minimum purchase prices, planting subsidies, and crop insurance, will be strengthened to secure farmers’ incomes from grain production. Meanwhile, to raise rural residents’ wage income, efforts will focus on improving services for migrant workers and expanding support for those seeking jobs or starting businesses in their hometowns.
“Conditions will be created to increase farmers’ property income through multiple channels,” Zhu added.
One way is to promote the development of county-level economies, each with its own distinctive features.
County economies encompass not only county-seat economies but also township and village economies across multiple tiers. Once focused mainly on agriculture, counties are now pursuing far more varied growth patterns.
Zhu emphasized fostering industries aligned with local conditions and comparative advantages as an important pathway to raising farmers’ incomes.
Some counties are already piloting industries such as ice and snow tourism, e-commerce promotion, specialized tropical farming, and deep agro-processing. These diverse business models and extended industrial chains are creating jobs and raising incomes for rural residents.
“A fair distribution mechanism should be refined to achieve a virtuous cycle between industrial development and growth in farmers’ income,” noted Zhu. –Agencies
