New countryside

To tackle the problem, the central government quintupled its spending from 2002 to 2007 to boost rural infrastructure. Under its "new countryside program", it abolished the centuries-old rural agriculture tax, made the nine-year compulsory education free for rural children and subsidized agriculture production. All these have lifted farmers' living standards and provided them better social security.

Thanks to such efforts, the country saw four successive years of good harvest, a rarity since the middle 1980s. This is a boon today when global food prices are rising rapidly and an increasing number of non-farm units are eating up into the country's arable land.

Millions of farmers have achieved breakthroughs in political life. Direct elections at the grassroots level to choose village leaders have become stronger since the early 1990s. Villagers today have a stronger desire to promote self-governance. The practice, legalized in 1998, has been adopted by more than 80 percent of China's villages, with villagers choosing more than 611,000 committee leaders.

Many rural areas have also joined the reform for household contract system of the collective ownership of forest land. Forest cover across the country has increased rapidly, after the State Council guaranteed people longer-term ownership and decision-making rights last year.

Added to these, the central leadership's new proposals to carry forward rural reforms is likely to make life more comfortable for farmers and lift their living standards.