A Study Of The Issue Of Farmers' Earnings During The Period Of Economic Transformation

At the beginning of the 21st century, China's economic and social development entered a new period of accelerated historical transformations: the transformation of economic system from the traditional system of socialist planned economy to the system of socialist market economy, the transformation of economic growth mode from the traditional extensive mode to modern intensive mode, the transference of Chinese economic society from "dual economic structure " to "mono economic structure", the change of the Chinese agriculture from traditional agriculture to a modern one, the turning of China from a big agricultural country to a powerful one. This period of transformation is also one of constructing an all-round well-off society. With respect to the national conditions of China, the construction of a well-off society in the rural areas is particularly important as there can be no all-round well-off society if the farmers are not well-off. Among the issues concerned with agriculture, rural areas and farmers, the increase of farmers' earnings is of vital importance to the nation's economy. In view of how to raise farmers' earnings, many researchers have conducted fruitful researches and experiments. But the growth of farmers' earnings has remained slow since 1997. Therefore, how to effectively propel the growth of farmers' earnings has become a hot issue and has aroused great attention from the theoretical field and government functional departments.Guided by Maxism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and "ThreeRepresents", this dissertation thesis discusses the basic theories concerned and the significance of increasing farmers' earnings. It has made a historical research into the growth of farmers' earnings that has taken place since 1978. The thesis analyses the issue in question from the aspects of system factors and non-system factors, and gives suggestions on how to effectively increase farmers' earnings.The thesis is consisted of six chapters. Chapter 1 discusses relevant theories concerned with farmers' earnings. Chapter 2 mainly reviews the history of farmers' earnings in the different phases in the progress of economic transformation and does a comparative study on the past and present situations of farmers' earnings. Chapter 3 focuses on regional evidence analysis of farmers' earnings and concludes the causes of regional differences in farmers' earnings. Chapter 4 chiefly analyses the system factors affecting the increase of farmers' earnings during the period of economic transformation of China, including the land system and tax system of rural areas, price system of farm products, permanent residence registration system, rural social well-fare system, etc. Chapter 5 analyses and expounds the non-system factors affecting the growth of farmers' earnings in the same period, including macro economic operation, science and technology progress in agriculture, education level of farmers, China's entry into WTO, etc. Chapter 6 mainly suggests counter-measures against the problem of slow growth in farmers' earnings, among which are propelling industrialized operation of agriculture, accelerating the industrialization and urbanization of rural areas, transferring surplus rural labour, practising agricultural integrated operation, establishing and perfecting social security system in the rural areas, reconstructing socialized service system in the rural areas, etc.This thesis contains innovative ideas and policy suggestions. The author puts forward that factors affecting the increase of farmers' earnings can be divided into system factors and non-system factors, of which system factors are decisive in affecting the growth of farmers' earnings on a long-term basis, while non-system factors affects the growth on a short-term basis that allows no ignorance. The author introduces the idea of "green agricultural industrialization chain" into the study ofthe industrialized operation of agriculture, and points that under the circumstances of market saturation of agricultural products, the building...