Effects Of Preferential Agricultural Policies On Farmer Income

Increasing farmer income is the key to improving the so called "San nong" situation, i.e. the complex relationship between agricultural production, rural development and farmer's livelihood. A household survey was conducted at the counties of Tianzhu, Gulang, Luqu and Lintan in Gansu province and data was collected from another 14 counties within the province. These counties included traditional cropping regions, pastoral regions and regions with mixtures of cropping and livestock production. Effects of National Preferential Agricultural (NPA) Policies on farmer and herder livelihoods were analyzed. A comparison was made between the incomes among farmers and herders and an econometric model was established based on the data obtained. Suggestions were proposed for the enhancing rural development. The major findings are as follows:1. The implement of National Preferential Agricultural Policies:In general among the NPA policies, more emphasis is placed on agricultural production, rural children's education, medical insurance and disaster relief, and less on farmers themselves. Among the various regions, the policies implemented in pastoral regions were subject to more change than cropping and mixed regions, while cropping regions have less favorable policies than pastoral and mixed regions.2. Farmers income:The annual income per capita in mixed cropping/livestock regions was the highest reaching 3176.6 Yuan, which was followed by the pastoral region which was 2626.2 Yuan. The farmers in the cropping region were found to have the lowest income, which was 2551.4 Yuan, however the annual growth rate of per capita income in cropping region was highest at 10% which was followed by 9% from the mixed cropping and livestock region, and 7% from pastoral region. Approximately 80%-90% of their income was generated from the crop and livestock production. Living costs accounted for more than 25% of the total expenses in the pastoral region, while the cost was less than 17% in the cropping region.3. Effects of NPA Policies on farmers' income:NPA policies have played a positive role on the incomes of rural people. The income determining factor for cropping region was found to be 0.0018,0.0017 and-0.0626 for policies on production, rural development and farmers respectively. The corresponding factors for the mixed cropping/livestock production region were 0.0006,0.0006 and-0.0158, and for pastoral regions they were 0.1541,0.0005 and-0.0009, respectively. In general the impacts of production policies were ranked as cropping region>mixed region> pastoral region. A similar order was found for the rural development policies, while for farmer policies it was pastoral region >mixed regions> cropping regions.Suggestions on the policy issues were hastening the development of transportation and irrigation systems in these rural areas, improving agricultural infrastructure, and enhancing financial policy support.