Chinese farmers' net income will rise 6 percent this year despite the prevailing financial crisis, said a report released by a government think tank on Wednesday.

The increase was slightly lower than that of 2008. In 2008, farmers' net income per capita was 4,761 yuan (US$696.7), a growth of 8-percent over the previous year, said the Green Book of China's Rural Economy, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The government's policies for boosting agriculture and the fall of farming materials such as farm tools, fertilizer, pesticide and oil will help boost agricultural production this year, it said.

But the price of agricultural products might be influenced by global market changes this year, according to the report, which was based on a survey of 68,000 rural households.

The growth rate of farmers' income is likely to drop due to gloomy job markets for migrant workers, the report said.

In China, migrant workers are usually farmers from the less-developed hinterland to cities or prosperous coastal provinces. Their salaries earned in cities contribute to large percentage of their annual income.

The Chinese government has formulated plans to boost domestic consumption by spurring the expending of farmers as rural areas have great potential for durable goods and clothes.

The market for such durable goods, such as washing machines and mobile phones, is basically saturated in urban areas.

In 2008, the rural per capita cost on clothes was only 212 yuan, less than 20 percent of that for urban peers, it said.

The report stressed that the income disparity between city dwellers and rural residents has been expanding since 1978.

The urban residents' living expense was 2.68 times of that of rural residents, and the figure rose to 3.07 times in 2008, it said.

In 2008, per-capita living expense of urban residents was 11,243 yuan while that of rural residents was 3,661 yuan.

However, as the report observed, insufficient social insurance in rural areas have hindered the economic growth in the countryside.

The report called for efforts to help farmers increase their income, expand the coverage of social insurance, facilitate rural infrastructure construction and strengthen financial services in rural areas.

(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2009)