Chinese farmers' income rose 8.6 percent year on year in the first quarter (inflation adjusted) to 1,622 yuan (US$237.5), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Friday.

Rural residents' wages in the first quarter stood at 655 yuan, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier, the NBS said according to a sample survey to 680,000 rural households in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

During this time, farm product sales rose 6.7 percent to 572 yuan per person, and operation income from secondary and tertiary sectors rose 4.2 percent to 190 yuan per person.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank, forecasted in a report on April 15 that farmers' net income would rise 6 percent in 2009, a slower growth rate than the year-on-year figure of 8 percent in 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2009)