Chinese farmers' net per capita income rose 8 percent last year, but it would be difficult to maintain that pace of growth in 2009, a senior agriculture official told a press conference on Monday.

Chen Xiwen, director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work, said the figure was 4,761 yuan (US$697) in 2008, the fifth consecutive year of 6-percent-plus growth.

However, he said, farm incomes would be affected by the global economic crisis, which has reduced demand and prices of many commodities.

Declining agricultural commodity prices and unemployment among migrant workers would constrain farmers' income growth in 2009, he said. The government would offer more subsidies and provide more advanced technology and improved public services to help farmers, he said.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences forecast in a report last month that growth in farmers' net income this year would drop to 6.2 percent as the economy cooled.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2009)