Itinerant vendors in rural areas and farmers selling their own farm produce in government-run agricultural markets no longer have to pay management fees.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce announced in Beijing on Thursday at its national working conference that it had granted an exemption of these fees.

In other moves aimed to help farmers, the administration has decided to cancel registration fees for agricultural producer co-operatives, and to scrap registration and managerial fees for farmers selling their own farm produce in certain government-approved sites, the conference said.

The administration plans to develop farm goods chain stores and will increase scientific and technological support to farmers, according to the conference.

It will tighten control over the entry of farming goods to the rural market and confiscate fake farming products such as seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, fodder and animal medicines.

Rural residents' per-capita basic income is only one third the per-capita disposable income of Chinese city folk. Approximately 23.65 million rural people live in poverty in China -- their annual per-capita income is no more than 683 yuan (US$88).

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2007)