By Xinhua writers Zhao Wei, Yang Yuhua & Cai Min

    HEFEI, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's annual central rural work meeting held last week in Beijing pledged to build a national subsistence allowances system to cover all needy people in the countryside.

    Rural residents' per-capita basic income is only one third of the per-capita disposable income of urbanites. Approximately 23.65million rural people live in poverty in China -- their annual per-capita income is no more than 683 yuan.

    The meeting stressed that rural and agricultural problems will continue to be top priorities of the ruling Communist Party of China. Efforts will be made to boost both grain production and farmers' income.

    The good words may bring a glimmer of hope to the life of Jin Zhengzhi, who lives in a mountainous area thousands of miles from the nation's capital.

    "HAVE ENOUGH FOOD TO EAT"

    Jin, 45 years of age, used to work as a housemaid in a city outside her native Anhui province, and her 49-year-old husband Wu Chuanlin worked in a city brick mill. They were two of China's 140million migrant workers.

    Peasant farmers have always been part of China. Grain security has always been a top concern in a country which now has a population of 1.3 billion including 900 million rural people.

    To encourage peasant farmers, on Jan. 1, 2006 China scrapped the agricultural tax that had been levied for 2,600 years. The move slashed peasant farmers' tax burden by more than 120 billion yuan (15 billion U.S. dollars).

    Other stimulants included subsidies for growing grain and for purchasing improved strains, farm vehicles and raw materials, such as pesticides and fertilizers. Meanwhile, a minimum grain price was established to safeguard farmers' interests.

    Encouraged, Jin and her husband decided to return to Saozhou village in Dabie Mountain in Anhui to farm. Their annual burden had been reduced by 120 yuan (15 U.S. dollars) and they also received subsidies of 20 yuan (2.6 U.S. dollars) per mu (15 mu equals one hectare) for their farm land.

    A total of 339.7 billion yuan (43.5 billion U.S. dollars) went from central coffers to rural areas this year, an increment of 42.2 billion yuan (5.4 billion U.S. dollars) on last year.

    But bad luck soon struck -- and with a vengeance. A typhoon ravaged for Jin and Wu's village in July this year, damaging roads, bridges and crops and causing two million yuan (256,410 U.S. dollars) of economic losses.

    Three quarters of the Jin family's four mu of land was submerged -- only one mu of paddy rice was harvested.

    "With this year's 250 kilograms of rice plus some leftovers from last year, we have just enough to eat," Jin said, glancing round her home, equipped with only a small TV set bought on credit last year and several worn-out, outmoded cupboards of indeterminate color. She said the furniture was what she took with her when she married Wu more than two decades ago. She did not believe they would buy anything new in the next few years.

    Nationally, the situation is much better than Jin's predicament would suggest. Despite frequent national disasters, China's grain production will exceed 490 billion kilograms this year, up for the third consecutive year, said Shang Qiangmin, head of the State Cereals and Oil Information Center.

    The central rural work conference promised that the government would spend more money on supporting farming and rural undertakings next year. Grain growing subsidies will continue as well as subsidies to purchase improved strains, farm vehicles and raw materials.

    However, "we should realize that the basis for grain production is fragile," warned Premier Wen Jiabao.

    "Construction projects are gobbling up 266,667 hectares of farmland every year. There is less and less opportunity to increase grain growing areas." "We must use legal means to control land use, and effectively safeguard farmers' rights and land interests," Wen said.

    China has 122 million hectares of farm land left. According to an estimate by Han Jun, head of the rural department of the Development Research Center under the State Council, more than 47 million peasant farmers have lost land in recent years.