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China's top lawmakers yesterday abolished the country's 2,600-year-old agricultural tax starting January 1 as part of national efforts to provide more support for farmers and narrow the income gap between urban and rural residents.

Wan Baorui, vice chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, said the abolition of the tax ushers in a new era in which the industrial sector will subsidize agriculture.

Agriculture contributed 13.1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product in 2004, industry contributed 46.2 percent, and the service sector provided 40.7 percent.

The agricultural levy — China's oldest tax — began in 594 BC. Given the country's predominately agrarian society, the tax was China's main source of fiscal revenues for more than 2,000 years.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, agriculture has made great contributions to the country's economic development, officials said.

But in recent years, the economy has shifted its focus from the countryside to the cities, and income gaps have widened between urban and rural residents.

In 2005, the Chinese government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pledged to ensure a "new countryside" and narrow the wealth gap between the cities and the hinterlands.

China has set major tasks for its rural development in the 11th Five-Year Program (2006-2010) at a central work meeting closed in Beijing yesterday.

China's agriculture and countryside, still at the stage of mountain climbing, remain the weakest part of the national economy, said the meeting.

The government would spend more on the development of its agriculture and countryside including boosting infrastructure construction, it said.

More efforts would be paid to push forward a comprehensive reform in the rural areas, according to the meeting.

Steady improvement of grain production and ensuring the safety of nation's food supply are another important task for the country's rural development.

The rural land management policy would be maintained and the use of farmland would be strictly controlled, so as to guarantee the development of agriculture and the stability in the countryside.

The meeting said farmer-turned migrant workers would be channeled off orderly to find jobs and be treated fairly in urban areas. Efforts would also be paid to develop economy of counties which would draw more farmer-turned workers.

China would continue to invest more in education and medical service in the countryside to improve public service there, said the meeting.