Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai Municipality will take concrete measures to guarantee farmers’ income, especially in face of the bird flu outbreak period, government spokeswoman Jiao Yang said yesterday.

Per capita income of farmers in Shanghai's suburb will increase by 8 percent this year to more than 7000 yuan from the 6650 yuan last year. Governmental assisting measures include:

* To increase the income of grain-producing farmers by improving agricultural structure;

* To create non-agricultural jobs to increase non-agricultural labors' income;

* To set up enterprise in order to create job opportunities for rural labors;

* To encourage farmer to open and run their own business. About 130,000 excessive labors in Shanghai suburb may get jobs in non-agricultural position this year.

To protect farmers interest during the bird flu outbreak, the government compensate for farmers' lost in poultry slaughter, issue production subsidies to breeding poultry farms and hatcheries, and organize poultry proceeding companies make large amount purchase from these farmers, Jiao said.