(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-19 14:16

While most Chinese consumers, particularly in urban areas, are relieved at the government's decision to freeze prices on key household commodities, some of the country's farmers are arguing their interests might be ignored.

The government on Wednesday moved to restrict price hikes of daily goods, such as grain, edible oil, meat, milk, eggs and liquefied petroleum gas, in an effort to bring rising inflation under control.

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Xu Shaohua, a rice farmer from the Dongting Lake area, a key grain production base in central China's Hunan Province, hopes that additional measures should be taken to satisfy people who live in the countryside.

"Prices of pesticides and chemical fertilizers have continued to soar, but the price of rice has not undergone big hikes in recent years," Xu complained.

"Rice in 2007 only fetched 80 yuan or so per 50 kg on the market, I don't have much left after labor costs are deducted," he said.

"It is simply unrealistic to rely on plowing the fields and becoming prosperous."

Like many other rural families, Xu Shaohua and his wife, take care of their grandson, who helps farm their land. Their son and daughter-in-law have left to work in the city.

When the workload on the farm increases, the elderly couple have to hire several hands to help them out. But the cost of hiring a laborer has gone up from 20 yuan a day three years ago to 60 yuan, while the price for a bag of urea is now 104 yuan from 74 yuan in 2006.

The rich-poor gap is enlarging between cities and villages in the country with 900 million farmers, or 3/4 of the total population.

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