Xinjiang farmers report solid income growth

URUMQI - Farmers in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region saw per capita annual income grow by 13.7 percent last year with the help of government support efforts.

The per capita net income rose to 8,296 yuan ($1,340) for 2014, Bai Zhijie, a member of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China, told an agricultural conference in regional capital Urumqi on Wednesday.

This was the fourth year the annual income grew by around 1,000 yuan.

With more rural laborers working in non-agricultural sectors over the past few years, the income earned from non-agricultural work accounts for more than 30 percent of the total, the official said.

The regional government has set the target of raising the annual income by another 1,000 yuan this year, Bai said.

To meet the target, the local government will step up vocational training and encourage young rural laborers to go to seek jobs in towns and cities, he said.

Meanwhile, the authorities will roll out preferential policies including tax cuts and easier credit to encourage rural cooperatives and other businesses to hire more local rural workers, the official added.