Chinese farmers see future in vegetables

XICUN, China, Mar 2 (Reuters) Never mind the slogans. For Xicun village head Dang Guangshun, China's new socialist countryside means farmers making money from growing tomatoes.

''What is the new socialist countryside? As long as farmers have enough money in their pockets, that is better than clean streets,'' Dang said in the newly built office of the village cooperative. Outside his window, farmers sorted crates of tomatoes and cucumbers to sell to an organic food company.

Xicun's tomatoes will be figuratively on the menu at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress in March, when nearly 3,000 delegates will gather to approve Beijing's plan to boost the economy in rural areas.

The Communist Party has long been ambivalent about the countryside. Swept to power by peasant revolutionaries, for decades the party bought grains at artificially low prices to feed the cities, and used a stringent household registration system to prevent urban migration.

Things began to change from the late 1970s under Deng Xiaoping, who gave farmers some control over land and the right to grow cash crops. More recently, millions of young construction and sweatshop workers sent their wages home, funding new, two-storey homes, televisions and mopeds, and education for younger siblings.

Nonetheless, the countryside has been left in the dust by China's fast-growing economy, and rural incomes are only a third of city dwellers'. The party fears that the gap between city and village is fuelling unrest among its 750 million farmers.

''Why is the countryside restless? It's very simple. They don't have money, and society is too unequal,'' said Zhang Lingyu, president of Sanan Agriculture, which buys and distributes Xicun's vegetables.

Chinese leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao have made the countryside a political priority. They abolished an ancient grains tax, promised free schooling, and are offering financial aid and subsidies for seeds and infrastructure.

But more than slogans or subsidies, the ''harmonious countryside'' they seek depends on China's success in developing rural businesses, such as Sanan, that can lift incomes while stemming the flood of migrants to the cities.

GREENHOUSES Sanan has a contract with cooperatives in 11 villages like Xicun.

It provides manure and guidance on growing, while villagers provide labour and greenhouses, financed by micro-loans.

Income from tomatoes, cucumbers and melons is about 10 times what the 2,000 farmers in Xicun, some 50 km east of Beijing, could make growing grains.

''We have all kinds of household appliances at home. I have two television sets and air conditioners,'' said Ma Changqing, as she collected plants in her warm and humid greenhouse. She had even bought a second apartment in a nearby town, Ma boasted, wiping her forehead and beaming.

Her tomatoes earn her 10,000 yuan in six months, more than three times the annual average per capita income for China's rural farmers.

Ma's greenhouse consists of a mud wall, 40 metres long and 2 metres thick, that buttresses a field set about 1 metre into the ground. Straw mats are unrolled over the roof of plastic sheeting to keep the frost out at night. Rows of these dugout greenhouses stretch to the horizon on a flat, brown plain.

Dang, the village head, says Xicun's vegetable-led growth has helped his political career. He said he was elected three times in contested elections, under a system that allows villagers to vote for pre-vetted candidates.

''I didn't have to spend a penny or invite anybody to banquets for the election. Not like other villages, where candidates spent 500,000 yuan to win,'' said Dang, a talkative man whose family name is the same word as 'political party'.

''Villagers will remember you if you help them with issues that most concern them, like education and health care.'' And Dang believes money has bought love for Xicun.

''Farmers now have a secure income. Couples aren't fighting any more or spending long years apart and ending up divorced. Parents have enough money to educate their kids and take care of their elders and families are more harmonious,'' Dang said.

''If all villages in the country could do as well as we have, Chairman Hu would not have to worry any more.'' REUTERS AKJ RAI0930