Protecting interest of farmers_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Protecting interest of farmers

Pig-raisers are not the sole victims of such drastic price fluctuations. People's Daily reported yesterday that farmers in Guizhou province had a bumper harvest of tomato this year but the wholesale price was only 0.30 yuan ($0.05) per kg. The retail price was 3.60 yuan in Beijing yesterday.

In the recent milk contamination scandal, cow farmers had to dump the milk as dairy companies had dramatically reduced production. The farmers have become the largest casualty in the scandal, second only to the children who had contracted illness from drinking the malamine-adulterated milk.

In the whole production-marketing chain from farming to consumption, farmers always bear the brunt whenever a disaster, whether natural or artificial, occurs during the procedure. They are the most vulnerable to risks but the least powerful when it comes to profit-sharing.

Take the milk production, again, for example. China's dairy industry grew at an annual rate of more than 20 percent in the past 10 years. Sanlu, the company at the core of the recent scandal, kept a 20 percent growth rate in its pure profits in the past eight years. A cow farmer earns about 10,000 yuan a year ($1,540) by raising a cow but the total cost of raising it is 9,000 yuan in addition to the market value of the cow itself, which is about 13,000 yuan.

The gap between the profits is apparent.

As a social group, farmers obviously are the weakest sector in the distribution of interests in society. As individuals, they are the least powerful and have the smallest say in the market.