Huang Zhixian, a member of the CPPCC, said that farmers generally have limited social networks and few channels to start their own business. At the current conference, he proposed to step up an information network in the countryside, allowing them to have access to useful information.

Yang Wenlong, a member from Jiangxi Province who has conducted a survey in Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, noticed that many returning farmers are unwilling to turn back to agricultural work.

"On the one hand, they don't make much money on farming, and on the other hand, they have grown accustomed to the comforts of city life."

But the picture is not all doom and gloom.

According to data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Bureau of Statistics, 80 percent of about 5 million migrant workers who returned to the countryside to spend lunar New Year holiday had returned to jobs in the cities by late February.

In 2008, China posted a growth rate of 9 percent, which although the lowest in seven years, was still a bright spot in an otherwise dismal international economic climate saturated with struggling economies.

(China.org.cn March 6, 2009)