Farmer Liu Yulian has a common complaint: costs are rising faster than his income.

"The more land you cultivate, the more pressure you feel. The cost of farming is just rising too fast," said Liu, a farmer from Gongzhuling, Jilin.

"The increase in the yields is not in proportion with the increased income," he added.

Liu is not alone. As one of the most important commodity grain producers in the country, Jilin Province has to grapple with mounting prices of farming materials.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the first quarter of this year saw a 25 percent increase in the price of farming materials.

Grain prices rose by 6 percent this year, but the cost of planting grain increased by 15 percent.

The market price of corn rose from 1.4 per kg last year to 1.6 yuan per kg this year, Liu said. However, the price of urea jumped from 90 yuan per bag to 130 yuan this spring.

"Though our annual income is expected to increase by 2,000 yuan this year, over half of will go to fertilizers, and animal feed, so the net income is not that much," Liu added.

Cui Shulan, 61, a farmer in Dangling Village, spent 5,000 yuan (US$735) last year on seeds, renting machinery, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This year she had to spend an additional 1,000 yuan.

Statistics from the Jilin committee on agriculture show that in the first six months of this year, the prices of most farming materials increased, with the price of chemical fertilizers among the highest. The prices of di-ammonium phosphate and potassium chloride, essential ingredients in fertilizer, have risen 90 percent and 101 percent respectively.

According to Teng Fei of the Jilin committee on agriculture, compared to last year, farmers had to spend 750 to 900 yuan more farming each hectare this year.

"The continuously rising prices of farming materials nearly negate all of the benefits that farmers have got from different kinds of governmental subsides," Teng said. "This has to some extent affected their enthusiasm for planting crops," he added.

Vice-Director Wen Guozhi of the Jilin development and reform commission said there are many factors that caused prices to rise in farming materials.

The soaring prices of the coal and crude oil used to process fertilizers and diesel are the main reasons for this price hike, Wen said.

Analysts say that crude oil prices have still not peaked, which means that the prices will keep going up, he added.

What's more, the central government's favorable policies and agricultural subsidies for farmers means that more and more migrant workers will likely return to fields from construction work in cities, Teng said. This may have increased the demand for farming materials and driven prices.

The increased demand for farming materials may have also spawned speculators selling fake fertilizers and pesticides, Teng said.

To offset this negative impact, Jilin Province intends to continue increasing various subsidies to farmers and to monitor farming materials markets and production plants. The agricultural authority in the province is the first in the country to install a "12316" special hotline for farmers to report fake materials cases.

Local governments have also provided more technical assistance and services to farmers, promoting advanced planting methods and technologies, field management, disease and pest control.

(China Daily September 2, 2008)