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The still-robust performance of the national economy is once again swelling the pockets of urban residents, but farmers' reduced cash income reveals how unevenly the impact of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) has been felt.

Latest statistics indicated that the per capita disposable income of city dwellers increased to 4,301 yuan (US$520) in the first half of this year. This 9 per cent rise in income over that for the same period last year demonstrates that the country has successfully survived the SARS epidemic that disrupted the country in the first half of this year.

Cities were hit hardest by the killer epidemic. But the sound income growth means that, as a whole, urban residents have recovered from the economic impact of the SARS outbreak thanks to the government's all-out efforts to contain it and keep the economy growing.

However, the parallel contraction of farmers' cash income points to an alarmingly gloomy picture of the rural economy, which appears to be lagging further behind the urban economy.

A nationwide survey by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that farmers' per capita cash income registered a meager 3.2 per cent year-on-year growth in the first six months, down by 3.4 percentage points on an inflation-adjusted basis. Worse still, rural people actually earned on average only 421 yuan (US$50.90) in cash in the second quarter, 11 yuan (US$1.30) less than for the same period in the previous year.

The fact that the SARS outbreak has bitten so deep into farmers' thin pockets exposes the vulnerability of the country's rural development, especially when the growth of the whole economy was challenged.

Evaporated jobs for rural migrant workers in cities and limited access to urban markets for agriculture produce during the period between April and June when SARS peaked all significantly added to the pressures on farmers' income.

The national authorities must have heeded the call of farmers. The State Council repeated the need for urgent efforts to alleviate farmers' suffering even before the country claimed an initial triumph over the SARS virus in late June.

Additional State investment in rural areas will surely help fatten farmers' purses.

Nevertheless, the yawning income gap between rural and urban areas cannot be narrowed overnight.

At the moment, a useful instrument the government has in its tool box is the tax-for-fee reform which has been tried out in several regions. It is high time to extend institution of the reform and make most of it to reduce the burden on farmers.

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