Wen says farmers must profit more from growth

China must give its hundreds of millions of rural residents a bigger share of profits from farmland seized in the name of economic growth, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday.

Wen also warned government officials not to force villagers to give up their farmland rights even if they join the rising tide of migrants heading to towns and cities for work.

Wen was speaking at the opening of the annual central conference on rural work in Beijing.

He said that after decades of rapid growth underwritten by farmland taken for relatively little compensation, it was time for China to tilt in favor of the farmers.

"We should recognize that our country's level of economic development has risen far, and we can no longer sacrifice farmers' land property rights for the sake of lowering the costs of industrialization and urbanization," he said. "We must, and also have the conditions to, dramatically increase the share of gains that goes to farmers from enhancing the value of land."

As a country with a large population, agricultural modernization is equally important as urbanization and industrialization to China, Wen told the conference.

"Any slight failure in agriculture will hamper the country's economic development and social stability," he said.

Agricultural work was of particular significance next year, faced with the complicated macro economic condition and the dual pressures of an economic slowdown and rising inflation, Wen said.