Curbing inflation has become a key task in this year's government work. An official, whose name was not given, from the statistics department says 82 percent of farmers' net income came from the price increase on agricultural products.

An article in the Beijing Youth Daily questions this perspective, asking "Did farmers really benefit from the agricultural product price rise?"

The article points out that the farmers are both producers and consumers in the market economy. Even though price increases for agricultural products may bring some additional profit to farmers, the increases in other fields like commodities, fertilizer, transportation expenses, and education could actually lead to a decrease in farmers' standard of living. Besides that, more than 200 million migrant workers from rural areas live in large cities, and their lives are closely linked to the price levels.

The newspaper says the improvement of the farmers' livelihood should not be based on the decline of city residents'.

The article concludes by saying "benefiting the farmers" should not be used as one of the excuses of price hikes.