The per capita income of people in China's rural areas rose 10.3 percent in the first half of this year, the greatest increase for the six-month period for four years, Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai said Thursday.

     Farmers' average net income for the half year was 2,528 yuan ($370), he said in his report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

     Following a 9.5 percent annual increase last year - the largest since 1985 - this year is expected to break all records, thanks to a skyrocketing producer price index, an increasingly wealthy migrant labor class and the growth of subsidies paid to the country's farmers, Sun said.

     For the past five years, rural issues have been at the core of China's No 1 central documents - the name given to the first document issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council each year.

     Increasing farmers' incomes was the keynote of the 2004 No 1 central document, while consolidating the nation's agricultural foundations is the theme of this year's.

     Having several overcome socioeconomic barriers and natural adversities, the country's early rice harvest "is here to stay" and autumn crops are "doing well", Sun said.

     However, he said the foundations of wage increases are thin, and long-term mechanisms to ensure the