There are roughly 338 million women in rural China in 2006，of which just over 35 million are 65 years old and above. Many of these rural women are responsible for much of the work on the farm，because many men from rural areas now work in the cities，especially in the coastal region，either on a seasonal basis or as permanent migrants. Seeking for better paid job opportunities is not only limited to men，however. Many young rural women also found work in light manufacturing，such as in the garment and leather goods industries in southern China. In many factories in Shenzhen，for instance，the workforce is almost 100% young women recruited from rural areas of China from as far away as Sichuan. The result is that in rural China there are not that many able bodied men around；nor are there many young women. It is the middle aged and elderly women that form the bulk of China’s rural population today. According to Professor Bai Nansheng at the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the Renmin University in Beijing，some 47 million rural women live most of the time on their own maintaining their families while their husbands work in the cities.

These rural women face tremendous challenges both in making a living as well as in keeping the family together. Take the case of Li Kaifeng，for example，who is a 78 years old widower living in rural Guizhou. Both her youngest son and his wife now work in the city，leaving three grandchildren，age 5 to 9，under her care. The children attend a local school，and after school hours，help Li tend the family plot which grows potatoes，corn and cabbage. It’s a lot of work for a 78 year old. And the situation is similar for 50 year old Hu Yuanbi and her husband Xue Tianwu （age 55） who live in Youzhafang village. They take care of their 5 year old grandson because their son and his wife work in the city. Yuanbi’s day starts early；she prepares breakfast for the family as soon as she gets up. Then she walks 20 minutes to the field on a hill side to work on the crops until lunch time. It is also her responsibility to make lunch for the family，so she hurries home after a morning’s work in the field to get lunch ready. Then she and her husband share the household chores in the afternoon.^[1]These are strenuous daily routines，which are very common among rural women in China today.

Rural income is a lot lower than urban income in China，a well known fact. Indeed the rural-urban gap has increased in recent years. For example，back in 1985 the average urban income is about twice that of rural income. In 2005，the ratio has risen to close to three times higher. As a comparison，the comparable urban-rural income ratio in India is about 1.5 （average urban income being 1.5 times higher than the average rural income）. It has been estimated that about 12 million rural women still lived in poverty as of the end of 2005.^[2]It should be pointed out that the situation of widening income gap between urban and rural China is not a result of conditions in rural China having deteriorated. Rural income has actually been growing；but urban income has been growing even faster，hence the widening gap.

The central government has been focusing on improving rural conditions in recent years. Rural taxes have been reduced very significantly，for example. In 1998，according to official statistics，the average tax rate on rural income was about 5.2%，with a total of some 112 billion yuan of taxes being collected from rural China. In 2004，the rural tax burden has been reduced to 0.4% of rural income，with only 13 billion yuan of rural taxes being collected. This is a very substantial reduction of the tax burden for rural households. But this is only one side of the coin. The other，and arguably more important side，is how to increase rural income. As mentioned above，many rural households are headed by women because their husbands and sons have left to find work in cities. And these are also older women since many young women have also left to work in the cities. So the burden on these women heads of households is very high indeed.

As much as rural conditions are being improved by more government investment in infrastructure and the reduction in rural tax burden，the prospects are not promising for income increase in the agricultural sector. According to a World Bank study，the marginal return to labor in rural China in agriculture is extremely low compared with urban industries. In fact，the average marginal return to labor in urban industries is over 33 times higher （3300%） than marginal return on labor in agriculture in rural areas.^[3]This is a shocking estimate，reflecting both the fast pace of increase in productivity in urban industries as well as the stagnation of productivity in rural agriculture. The lack of investment in rural areas historically is clearly one of the reasons for low productivity in agriculture. Many vi