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【中文标题】农民在中国的经济改革中挣扎
【原文标题】Amid China's economic transformation, many farmers struggle
【登载媒体】洛杉矶时报
【原文作者】David Pierson
【原文链接】http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-farming-20110707,0,2836392.story
一位菜农的自杀引起了人们对2亿中国农民家庭的关注，即使在目前国际粮食价格持续上涨的环境中，他们中的很多人依然无法获取温饱。
韩立霞手持一张家庭成员的合影，她和两个女儿现在住在司家庄的亲戚家里。她的丈夫韩进在4月份上吊自杀，原因是发现他种植的3吨卷心菜一钱不值。他本来需要这笔钱来偿还3000美元的贷款。他的自杀是中国农村困苦生活的缩影。
韩进本来认为他有一个完美的方案来让这个家庭摆脱债务困扰。他在自己的小农场旁边租下另外一块地，全都种上大量的卷心菜，当时市场上的叶菜价格正在疯涨。
但是，当今年春天收获的时候，这位两个孩子的父亲无助地发现，数千位农民也实施了与他相同的计划。批发商手中的绿色蔬菜大量滞销，价格一落千丈。
看到地里几乎一钱不值的蔬菜，又想到自己欠别人的钱比一年的收入还要多，韩把自己锁在卫生间里，上吊了。
这位39岁男人的死亡引起了全国媒体的关注，在这个国家令人窒息的经济高速发展过程中，有2亿农村家庭还没有获得实质性的收益。城市居民享受着飞速上升的生活标准，但是中国农村大部分地区依然是极度贫困的。那里的居民平均年收入只有3200美元，还不到城市居民平均年收入的三分之一。
随着全球食品价格，尤其是中国城市食品价格的上涨，人们猜测中国的农民肯定因此发了一笔横财。毕竟美国农民通过向有庞大需求的中国人出口猪肉、大豆、坚果和其它农产品已经赚得盆满钵满。
但是，与广阔、高度机械化的美国农场相比，典型的中国农场面积不到一英亩，而且由农民手工劳作。这是共产主义改革的遗物，政府在控制了全国耕地之后，把土地分成小块，发放给农民。尽管这样的做法解决了农村居民的就业问题，但是延缓了他们收入增长的步伐。
中国农民没有农作物保险来保护他们抵御自然灾害，政府补贴也少得可怜。因为他们对土地没有所有权，所以无法用土地来抵押贷款，也没有动力来改进种植方法。农民很难预测可靠的市场走向，因此只能凭猜测来决定种什么。农村地区的很多道路状况不好，农民只好在当地销售他们的农产品，或者卖给中间商，这些人向城市居民转售时赚取了大部分利润。再加上劳动力、种子、化肥和燃料价格上涨，很多农民眼睁睁看着食品价格上涨，自己却挣不到钱。
斯坦福大学中国农村经济问题专家Scott Rozelle说：“靠种地致富是不可能的，除非农场的面积变得更大。这就是为什么成千上万的人涌入城市中。”
菜农韩其实也想到城市里打工，但是他担心没有认识人给他介绍工作。一月份，当他开始在山东省东部的一个小村子司家庄种植卷心菜的时候，批发价格是5毛钱一磅，他本来希望在四、五月份收获的时候也能维持这个价格。
一年前，韩计划通过饲养绵羊来偿还3000美元的借款，但是计划失败了，因为新出生的羊羔莫名其妙地接连死去。农历新年之后的二月份，他曾经试图自杀，但是被妻子韩立霞阻止了。
韩立霞现在和她的两个女儿住在她姑姑家中，她说：“他不怎么讲话，他的压力太大了。”
韩有着宽宽的肩膀和结实的体格，他最终说服自己，还是要在自己和妻子多年来刀耕火种的巧克力色土地上谋求出路。
然而他不了解的是，强大的经济力量让物价在全国范围内疯涨，形成了危险的投机泡沫。中国中央政府为了削弱全球经济危机的影响，大幅度降低了贷款门槛。有了廉价的借贷，投机商让房地产价格一跃冲天，同时上涨的还有食品价格，包括大蒜、苹果和茶叶。
农民迅速转而种植这些作物，而放弃了中国人的主要食用蔬菜：卷心菜、茄子和菜花。据预测，由于供给量减少，这些蔬菜的价格将会上升。去年11月，中国的通货膨胀指数达到了28个月的最高点。中国中央调控部门呼吁农民多种植蔬菜，尤其是糟糕的气候让全国蔬菜短缺现象更加严重。
韩响应了号召，他种植了3吨卷心菜，比以往多出很多。其它数千名农民也有同样的举动。当收获这些蔬菜的时候，批发商的收购价跌到难以置信的2分钱一磅。政府并没有补偿这些农民。
韩立霞这位娇小的妇女忍住眼泪说：“一切的工夫都白费了。”
韩死后，全国各地的媒体涌入这个小村庄。他的死成为了中国农村困苦生活的缩影。来自各方的捐赠源源不断，有些甚至来自日本，韩立霞终于可以还清家里欠的债了。
几个月之后，司家庄的村民说，他们依然无法靠种地生活，很多人的成年子女都在城市打工，靠他们寄回的钱生活。
一位邻居韩翠香（与韩家无亲属关系）站在二层农舍旁的一块大葱地头，说：“我们都和韩遭遇了同样的问题，没人能在土地上挣到钱。”
韩的遗孀说她不再种地，要到城市里去打工。她不得不把两个女儿寄放在亲戚家，这个念头让她内心纠结不已。
她说：“我还要为她们付好多年的学费，靠种地挣不来这些钱，我养活不了她们。”
原文：
A cabbage grower's suicide draws attention to the plight of 200 million Chinese farming households, many of which struggle to earn a profit even as global food prices rise.
Han Lixiao holds up a portrait of her family last month inside a relative's home in Sijiazhuang, China, where she and her two daughters live. Her husband, Han Jin, committed suicide by hanging himself in April after he discovered the 3 tons of cabbage he had grown was worthless. He needed the money to pay off $3,000 in loans. His suicide became a symbol of rural hardship in China.
Reporting from Sijiazhuang, China— Han Jin thought he had a foolproof business plan to get his family out of debt. He rented extra land next to his tiny farm here to grow heaps of cabbage at a time when the price of the leafy vegetable was soaring.
But when it came time to harvest this spring, the hapless father of two discovered thousands of other farmers had the same idea. Wholesalers were flooded with greens. Prices plummeted.
Left with a field of nearly worthless vegetables and owing more money than he earned in a year, Han locked himself in his bathroom in April and hanged himself.
The 39-year-old's death garnered media attention across China, whose 200 million farming households are struggling to capitalize on their nation's breathtaking economic development. While city dwellers are enjoying fast-rising living standards, much of rural China remains a hardscrabble landscape where average incomes of about $3,200 a year are less than a third of what they are in urban areas.
Still, with global food prices rising, particularly in China's cities, conventional wisdom had it that Chinese growers must be enjoying a windfall. After all, some U.S. farmers are profiting handsomely selling pork, soybeans, nuts and other agricultural products to hungry Chinese buyers.
But in contrast to large, highly mechanized American farms, a typical Chinese farm is less than an acre in size and worked by hand. It's a legacy of communist reform, when the state seized control of China's farmland and subdivided it into tiny plots. Although this system has kept rural dwellers employed, it has slowed China's ability to boost their incomes.
Chinese farmers don't have crop insurance to protect them against disaster; government subsidies are minimal. Because they don't own their land, growers can't borrow against it and have little incentive to improve operations. Reliable market forecasts are hard to come by, leaving farmers to speculate about what to plant. Poor roads in many parts of the countryside force growers to sell their harvests locally or to middlemen who pocket much of the markup paid by city dwellers. Add rising costs for labor, seed, fertilizer and fuel, and many producers are seeing their profits squeezed even as retail prices soar.
"No one is going to get rich off farming," said Scott Rozelle, an expert on China's rural economy at Stanford University. "It's not going to happen until farm sizes get bigger. That's why millions of people are moving to the cities."
Cabbage farmer Han wanted to do the same, but he was fearful because he didn't know anyone who could find him a job. When he planted his cabbages in January here in Sijiazhuang, a speck of a village in eastern Shandong province, the wholesale price was hovering around 50 cents a pound — a figure he hoped would hold by the time he harvested in April or May.
Han was desperate to pay back $3,000 he had borrowed a year earlier to raise sheep. That plan failed when the newborn lambs mysteriously died. He tried to kill himself after Chinese New Year in February, but his wife, Han Lixiao, stopped him.
"He stopped talking," said Han Lixiao, who now lives in an aunt's house with her 7-year-old and 14-year-old daughters. "He was carrying a lot of pressure."
Broad-shouldered and solidly built, Han convinced himself the solution lay in the rich chocolate-colored soil he and his wife spent years working with not much more than hoes.
Unknown to him were powerful economic forces driving up prices nationwide, creating dangerous speculative bubbles. China's central government was flooding the economy with easy loans to blunt the effects of the global financial crisis. Flush with credit, speculators drove up prices of real estate and other assets, as well as foodstuffs including garlic, apples and tea.
Farmers quickly shifted to those products, abandoning staples such as cabbage, eggplant and cauliflower. Predictably, prices for those common vegetables rose as supplies dwindled. Rising food prices helped push China's measure of inflation to a 28-month high in November. That month, China's central planners appealed to farmers to plant more vegetables, especially because poor weather was compounding the nationwide shortages.
Han heeded the call, planting about 3 tons of cabbage, far more than ever before. Thousands of other growers did the same. When it came time to harvest, wholesale prices had tumbled to an unthinkable 2 cents a pound. The government did not compensate farmers.
"Everything was worthless," said Han Lixiao, a petite woman who often struggles to hold back tears.
National media descended on the village soon after Han's death; he had become a symbol of rural hardship. Donations poured in, some from as far away as Japan, which allowed Han Lixiao to pay off the family's debts.
Months later, villagers in Sijiazhuang said they're still losing money from farming. Many are relying on their grown children in cities to send more money home.
"We all suffered the same problems" as Han, said a neighbor, Han Cuixiang (no relation), standing in front of a small patch of wiry scallions next to her two-story farmhouse. "None of us are making any profit."
Han's widow said she's giving up farming and will seek a job in town. Her two daughters may have to live with relatives, a thought that leaves a knot in her stomach.
"I still have years of tuition that I have to pay for," she said. "I can't pay for it by farming. It's just not enough to support them." |
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发表于 2011-8-2 12:46
