Under such circumstances, the farmers' income may expect an increase for the year as well after three years' consecutive declines of the growth rate. This will be no doubt very positive to the aggregate demand expansion in China. Since 1992, the number of farmers looking for jobs in towns and cities has been increasing. Conversely, the labor force for farming has dropped. At the same time, the costs of fertilizer, electricity and machinery for farming soared over 10-fold.
Farmers have to spend more money on crop planting, gathering, processing and transportation.
To a great extent, this increase came from the sectors' industrialization and scale expansion. However, the increase also led to higher costs and price rise of agricultural products. The unreasonable cost increase also distorted the input-output ratio for the sector and forced the Chinese government to raise purchasing prices from time to time. As a result, farmers had to leave their land to look for jobs in cities and towns. In market economies, when there is an over supply in the market, farmers will reduce their production volume and costs.