Abstract:
Increasing farmers’ income is the central task of work related to “three rural” (agriculture, rural areas, and farmers), and is critical to narrowing the urban-rural and regional gaps. The analysis of panel data from 2013 to 2025 showed that, since the beginning of the new era, farmers’ income in China had overall exhibited trend coupling along with structural and spatial differentiation. The trend coupling characteristics is clear that The per capita disposable income of rural permanent residents nationwide and in all provinces had maintained medium-to-high-speed growth and achieved doubling; the urban-rural income gap had gradually narrowed, and the trend-coupling feature of an overall narrowing of interregional gaps was evident. All four disaggregated categories of farmers’ income had maintained relatively rapid growth, achieving a foundamental shift from net operating income to wage income as the dominant source. The differentiation characteristics were as follows: provinces reliant on household operating income had gradually decreased, provinces dominated by wage income had increased steadily, and provinces supported by net transfer income had increased year by years. It suggests that China adhere to the core guidance of sustained income growth, reshape the main orientation of income growth through business operations, consolidate the key support of income growth through employment, optimize net transfer income, and increase net property income, so as to promote high-quality increments in farmers’ income.