4. Income Level of Farmers and Herdsmen and Poverty Alleviation

    The urbanization level of Tibet in 2007 was only 38.3 percent. This means that 61.7 percent of the Tibet population were farmers and herdsmen, who engaged in traditional farming and animal husbandry in rural areas. Facts and statistics show that while raising the urbanization level and the residents' incomes in cities and towns, the Tibet regional government is also making every effort to enhance support for farmers and herdsmen, expecting that through such support and development farmers and herdsmen can fully enjoy the fruits of reform and opening-up, and economic development.

    The per capita net income of Tibetan farmers and herdsmen was 3,176 yuan in 2008, 7.1 times and 18.1 times that of 1984 and 1978, respectively. The 30 years from 1978 to 2008 saw an annual average income increase rate exceeding 10 percent, which is quite high. These facts are shown in Fig. 15.[17] Meanwhile, the per capita income from investment and property income of Tibet's rural residents reached 448 yuan in 2007, accounting for 12 percent of their total income (see Fig. 16).

    Along with the continuous increase of per capita net income of farmers and herdsmen, Tibetan families' consumption level also improved markedly. The Engel coefficient of Tibet's farming and pastoral areas, which had fluctuated between 53.18% and 69.5% since the early 1980s, was 56% in 2008. Tibetan farmers and herdsmen are leading relatively comfortable lives. Durable goods like TV sets, radios, video recorders and cell phones have entered many Tibetan rural families, and about 20 percent of rural households have bought trucks or tractors. It is a trend in the pastoral areas of northern Tibet to buy the latest style of motorcycles. Many herdsmen change motorcycles as fast as city residents change their cell phones.

    Poverty in Tibet has also been alleviated as the overall income level has been raised. Before the democratic reform in 1959, the incidence of poverty was over 80% in farming and pastoral areas.[18] After the democratic reform, the central and regional governments implemented a poverty-alleviation policy throughout Tibet, striving to reduce the number of people suffering from poverty. In the mid-1990s, at the beginning of the "Baqi" Rural Poverty Alleviation Program,[19] Tibet had 480,000 people below the poverty line, and the incidence of poverty was below 23 percent. With support of the central government, the regional government is making insistent efforts to alleviate poverty. At the end of 2007, the number of people who didn't have enough food and clothing decreased to 70,000 from 480,000 before the "Baqi" Program was adopted, bringing the incidence of poverty to below 10 percent.

    The disadvantaged groups in the Tibetan population have been protected. In 2005, the People's Government of Tibet provided allowances to extremely poor farmers and herdsmen if their annual net income was below 300 yuan. Since 2006, a system of minimum subsistence allowances for rural residents has been instituted across Tibet, and the poverty line for allowances increased by a big margin again: Families whose average annual per capita income is below 800 yuan are covered, and 230,000 rural families have benefited from the policy. Since 2003, the regional government has several times raised the allowance for "five guarantees" families[20] in rural areas. The annual allowance for one person has been raised from 588 yuan in the past to 1,500 yuan. In 2008 it was increased again to 1,600 yuan, which is higher than the national average. Meanwhile, the minimum subsistence allowance for urban and rural residents was also increased to 260 yuan and 850 yuan, respectively.

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[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]