China has pledged to enhance rural infrastructure, promote stable development of agriculture and facilitate a sustained income growth for farmers.

The pledge, coming at the end of the annual central rural work conference, will be carried out in 2008 and a certain period of time thereafter in accordance with the requirement of realizing integration of urban and rural economic and social development.

Efforts should be exerted to ensure supply of major agricultural products, settle problems concerning people's livelihood in rural areas and push forward the "new countryside" scheme, the meeting said.

The meeting required that polices benefiting farmers should be improved and investment in agriculture and rural areas should be increased substantially.

Basic supply of major agricultural products should be guaranteed, and farmers' income should be increased, it said.

In a related development, Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai announced that China produced more than 500 billion kg of grains in 2007, the fourth consecutive year of yield growth.

He added that farmers saw their annual per capita net income increase by 7 percent to 4,000 yuan ($540), largely due to price rises for farm produce, a larger number of rural migrant workers and more government subsidies for agricultural production.