Deputy speaks out for farmers despite illness

Mao Fengmei (L), party secretary of Dalishu village in Fengcheng, in northeast China's Liaoning province, urges the government to make it easier for farmers to get bank loans during discussion of the Liaoning delegation, March 8, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

Mao Fengmei, party secretary of Dalishu village in Fengcheng, northeast China's Liaoning province, and a deputy to the National People's Congress, has devoted himself to fighting for more benefits for millions of Chinese farmers, and his efforts have not been slowed even by his cancer.

Mao became the party secretary of Dalishu village in 1980, when he was 30 years old. Under his leadership, the once-poor village's current average annual per capita income is more than 10,000 yuan and its total assets have topped 300 million yuan.

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In 1993, he became a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), and he has made about 200 proposals concerning farmers' benefits since then. His first proposal was that electricity price in the countryside was too high and should be lowered.

In 1998, he said at the annual session that the country should call off taxes on special agricultural products, which could hinder rural economic restructuring.

In 2009, he brought an ear of corn to the meeting room of the annual session and urged the government to increase grain procurement prices in order to encourage farmers to grow crops.

Most of his proposals have been adopted by the government.

However, few people know that this strong man is suffering from colon cancer. He received surgery at the end of 2009 and has received four rounds of chemotherapy since January.

People who knew about his illness thought he would not appear at this year's annual session, but he made it and continues to fight for a better life for farmers.

"The central government has been paying great attention to issues of agriculture, farmer and rural area in recent years, but there are still a lot of problems that need to be noted and solved," Xinhua said, quoting Mao's remarks on February 1, when he was lying in a hospital.

"As a deputy from the rural area's grassroots, I need to make it to Beijing and speak for us farmers as long as my body will let me," Mao said.

Among his proposals this year was that the government should support farmers to get bank loans for development and that the high interest rates should be lowered in rural areas.